home decor

How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget

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Hi! My name is Maya and I’m the blogger behind homestylingbymaya.com.

I’m a 22 years old home decor lover, and that’s exactly why I started my blog – to share my love for interior design and give other people ideas and recommendations for different occasions.

On my blog you can find first apartment ideas, dorm room ideas and college lifestyle content, home decor and home organization content and of course some fun holidays content as well!

If you’ve just moved into your first apartment and you are on a tight budget, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to decorate your place or be super minimalistic.

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Here are tips on How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget:

There are many things you can do that will make a huge difference in your place, and you won’t need to spend so much on!

First of all, if you are sticking to a budget, you need to know where to find affordable home decor finds, and also be open to doing a lot DIYs and doing things on your own.

CONTINUE READING How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget…

Where to Get Affordable Home Decor Finds:

Target – one of the main reasons why I love Target is because first of all – they have literally everything and they have beautiful things for great prices! Target is a great place to shop for home essentials, home decor pieces and even furniture.

Urban Outfitters – even though Urban Outfitters aren’t the cheapest, you can still find beautiful and unique things there that are also pretty affordable!

Amazon – this is my favourite place to get pretty home decor pieces. You can find beautiful things on Amazon that are very affordable and high quality as well!

What I mainly like about Amazon is that you can find anything from everything on Amazon.

Rental Apartment Decorating Ideas:

Paint Some Walls!

One of the biggest ways to upgrade any room is by painting some walls. It can be switching the colors, or just painting an accent wall.

Random story, last week I painted an accent wall (which means one wall in a space with a different colour) in my living room a different colour, and it made a HUGE difference!

It’s crazy how doing something so random like painting only one wall can make such a big difference and really upgrade up your home!

CONTINUE READING How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget…

Switch Furniture Drawer Knobs

A great way to upgrade a piece of furniture is by switching it’s knobs! This makes a huge difference, and you can find some beautiful knobs on Amazon or even Etsy for a great price

Decorate Your Walls

The best way to decorate your space is by decorating your walls! There are so many ways to decorate your walls, here are some of my favorite:

Gallery Wall – a gallery wall is the best way to fill up an empty wall. All you need to do is to either get a few prints you like, or draw them yourself, or even print some of your favorite pictures to use. Then, get a few picture frames in different sizes and hang them on the wall.

Here’s some inspiration:

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/74098356359329184
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/546765211018077937/

Mirrors Wall – this is one of my favourite wall decor ideas. All you need to do is to get a few unique and small/medium-sized mirrors and hang them nicely on your wall.

Continue reading How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget…

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/549228117064859462/

Tapestry – a tapestry is a great way to fill up an empty wall and upgrade your space. There are many beautiful tapestries you can find for an affordable price on Amazon, eBay, and even Etsy.

Buy something you like, and easily hang it up on the wall!

CONTINUE READING How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget…

Paint The Ceiling

You are probably thinking, why the heck should I paint the ceiling? But trust me, you will be shocked by the major impact on the feel of a room once you do it! You can either do a crazy painting on the ceiling (for example drawing the sky/clouds) or you can do it more simply, and paint the ceiling any colour you want. It will make such a huge difference and will upgrade your place!

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/563018690881250/
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/458241330844315560/

Add Some Wallpaper

Just like painting the walls, sticking on wallpaper can completely change a room. Make sure you are getting an easy to remove wallpaper so that you can easily stick up and peel off when you’re moving out!

Swap Your Switch Plates

As you can probably understand from this post, is that it’s the little things that will make a huge difference! You will be surprised how switching your switch plates will make a difference in the total design of your place.

There are many beautiful switch plates on Amazon, and if you are an artsy type, you can buy some new white switch plates and draw and them! But once again, don’t forget to keep the original switch plates when you move out.

CONTINUE READING How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget…

Switch Your Door Knobs

A fun way to space up your place is by switching your boring door knobs! There are many beautiful door knobs you can find online for an affordable price.

It’s the little things that make a big difference, right? Switching your door knobs is a great example for that.

I do recommend, and actually encourage you to keep the original door knobs, so once you move out you can take the new door knobs with you!

Hang a Mirror

Mirrors in general make a room feel bigger, especially if they are a full-size mirror. If you want to invest in a big mirror for the whole wall, that’s the best way to fill up an empty wall and also make a small room feel much bigger.

But if you don’t want to invest in a huge mirror (which is usually very expensive), you can also get a big full-sized mirror and place it in the corner of a room.

