Decorate your home for free? It’s not only possible, but simple, fun, and rewarding. Following are ten ideas to do just that – perfect for the creative neurodivergent!
The story.
Raindrops drummed a steady rhythm outside the window. I glanced toward it. Still dark for two in the afternoon.
Setting my attention back on the task at hand, I pushed the needle through the ivory trim and into the white fabric. As much as my neurodivergent brain craves being outside, I was glad to be inside for the moment where it was much warmer and cozy.
I shifted in my rocking chair, adjusting the bottom of my luxuriously soft chenille sweater, then pulled the thread the rest of the way through the fabric I was working on.
About a half hour later, I was finished. I stood, holding the completed project out in front of me. “I’m done,” I announced to my husband who sat about ten feet away.
He looked up from his computer and gave me an obliging smile. “All right,” he said.
I moved to the unstylish metal side table with the glass top, and with a flourish, draped its new cover over it.
Much better. Eight bucks of trim from Walmart, and I had a two-hundred dollar side table.
Why decorating your home shouldn’t deplete your wallet.
As I pointed out in my post about frugal homemaking, it’s easy for women to overspend when decorating their homes. But overspending leads to financial stress.
Any kind of stress complicates your life, cutting into your sense of well-being (often already tenuous of you’re neurodivergent like me), reducing your freedom of choice, and skewing your priorities.
And this blog is all about helping you to make your life more simple, especially if you’re a neurodivergent women over the age of forty-five.
So if you’re budget is tight, and you’re therefore struggling to give your home the right touches, allow me to offer seven ideas to decorate your home for free – or for under ten dollars each.
Idea #1 to decorate your home for free: collect and display natural objects.
Most of us have at least one extra drinking glass, vase, or dish languishing unused and bored inside a kitchen cabinet, wondering whether life as any purpose. Give its life meaning by using it to display found natural objects.
Pinecones, acorns, shells, interesting rocks and pebbles, fallen twigs, and dried flowers are a few examples of the kinds of items you might use. Arrange them in a way that pleases your eye, then set them on a shelf or table.
Idea #2: Display feathers in a jar.
Many neurodivergent women, especially autistic women, collect things. Maybe you like to collect feathers. Or maybe you have a child or three, and they’ve collected a few over the years. Or you just like this idea, and happen either to have backyard chickens or to live near a lake populated by water fowl.
Whichever, gather up a big handful of feathers. Then give them a gentle cleaning, allow them to dry thoroughly, and arrange them in an appropriately-sized jar. Add color by tying a ribbon or colored yarn around the jar.
Idea #3 to decorate your home for free: create your own “new” coffee table or side table with materials you have on hand.
Have you priced new coffee and side tables lately? Good grief! Those astronomical prices were the impetus for the improvised tablecloth I talked about in the introductory story.
Years ago, I acquired the small table in question from the alley behind our house. The longer I owned it, the uglier it became to me. I didn’t want to not have a table where it was, so I decided to replace it.
Until I realized I was going to have to shell out at least $200 for just a basic, semi-stylish replacement.
After some thought, I remembered the piece of white fabric that had come with large box of remnants that I’d purchased at a yard sale for a dollar some fifteen years earlier. Retrieving it, I draped it over the table and found that it was almost the exact right size.
I purchased some trim from Walmart, sewed it on the bottom edges of all four sides, and voila! A much more stylish table for under ten dollars (see image at the top of this post for the before and after).
Idea #4: Frame memorabilia.
Do you have old photos in a shoebox that you can’t seem to get around to putting in a scrapbook or photo album? How about old newspaper clippings about Michael Jackson or the day Bon Jovi played a concert in your town? (‘Fess up, my fellow neurodivergent Gen-X and older ladies – I know some of you still have things like that.)
You may have programs from the high school plays you acted in, a program from that uber-special, uber-expensive show you saw on your honeymoon, or a pile of greeting cards threatening to turn moldy.
Why not arrange some of the items on a piece of poster board and frame them? You could purchase a large, inexpensive frame from a discount department store. Or if you’re crafty, paint and decorate strips of corrugated cardboard that you glue around the edges of the poster board.
