From DIY recycling to strolling through second-hand markets, cheaper options for renovating your interiors are also the most sustainable for our planet.

While flicking through decorating magazines, we fall in love with this sofa, that bookshelf, this blanket, all of which are completely out of our price range.  Don’t worry, because it doesn’t mean that you can’t give your surroundings a new look on a modest budget.  Limited resources bear ingenuity, and today we a bringing you some ideas to prepare your house for the new way of making planes at home.

First order of low cost decoration: recycle, recycle, recycle

Screens created using stepladders and recycled windows, wooden boxes that turn into bookshelves.  We can see this in some of the interior design projects by Izaskun Chinchilla.  The Spanish architect a champion of materials’ recycling and reusing objects to give them a new use.

The best part of this is the sustainability component that it involves, at a time when we are more conscious than ever of the need to do our part for environmental conservation.

Reusing objects that you already have is a great way to give free reign to your creativity and to create original objects that allow you to personalise your home or office.  We can see this in some of the interior design projects by Cutu Mazuelos and Eva Prego of Stone Design, such as the lamps created with iconic Coca-Cola bottles for the company’s Madrid offices.

Do it yourself

We thought that in order to throw ourselves into recycling we had to have a whole toolbox like on those home improvement shows.  But even if you’re not that handy, there are a lot of things you can do yourself when it comes to decoration.  Thanks to the internet, it’s never been easier.  You can look for inspiration on Pinterest.  In their trend report for 2019, Pinterest points out that 83% of searches related to homes are about DIY projects.  Among the trends for 2019 are painting parquet floors and covering walls with fabric to add texture.

When it comes to actually doing the work, you will find help some on of the channels and blogs dedicated to DIY decorating.  For example, to create bookshelves from wooden boxes you just need help from the local grocer, who can provide the raw material.  The rest is just sanding, varnishing, and hanging.  It’s that easy.

Even the decorating and furniture giant IKEA has launched the “Let’s save furniture” campaign in which they grouped together different initiatives with the goal of reducing waste, from buying used furniture to give it new life to ideas for customising furniture so you can give it a new life in your own home.

Second-hand stores, now online

Second-hand markets and stores are also a good place to find homewares to decorate your home at an affordable price, including quality furniture and other pieces, among which you may occasionally find a true antique.  Some that are well-known around the world have become tourist destinations, like Portobello Markets in London, the Sain Ouen market in Paris, or more recently the Vintage Market in Stockholm.

But if you don’t want to leave the house, it has never been easier to search for a bargain thanks to different peer-to-peer buying and selling apps like Ebay, Letgo, Wallapop and Vibbo.  And with the debut of Marie Kondo’s program on Netflix, they are bound to be filling up with treasures!

Low-cost homewares brands

Forget the impossible prices that we find in magazines.  Everyone knows Ikea and their homewares, and we mean everyone.  If you’re looking to “fool” your visitors, may we suggest that you take a look at some other low-cost decorating brands that are less well-known.

• Zara Home and HM Home: the textile giants that made fashion accessible also have homewares departments. Take advantage of their sales!
• La Redoute: a classic of catalogue sales with textiles at great prices.
• Maisons du Monde: the French chain has one of the best offerings of furniture and homewares on the market
• The Range: one of the best-known in the UK
• MADE: with more than 100 specialised designers on their team, they’ve removed the middle-man in order to offer the fairest price.

What’s your low-cost decorating hack?