Continue reading How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget…

Change The Light Fixtures

Usually, rental apartments don’t come with nice light fixtures. And I feel like people usually underestimate light fixtures.

Especially in rental apartments when you don’t know for how long you’ll live there,  people usually skip the part of getting light fixtures.

And as I keep saying here, it’s the little things in life!

There are many affordable light fixtures you can buy and upgrade your place.

Focus on The Furniture

Another way to decorate a rental apartment, or any home, is by focusing on the furniture, on the interior design of your home.

An apartment can look great with some colored walls and nice stick-on tiles, but it won’t feel like home if you won’t decorate and treat it like your home.

Buy some nice furniture, you don’t have to invest lots of money in furniture, you can find some affordable and beautiful furniture pieces on Ikea, Wayfair, Urban Outfitters, Kohls, and even Amazon!

CONTINUE READING How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget…

And that’s it! These were 10 unique ways to give your apartment a makeover and decorate your apartment on a budget! Now, do your research now on the apartments for rent in West University Place in Texas, and start decorating your first apartment.

If you are interested in more first apartment content and home decor/organization ideas, feel free to check out my blog for more ideas and inspiration!

I hope you enjoyed How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget and that you found my ideas helpful and inspiring. Thanks again to Lynn for collaborating with me and letting me share my ideas with you.

Lynn has some great content here that I found so inspiring myself, and I also highly recommend checking her guest post on my blog and learn how to DIY floating frames!

They are beautiful and I am definitely going to try them myself too!

So once again, thank you Lynn! Waiting to collaborate more with you in the future! I loved writing this piece on How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget.

Where to find me:

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/homestylingbymaya

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Home-Styling-By-Maya-180837670384288

Blog: www.homestylingbymaya.com

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P.S: If you haven’t read my most recent post, click here!

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108 Comments

  3. I love some good budget-friendly tips for decorating, as I never know where to start. I wish I had Target in the UK. I love these suggestions, especially the tapestry tip. We have a few, and they really brighten up a room. These are all great suggestions; thank you for sharing. ?

  5. what a great post! Sometimes it is so easy to get carried away with all the additional extras when one feature will transform a room!

  6. We are looking to move soon and those are some good tips!! Changing the knobs and door handles is a great idea. I’ve seen people do that and it changes the place a lot!

  9. Such a great post for being on a budget. I loved decorating my house first time around, although it was all a bit higgeldy piggeldy with bits we got for free!

    Rosie

  10. You have so many great tips here! I want to decorate my room in my hometown this year, but given the current situation, I need to do that on a budget and this post give me so many ideas! Thank you for sharing this x

  13. Those are great suggestions!! I am allergic to new paint, but will be keeping the other ideas in mind. I am definitely on a budget!

  14. Such a great post. I love the idea of a mirror wall, I think they can be great for giving the illusion of space too.

    Tash – A Girl with a View

  15. These are great tips! Thank you so much for sharing! I get a lot of home decorfrom both Target and Urban Outfitters- love them both!

  17. Hey love this post ? it’s always interesting to see how you can add your personality to a place without too much stress! Xo

  19. These are such great tips for decorating and styling a small space! Thanks so much for sharing!

  20. I love the idea of a gallery wall – we are renting ATM, but when we buy a house, which we’re hoping to relatively soon, I’d love to make one! x

  21. This a very useful post! I love all the suggestions especially the wall decor. Thanks so much for sharing these!

  22. I just moved into a new apartment, and this post was really helpful! I am definitely going to be decorating and painting the walls.

  24. I love interior design and I’m always looking for new inspiration. I still don’t have my own apartment so I’ll bookmark this post for the future.

    Antonia || Sweet Passions

  25. Wow – these are some great ideas! The mirror wall looks gorgeous. I’m still living at home with my parents at the moment, but am saving towards a house for the future – but I can’t wait to have free reign for decorating.

    Paige

  26. Wow – these are some great ideas! The mirror wall looks gorgeous. I’m still living at home with my parents at the moment, but am saving towards a house for the future – but I can’t wait to have free reign for decorating.

    Paige

  27. Some really great ideas here. I wouldn’t have thought to change my door knobs. Something so small, but so effective

  28. Really enjoyed this post, we have been in our house for a few years but always looking for ideas on how to decorate.

  29. I love these ideas! I think my fave way is to have a feature wall or lots of prints but I really like the idea of mirrors too ?

  30. When you’re renting there are so many restrictions on what you can do decorating-wise so these are brilliant tips. Love the suggestion of switching up door handles and taking them with you when you leave!