Idea #5 to decorate your home for free: display knick-knack gifts together.
Autistic women and women with ADHD have different reasons for owning storage boxes full of random small gifts that people have given them over the years. Regardless of the reason, if you’re neurodivergent and over the age of thirty, you probably have at least one such box.
Pull out those boxes, go through them, and find knick-knacks that share either a related theme or color pattern. Wherever you have an empty space in your home begging for a bit of style, arrange three or five of the objects together.
Just don’t go overboard with this. If you’re autistic like me, you can’t stand the sight of dust. And if you have ADHD like me, you hate the chore of dusting.
Just like you, knick-knacks are collectors.
Only, their irresistible temptation is dust.
Idea #6: Decorate with your stuffed animals and dolls.
While I’m talking specifically to my neurodivergent sisters, I know you’re still hanging onto many of your stuffed animals and dolls from childhood. Some of them may still be in decent condition.
Why keep them packed in a box or crammed on top of your dresser? Set one or three in dark corners of – or on top of – bookcases. Or use a large stuffed animal in lieu of a throw pillow on a chair.
Decorating with old toys adds a whimsical charm to any room, and also balances out spaces dominated by hard materials.
Idea #7 to decorate your home for free: repurpose small containers.
Chances are high you’re constantly throwing glass bottles of various shapes and sizes into the trash or recycle bin. Why not save a few and turn them into colorful knick-knacks?
Look around your house for ribbon, fabric remnants, yarn, or buttons. If you craft, you may have bits and pieces from previous projects laying around, as well.
Plan a decoration for the outside of the jar, collect glue, and get busy. The finished product can be used as an artistic piece of interest on a table or shelf. You might decorate three or five bottles of varying shapes and sizes in a coordinated way and display them together.
If you have jars with wide enough openings and just the right height, they can serve as pretty pen holders or containers for small crafting supplies such as sequins or beads.
Idea #8: Use old lace curtains to cover imperfections.
Do you or a family member have lace curtains lying in a box somewhere, waiting for someone to remember to take them to Goodwill? Or, maybe your local Goodwill – or a nearby garage sale – has a pair for sale for only a few dollars.
If so, use them to cover the tops of short bookcases or similar pieces of furniture that are scratched or show other kinds of imperfections. You can also use them to lighten up a room filled with darkly varnished wood pieces by tossing one over, say, the coffee table or side table.
Idea #9 to decorate your home for free: rearrange books and/or game boxes.
Stack books from the largest on the bottom to smallest on the top. Stack game or puzzle boxes at the top of a bookcase in a color-coordinated way. Have a stack of books on one end of a shelf, an upright set of books on the other, with a decorative item in between.
Stack books of similar colors or sizes together on different shelves on the same bookcase.
There are a variety of ways to combine and arrange books and game boxes so that they become decorative items themselves. Experiment and see what pleases your eye!
Idea #10: Use scarves.
Face it, ladies: many of us over fifty acquired scarves for accessorizing outfits when we were younger. The outfits are long gone, but we just can’t get rid of that silky scarf, or the glittery scarf, or the one with the gold baubles on the end. They’re too cute to give away. Or too soft. Or too pretty.
Perhaps one or two
Why not take them out your closet and give them a new life? Wrap one around a small basket containing craft items or your personal items. Drape one over an end of side table. If you have enough of the right colors or patterns, you could even hang them together as wall decor.
But it’s not just about saving money on your home…
When you endeavor to decorate your home for free (or almost free), it has other benefits beyond keeping more money in your bank account.
- Your brain sees it as a problem to be solved, and whenever you solve a problem, your brain gets stronger.
- It engages the creative part of your mind, encouraging your brain to release dopamine and endorphins, helping you feel happier and more fulfilled.
- Creating is relaxing, therefore stress-reducing.
- It keeps the landfills a little bit emptier.
- It gives your home a personal touch, helping it to feel warmer and cozier.
Try one of the above ideas, or let them inspire you to come up with your own. And when you do, please share them in the comments!
