Decor Tips For A Fresh New Living Room Look On A Budget

See how we made our small house living room look bright and big on a budget

Creating a bright and fun living room on a budget. Love how it turned out!

Our living room has been looking tired and worn for a while now. I mean, it survived spilled drinks, crumbs all over everything, roughhousing, puppy dogs and all the other life events that come from raising kids. Since the kids are older (i.e. on their own) I figured it would be a safe time for a living room makeover.

The plan was to change the living room into a space that looked fresh, clean and bright. Guess what? It worked! We completed a living room makeover and I’m sharing tips for giving the living room a fresh new look with you.

Taking the living room from bland and dull to bright and white

Our old and tired furniture. I forgot to take a before photo so this is the best I can do….

HERE IS THE PART THAT HURTS 🏠

I’m going to rip the band-aid off first and fast…are you ready? Here we go, replacing furniture can and probably will hurt your checkbook. However, there are ways to work within a budget. We replaced all our furniture in the living room. Yep, out with the couch and armchairs. In with a loveseat, two armchairs, a recliner, area rug, new lamps and new curtains.

We shopped at a number of online stores and finally found a nice selection on Overstock.com. They had prices we didn’t find offensive plus we used Ebates to earn money back. All the furniture came in boxes and required us to do some easy assembly.

All the furniture showed up in multiple boxes. A little bit of work to put it all together and BAM new living room furniture.

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I was a little unsure about ordering furniture from Overstock and Alan thought I had officially lost my mind, but it’s worked out really well. We’ve been using the furniture for a couple months without any issues.

Laying the possible pieces of art on the floor in front of the wall helped determine the arrangement.

ADD {FREE} ARTWORK 🖼

I knew I wanted to add artwork to the wall above the love seat. I also knew that I didn’t want to pay a lot of money for it. I have piles of photo frames laying around the house and a quick search online netted a number of free images that I could download and print and that is exactly what I did. It was all free!!! My favorite find was provided to me by one of my favorite home decor blogs, Monica Wants It. She shared a link for FREE prints from Audubon Society.

I started off with the above artwork but wasn’t loving it as much as I wanted to so we ended up changing it out.

I found a frame and print kit at Target for $25 and we’re much happier with how that looks. I thought I would be ok with a variety of frames, but I really like the consistency of having all the same frames.

TAKE A WALK ON THE SOFTER SIDE IN YOUR LIVING ROOM 💃

We’ve had hardwood floors for quite a few years, but for some reason, we never added an area rug to the living room. Browsing through the Overstock site I fell in love with a white shag area rug and that was the start of the living room makeover. I figured if I was going to add an area rug I may as well redo the entire room. 🙂 <<—Alan hates when that happens. lol.

The 8x10 rug from Overstock.com works MUCH better for our small living room.

The 8×10 rug from Overstock.com works MUCH better for our small living room.

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At first, I thought a 5’x8′ area rug would be plenty big. I mean, we do have a small house and the furniture does take up a fair amount of the space. However, when the rug arrived and we unrolled it the size was way too small. Now, I’m sure we could have returned the rug to Overstock, but honestly, I just didn’t feel like dealing with it. So, the 5’x8′ rug went into our bedroom (where it looks great) and I ordered an 8’x10′ which fits in the room perfectly!

Lesson: Order a size larger than you think you’ll need.

IT’S ALL IN THE LIVING ROOM DETAILS 💜

In addition to new furniture, I replaced the curtains and lamps. I kept the end tables and tv cabinet. I may still paint the end tables white, but for now, the brown finish works for us.

I worked with Nearly Natural to find the perfect plant for the living room. I don’t have a lot of luck keeping plants alive because I travel so much so having a real looking artificial plant is the way to go. It’s tucked between the tv stand and the chair. From this angle a bit tough to see, but in good view when walking in from the dining room.

Alan built a table to go behind the couch that has outlets in the top so that I dont have to move furniture to plug in my phone or my laptop (see above image). Super easy design makes this table something that almost anyone could make.

A trip to Home Depot to buy some table legs netted me three rustic candlestick holders. I still haven’t found candles for them, but the living room project has taken us about four months to complete so really no rush 🙂

A bar car is a must for our made over living room!

SAY CHEERS 🍸

Of course, a bar cart was a must for me. I searched a long time to find the perfect bar cart for our living room that didn’t cost a king’s ransom. This one was found at an estate sale and was a horrid yellow color. Nothing a bit of paint and love couldn’t fix. You can read how we took this cart from drab to fab here.