  31. Oh super great tips! I’m hoping to move out. next year if everything settles down and will defo need these budget decorating tips! Great post!

  32. Fab post and some great ideas! I’m not moving yet but I can’t wait to decorate an entire house / apartment when I do! I bet it’s such an exciting process x

  33. You’ve included so fantastic ideas. The first thing I always so in a room is paint the walls, even if it’s a white room and fresh white coat makes everything look crisp and clean. I love your idea about painting the ceiling, it’s amazing how much of a difference it makes. I also find lighting makes a massive difference, especially if you replace them with LED bulbs, your be saving money on your electricity bill too. Great blog post x

  36. You have such a great eye for decor & interior design ! I’m thinking of redoing my room so I will save this post for sure !

  37. You spilled the tea on these great tips! Thank you <3 xx

    jessica

  38. A love all of these ideas, especially since so many of them are small simple changes but will make a pretty big difference in how the apartment looks in the long run. I still remember my first apartment – it was decorated like the Walmart furniture department puked in it, I wasn’t allowed to paint the walls unless I wanted to pay a repainting fee when I left, but I certainly could have applied a number of these tips to it. I have always wanted to change the knobs on my dresser but it’s something I have never done, maybe I will do that this year.

    1. Haha omg! The “Walmart furniture department puked in it” had me laughing so much! My first place looked like the cheap stuff from IKEA puked in it. Thanks for reading x

  39. Ever since I saw a Youtuber had switched the knobs out in her kitchen for rose gold ones, I just knew that was what I wanted to do when I move into my own apartment. Great tips love!

  40. There’s so much great advice in this post! I’m about 90% done furnishing my apartment, but I’ve been looking for some good ideas to fill in the finishing touches — saving this post for future reference!

  41. These are such great suggestions – some of them I had never thought of! Gallery walls are one of my absolute favorite ways to decorate and make a space my own! I’ve never thought of changing light covers. Great idea!

  42. Great post! I remember having my first apartment. It was very bare and minimal. But I do love shopping at Target and Home Goods for decor!

    Valerie

  44. I am shifting to a new house soon, thanks for sharing the great ideas. I also go to amazon for some budget shopping.

  45. These are some great tips. We aren’t allowed to decorate the home we are renting so I’ve been focusing more on soft furnishings to make it feel more homely.

  47. What a fantastic post! I totally agree with using Urban Outfitters to decorate- I’ve got a few of their small pieces throughout my house. It can be hard to get personality into an apartment, but I love the suggestions of collections of mirrors/artwork and changing the door handles.

  48. This are such amazing tips. I will be moving in soon and these are such great tips to put in practice. I really can’t wait to start decorating.

  49. I LOVE this! I am the person who has a hard time committing to things. So when I see it I’m more likely to buy it and put it up, so I love anything that shows me ways to decorate areas of a home!

  50. Pingback: 7 Beautiful Ways To Decorate Your Home With Dried Florals/Stems | Lynn Mumbing Mejia

  51. I recently moved to a new – my first – house ever and I gotta say these tips are very helpful. I usually buy creative stuff from amazon. I loved most of the ideas especially the one of the door knobs. Thank you for sharing with us.

  52. These are great suggestions! When I lived in Austin, I loved shopping at Target for home things & in my last apartment, I got some nice bar stools!
    For my apartment now, a lot of my furniture & other home things are from Ikea. I LOVE Ikea.

  53. I love these tips, Lynn! Great guest post from Maya. ? I love the subject of home decorating because you can completely change the whole feel of your space with only a few small changes! And I definitely agree about finding great items on Amazon for such little money! It doesn’t have to be expensive to look expensive. Cozy for me is the winner hands down.

    Mirror walls are a lot of fun. You can really get creative with them and they reflect light in such a way that the room seems instantaneously larger. Pretty neat if you ask me!

    Light fixtures are definitely another great change. I love to decorate with fairy lights and smaller lights that give off soft, comforting, and relaxing glows. Salt lamps included. There’s nothing like unwinding in a space with low light. Do you agree?

    I nod my head in agreement with the right furniture as well. When you are low on space, or storage, getting creative with furniture makes all the difference. When function means aesthetic appeal, you’ve got a winner! It’s amazing how much the right furniture can add to the feel of our homes.

    Thanks again for these great tips. They are sure to inspire lots of people! ? I’ve pinned for others to enjoy and have followed you on Pinterest and WordPress. ♥ Have an amazing day!

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