Small design projects are a great way to enhance the look of your home without hurting your pocket and the best part of it is the eureka moment you have as the little additions begin to come together beautifully well.

Lately, I have been speaking with a client who inherited an old house from his grandparents and he feels like they gave him scraps. Of course, he was excited about owning a house at a very young age but then it dawned on him that he might actually have to spend a whole lot on repairs and giving the house a new look.

So he made a smart move and reached out to me to give him an estimate of what it would cost him to transform his new apartment and also to give him a picture of what it could become if we were to do the interior design of his apartment.

Pro-tip: Reach out to your interior designer to get ideas on how you can make your space beautiful. It’s free, at first consultation *wink*

I know a lot of people are stuck in similar situations (PS. not the inheritance but the issue of making your house look like a home you want to come back to every night and be proud to show your friends) specifically on a budget. These 5 budget-friendly tips would transform any space into a dream. So here goes:

Go for NEUTRALS:

This is a useful rule of thumb and I always advice people living in small apartments or apartments with few windows to use neutral paint on the walls. My personal favourite is white because light colours generally make a room appear neater and more spacious than they really are. You could also use light grey, beige and other neutral colours as you deem fit. But if you need to transform your house to a home, this is your first step and every other furniture or accessory can build on it. Therefore, choose your colours wisely.

Invest in beautiful ARTWORK:

By invest, I don’t mean spend a fortune on artwork. What I mean by invest is that you add this to your budget. People are easy to rule it out of their list because they believe Dealers sell affordable artwork for as low as N5,000 on the streets of Lagos. So cop one or two or three for your apartment today.

Get more yards of CURTAINS:

Curtains never go out of style. If you are opting for this window treatment, be sure to buy an extra length and breadth of fabric for your windows. When you are placing them on the rod, make sure the rod is higher than where the window starts and wider than the width of the width of the window (please check image below). Your windows could look better with this easy trick hence adding a sophisticated touch to your room.

LIGHT up your apartment:

Good lighting is never too much. Swap your traditional hanging bulbs for an affordable chandelier that can hold 3 or more bulbs and watch your space brighten up. Apart from the obvious benefit of providing more light for you room, it helps your eyes too. So you get double points for this.

DECLUTTER:

Remember that piece of furniture or item you bought and added to your apartment but looks useless, really is useless. So please give it out or throw it away. Let your breath. The lesser things you have in your space, the more spacious it looks. Be careful not to go overboard because you also don’t want your room looking scanty. Just balance things out and your room would be the better for it.

Cheers,

Banke.