10 ways to refresh your home for free

I had been considering what to write for my next Substack article and it got me thinking that a lot of interior journalism, or indeed interior content, is about buying something new. Thanks Capitalism, creating solutions for problems we didn’t know we had. If we only bought that face cream, our skin would be smooth and we wouldn’t worry about our wrinkles. If we could only buy that cushion, that lamp, that throw, our home would be calmer and cosier. Now, I know I’m part of the problem – I mean one of my last posts was ‘20 of the best minimalist cushions in neutral tones’ – but I try to promote a simpler, more mindful way of living. I don’t believe you need a lot of stuff to make a happy home, and embracing a ‘less is more’ aesthetic is definitely a good way to go about that.

But with this thought, I set myself the challenge of coming up with 10 ways to decorate a home for free. Instead of thinking you need something new to fix a space, it’s looking at what you already own with fresh eyes and coming up with creative ideas to bring new energy in. Sometimes when we’re surrounded by the same objects they become so familiar that we stop seeing them as we might have once done. They lose their appeal and sense of shiny newness. I think nowadays in our throwaway culture, we lose sight of the value of our belongings – not just the monetary value, but the emotional value – and it feels easier to think we can just go out and buy a new one.

Instagram has us thinking that everyone is spending money on their homes and changing rooms like they’re changing outfits. The truth is we don’t always need to resort to a full, flashy makeover of a whole room, and sometimes all it takes is moving the furniture around to gain a new perspective. There’s lots of simple ways to refresh a home without spending a lot of money. Let me see if I can get to 10!