little ways to decorate your home

My mind has been a little (ok, a lot) obsessed with home decoration ever since moving (yes, the obsession has really lasted five months so far...) and I was constantly seeking out ways to decorate on a small budget. We don't have a big pot of money to play with and being quite frugal with my money (most of the time), I wouldn't want to spend too much anyway!

I thought this post would be quite fitting as I just wanted to show how ways I've added a personal touch to my room and the house without breaking the bank.

1) Wallpaper Samples

If you have a DIY store near you (Homebase, B&Q, Wickes, etc. if you're in the UK), quite often, they will have wallpaper samples for people to take. Once, we were allowed to take as much as we wanted as the worker said they were all going to be thrown in the bin later that day anyway - so we did! Now, as long as you're not too greedy, I don't see a problem with getting these samples. Especially as we are current looking for wallpapers and paints we could use for various rooms around the house!

Anyway, there are many ways to use wallpaper. You could use them to wrap up shoe boxes (One of my friends' actually gave me this idea so I take no credit for it!) and store something other than shoes in them. For instance, here is a (clean!) shoe box I have used as a medicines box:

2) Wrapping Paper

If you have a pinboard, wallpaper is something else you could use to decorate it. However, I opted to use some wrapping paper I've saved from a clothes order that I made a few years' ago:

The best part of this is that it's not even permanent - I could just take it down one day and use wrapping paper or wallpaper of a different print as it is only tacked on using drawing pins. This is a really good way to add a personal touch to something that could be quite boring or ugly looking.

3) Re-use Cute Coffee Jars

Some coffee brands use really cute jars - I'm a bit unsure on which brands though, as I'm not much of a coffee drinker. However, my parents do drink it and my mum keeps an eye out for special offers on brands with nice jars. I can't claim this tip as my own but what she did was keep them all and re-use them for various things - such as storing cous cous and other dry foods.

I took it to another level and filled one with bon bons and another with biscuits:

These look great in the kitchen and if you're clever and buy coffee while they are on special offer, you can get these quite cheaply. You could even be a bit crafty and add some washi tape to them too.

The one negative is that it can be frustrating to wait for a jar to empty as it can take a fair while if you only have a cup or two a day!

4) Find Useful Items That Add A Personal Touch

This category could be for anything! For example, my Martha Stewart x Avery drawer looks quite cute and is functional too. I wanted to show something other than that drawer though, so here is a 'desk bin' that I've bought to store supermarket plastic bags in:

We re-use plastic bags as refuse bags in this household and so this holder is handy for keeping potentially unkempt-looking bags away from sight. Unfortunately, his face has a scratch on it but it doesn't detract from how cute it is.

5) Scarves

They don't always have to be worn by humans! I've hung mine on my bedframe:

My sister used an old cream coloured ponch/throw on the frame of her bed and it can really make a boring bed look a little more interesting.

Of course, there are other ways to decorate - hanging photos, pictures and paintings on a wall can really brighten up a room and make it look more homely too.

What, maybe unusual, ways have you used to decorate your home?