Guest Author - Donna Coogan

Decorating on a budget? What does that mean? Does it mean decorating inexpensively with no regard to quality or beauty? Or does it mean decorating within your particular budget – whether that is $5000 or $50,000?

Budget Decorating means creating an attractive, welcoming and comfortable environment without creating financial burdens. It means tuning into your particular style of decorating and finding the best way to achieve it that fits with your lifestyle and monetary situation.

Budgeting means not overextending your finances. There’s no use going into debt and being unable to enjoy your environment because you are worried how you will pay things off. With proper planning and diligence you can avoid a financial death trap and still have a gorgeous home.

Feel free to create a wish list of projects and things you want to purchase. Go ahead and dare to dream as big as you want. Do you want to refurnish your whole house? Install wooden floors? Remodel your bathroom? Maybe all you want is some pretty frames to hang family photos or some new bedding for the guest room.

Write it all down and then set a budget you know you can afford and promise yourself you will stick to it. Know what your financial situation is before you buy. Determine to stay within that limit.

Focus on which decorating project is the most important to you. Begin saving for that project. Don’t get sidetracked. Stick to it until you have completed it. This is so you can experience the results before moving on to something else.

If you have several decorating projects going at once, you will find yourself spreading your money and time too thin and then you could end up with nothing accomplished. You will become discouraged and that’s when people end up going into debt. To finish what they started because either they ran out of money or because the project is dragging on so long they just want to get it over with. Discouragement and desperate measures will cause the budget to go right out the window.

So, begin with one project and when it is completed, save and plan for the next. Be patient and stick to your goals. Bit by bit you will see your home being transformed into the environment you envisioned. You will be able to enjoy the results without financial woes. That’s budget decorating at its best!