14 Ways to Redecorate Your Home Without Spending Money

If you're itching to give your home a mini-makeover, but don't have any money in the budget: look no further. We tapped some of our favorite designers to offer up their best and most creative tips on redecorating your home without purchasing a single new item. Here are 14 ways to revamp your living space with nothing more than a little elbow grease—and maybe a set of helping hands to lift the heavier items.

Chances are, when you moved in, you shoved your sofa up against a wall to get the most possible space in front of it. But you may want to rethink that decision, according to Betsy Helm and Kiley Baun of Shophouse Design. "Pull the furniture away from the wall," they advise "It’ll make the room feel larger." Plus, floating furniture makes a space feel more thoughtfully arranged—you know, like you didn't just shove everything up against a different wall.

If you have the space for it, put the sofa in the center of your living room, then place your console or sideboard behind it, and cover the surface with frames and decorative objects. Experiment with facing the sofa a different direction so your daily view gets a bit of a switch-up.

You may have started this WFH journey by plopping down a desk wherever you could find space. Now that WFH has become the new norm, try finding a new home for it. "Place your existing table or desk in the center of a room, or facing a window or your favorite interior view of your home, whether it’s a beautiful fireplace or perfect shelfie," says Jay Jeffers. Again, switching up your view will make all the difference.

A super-impactful, super-easy way to change up your surroundings? Swap your art. If you already have multiple pieces hanging in a gallery wall or around an open space (like in this cheerful Nova Scotia House by Philip Mitchell), you can simply remove pieces from their nails or hooks and hang them on different ones. If you need to do some hanging you haven't gotten to yet, check out our foolproof guide here. Or, if you want to arrange some art without picking up a hammer, try propping it on a shelf or mantel, like Alison Victoria did in her Chicago home here.

Itching for a creative outlet? Make some new art. "I am painting some new artwork panes to change up the room," says Leslie Chalfont of Giddy Paperie, who enlisted her friend, Lance Parker of Parker Kennedy, to advise on some rearranging (via FaceTime, of course!).

Don't be afraid to get creative with function. For example, a kitchen stool could easily swap in for a nightstand, or your favorite side chair for a table to hold a stack of books. Here, Teresa and Michael Drapkin turned a painted stool into a colorful bedside table in their 1850s home.

Have a bar cart with wheels? We're willing to bet you've never put them to good use. Wheel a cart in front of your fireplace for cocktail hour (like Jonathan Adler with his Peroni bar cart here), then into the kitchen for a long baking session. If you really want to get multifunctional, remove the booze and turn the piece into an arts & crafts cart for your kids during homeschool hours—then re-stock again once they're asleep, of course.

Let's face it: if you put a TV in a room, it automatically becomes the focal point and takes away from the rest of the room's design. Consider moving your TV (perhaps a den area?) and reclaiming the space. In this living room, designed by Cameron Ruppert, the TV hanging over the mantel was successfully swapped for a piece of art. However, you don't have to go that extreme—even moving it to the other side of the room (and adjusting the chairs accordingly) will make the space function differently.

Have a table with leaves? You're in luck—you basically have unlimited rooms. "With the lack of dinner parties hosted while social distancing, why not maximize the dining room to accept some of the new needs we are all finding fall on our laps? Your dining table can serve as a great home office to set up stacks of papers and a desktop, piled high with books to encourage reading while homeschooling (who wants to take a trip to the “library” kids?!), or an easy space to set up multiple workspaces for the kiddos," says MA Allen . Changing up the size of the table (and, if you're up for it, rearranging the furniture around it to match) will give the room a whole new feel each time. "While in quarantine, moving around—even just within your own home—adds at least a tiny element of adventure," Allen says.

Every designer knows that good lighting is everything—and its impact on a space is often overlooked. (The best spaces, like this living room by Ashley Whittaker, have many different light sources). If your space is feeling stale, try changing around the lighting, swapping table and floor lamps to get different levels of brightness in different areas.

If you're looking to instantly refresh your kitchen, creating an appliance garage, or designated storage spot for your appliances is a must. Designer Amy Sklar, the self-professed "queen of the appliance garage" came up with the idea when she was designing her own kitchen. "I was like, okay, the least sexy things in my kitchen are my toaster and the soda dispenser, but we use them every single day. So I thought, all right, I have to find a way to have the kitchen be beautiful and not see these things," she explains.

Whether you live in a studio apartment or a house in the suburbs, creating zones in your home is a great way to change up the layout and split up the pieces that don't necessarily blend well together. Here, interior designer Max Sinsteden made his sleep zone feel separate from the rest of the room by hanging a super high curtain and then suspending a floating painting to break it off even more. "I hate seeing a bed from the front door, so I added a curtain to partition that space," he says, noting that you can also use large bookshelves or other pieces of furniture to divide zones.

For larger spaces, you may consider creating different zones in your living room, such as an area for TV watching or an area to play board games. Caitlin Laskey, a preservation specialist and designer also advocates for creating zones in your home. She suggests anchoring each space with different area rugs.

Your bookcase can be way more than just a storage unit. In fact, restyling your shelves can change the whole aesthetic of the room. "One of the easiest ways to get a professional-looking bookcase is by editing the color palette," said home stylist Eddie Ross. He shares his secret formulas for curating serene neutral, colorful eclectic, and tiki chic styled shelves here.

Have a radiator in your home that sticks out like a sore thumb? You're not alone. Fortunately, there are many ways to cover that bad boy up. Here, designer Leanne Ford surrounded the radiator with a cluster of houseplants — which not only complements the room's laid-back design, but it makes the radiator a lot less visible.

Don't have houseplants? You can try sliding a table over it or rearranging other furniture pieces to mask it. We've rounded up our best tips for covering up radiators here.

Believe it or not, there are many DIY projects that you could tackle right now using only the materials in your home. Take this clipboard wall, for example: Not only does it create a neat graphic display on a once plain wall, but it helps you better organize your papers. You can explore more DIY home projects here.