Does your home need a facelift? How about a living room makeover? The living room often is the main hub of the home and it is where most families spend a majority of their time together. But with young children, we totally get it if you don’t want to spend an arm and leg on new furniture.
New furniture with young children usually means that your couch is used as a trampoline and sticky hand prints. We never replaced our living room furniture until our kids were old enough not to destroy it. But even if you have kids you too can give your living room a makeover.
10 Easy Ways to Give Your Living Room a Makeover
Give these tips a try for a living room makeover without spending a ton of money.
Rearrange the Furniture
Over the years, we have lived in several different homes. One of the easiest ways to change up the living room is to rearrange the furniture. Changing the placement of the furniture is a cheap and easy way to give your living room a makeover without spending any money.
Add a Pop of Color
I’m a huge fan of HGTV and love watching the designers completely redecorate a space. The designers are always adding a pop of color whether you paint an accent wall or use accessories.
Adding a pop of color is a great way to transform a room without spending an arm and a leg. You can add fun accent pieces using an accent color or add some new throw pillows on your sofa. These techniques can easily give your living room a makeover within your budget.
Pick a New Paint Color
Grabbing a can of paint and a paintbrush is quick and easy. Painting is a great way to change the look of a room instantly. It is an easy project that can transform your outdated paint color while giving your living room a makeover.
There are 100’s of different paint colors to choose from to achieve the look and feel that you want without spending a ton of money. Plus, picking a paint that helps resist stains and clean up sticky fingerprints can make your living room kid-friendly.
Add a Versatile Piece of Furniture or Other Functional Pieces that Help Conquer the Clutter Too
One thing Joanna Gaines, stresses to her clients that have children, is to use versatile pieces of furniture or organizational tools to help control the clutter. She loves using wooden crates, storage cubbies, old trunks, baskets, and versatile piece of furniture to help keep the clutter at bay in the living room. These pieces can be designed to hide your child’s clutter at the end of the day and it will help you keep your sanity.
Add Faux Exposed Beams
Exposed beams give a unique architectural feature that add character and personality to an unseemingly boring room. It is a feature that you can easily add to your home without ripping down drywall or taking on a major home renovation.
Faux beams can be purchased or you can make your own DIY beams depending on how handy you are. Visit HGTV’s collection of faux beam inspiration ideas here.
Design an Accent Wall
Do you love shiplap, beadboard, reclaimed wood, wallpaper, wainscoting or even a pop of color using a can of paint? Adding an accent wall can easily give your living room a makeover without spending a ton of money.
It is important to choose the right wall in your living room to choose for your accent wall. An accent wall should be the focal point of a room when you first walk into it. Remember it is important to choose the right materials and color for your accent wall so that it blends with the remaining walls.
Wide Baseboards
Do you currently have tiny baseboards in your home? When we sold our home a little of a year ago, I would have loved to add wide baseboards but it wasn’t in our budget. If wide baseboards, it out of your budget, you can opt to create your own DIY baseboards by layering several different pieces and painting them the same color.
The company that we used to install laminate flooring added a smaller piece of painted wood to cover any gaps between the wall and flooring. At first, it looked a bit weird but once it was completed, I liked how it added to the original baseboards and gave it a new look even though they weren’t wide enough.
Crown Molding
The builder who built our home in 2008, added crown molding in the common areas. It was one of my favorite features because it added dimension and character. If you don’t currently have crown molding in your living room, it is something that you can easily add yourself.
Use Open Shelving
Do you lack floor space in your living room or need somewhere to display your favorite momentos. Open shelving is a great way to organize and display your favorite items in your family room. Plus, it makes it easy to show off breakable items because they can safely be placed out of the reach of tiny hands.
Create a Photo Wall
As parents, we often take tons of photos when we are on family outtings but the photos tend to stay locked away on cell phone. Instead, why don’t you print out a few of your favorite photos are create a photo wall. You can easily find inexpensive frames at Walmart or even head to your local thrift store. Don’t be afraid to add other decor to your photo wall as long as it sticks to a “family” theme.
The living room is the central hub of your home and it is a space where the entire family spends time. With young children running around, I can easily understand why you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on a living room makeover.
This is great advice. We have a beat up old couch but refuse to get rid of it until our littles get older. I’m a huge fan of Joana Gaines!! Organized chaos is something we do in our house with the kids.
I have actually been thinking a lot about doing this! Changing decor to observe different holidays has been as far as I have gone. You’ve given me some great ideas. I hope to make a plan to implement some of them in my living room.
My living room is screaming for a makeover, I’ll have to do it next weekend!
These are such great ideas! I have been wanting to give my living room a makeover.
We updated our living room a couple of years ago. We painted, changed the flooring and I added a photo wall. I just love the results!
We recently added faux beams and I’ve been obsessed ever sense! We do still have room for improvement so I appreciate this post!!
i used to rearrange my furniture in my old living room years ago but since we moved into our home (now almost 18 years here), can’t rearrange the furniture much due to the plan, but i try to change the decor every so often and have of course updated furniture based on wear and tear.. a photo wall is one thing i am thinking of adding..
Must say, these are some really good tips. I rarely get time these days but I definitely will will try to make my living room more livable, ideas are really good though.