Interior designers share 12 ways to make your home look better without buying anything

Javier Fernandez, an interior designer at Transitional Designs, said decluttering can change the look and feel of any room.

"Look at your dining room," he said. "Is the dining table stocked high with mail and projects that you had planned to get to? Well, there's no time like the present to clear and organize it."

Washing your carpets is another free way to spruce up your space, Courtney Turk, the owner of and interior designer at Courtney Turk Interiors, told Business Insider. 

"Get your hands dirty and scrub your rugs," Turk said. "By giving your rugs a deep clean, it will refresh your home and also help to prolong the life of your carpet as well."

Once you've decluttered, consider adding streamlined accents. These types of carefully curated accents can accentuate a room while keeping the space clean and uncluttered, according to Christina Nielsen, an interior designer at Christina Nielsen Design.

Nielsen suggested placing a bowl of fruit or a stack of lemons on top of some cookbooks in your kitchen or adding a small plant or floral arrangement in your entryway. These accents can be practical, too.

"If you have a console table in the foyer, make sure everything is easily accessible," she said. "Create a spot for your keys — I love leaving a little dish out for this."

Turk said that if you have shelves filled with books, you should try displaying them in a more unconventional way.

"Stack them on top of one another, and add in a few favorite pictures or vases you may have stored away to create some depth and character on the shelf," she told BI.

You can also place books of similar colors together and try to create variations to display them.

Sometimes the best "shopping" is quite literally done in your own home, Fernandez said.

"Check the attic, storage room, and closets. You'll likely find something you put away a while ago," he told BI. "Now, with fresh eyes, you can see how it might work in one of your rooms."

For example, he said, a den or a living room can be easily transformed if you hang up different curtains or change the wattage on your light bulbs to create mood lighting.

Rearranging your accent pieces and furniture is one of the quickest and easiest ways to change the look of a room, according to Fernandez. 

"Adjust the lines of your room by angling your sofa and chairs differently, making sure natural light is the highlight here to enhance the spatiality of a room," Nielsen added. 

"Just about everyone I know has some leftover paint sitting in storage," Fernandez said. "In my opinion, there's nothing like a fresh coat of paint."

If you don't have enough paint to freshen an entire room, you can just paint one wall as an accent. Or, he added, you can use painter's tape and a bit of precision to create a pattern on the ceiling.

Flowers can help brighten up a space and bring nature indoors, Fernandez said. 

"Gather some branches and florals [from] outdoors for a seamless and cost-effective way to update your home instantly," Nielsen told BI. "In the spring, a large array of cherry blossoms are my favorite."

If you want to get crafty, try using some of the leftover fabrics, buttons, and lace you may have found while decluttering.

These adornments can be used to revamp curtains, throw pillows, or blankets, Fernandez said. 

"Taking a simple ribbon and adding it as trim to your existing curtains will immediately change the look of them," Fernandez told BI. "Go through the bag of spare buttons, take out the colorful one, and go to town applying them to that old throw pillow."

Moving your pillows from one room to another is also a way to update your home's look, Nielsen said.

"Rearrange them on your sofa, swap in a pillow from another room, eliminate some pillows to create a sleeker space, or stack pillows on top of your bedding — preferably all white — for a crisp effect," she told BI.  

Another great way to neaten up your space is to hide the unsightly cables and wires that may be sticking out of your television or internet router.

"By doing so, it immediately upgrades the space from feeling disheveled and incomplete to put-together and high-end," Turk said.

Numerous hacks exist to hide them from sight, such as pushing them behind furniture, tucking them into a drawer, or using cord covers.

Another great way to update your space is to swap out photos in your picture frames with newly printed ones or old ones that you've stored away. 

If you have wall space, you can also create a gallery wall of your favorite photos, Fernandez added.

This story was originally published on April 6, 2020, and most recently updated on June 25, 2024.