What are some cheap ways to decorate walls?

Question

I just moved into a new apartment and the walls are bare and boring. I'm REALLY tight w/ cash right now so I cant go out and buy a whole bunch of paintings/ frames/wall decor, etc. I also don't own the apartment so I cant paint the walls any other color.
What are some cheap ways I could make the walls look interesting and original?

Answer 1

Got some photos you wanna hang but no money for frames and you don't want to damage the pics?

Step 1. Go buy some 1 inch wide black or whatever colored ribbon and stretch a piece horizontally and secure in place with tack or some small nails.

Step 2. Secure a length or ribbon vertically at the top to the back side of the horizontal ribbon with a safety pin (so the pin doesn't show).

Step 3. Use masking tape to tape the backs of the pics to the ribbon. It recommend taping across the ribbon instead of making a tape "loop" to try to hold the pics to the ribbon. Intersperse the pics along the ribbon length.

Step 4. Add more vertical ribbons and pictures until you have a beautiful hanging picture gallery. Space these as you pleas and change them as you please. You can even use different length vertical ribbons or put your pics at odd lengths to give them a random and chic look.

Step 5. Complete the look by attaching large funky looking beads (or whatever you want) with safety pins to the bottom of the vertical ribbons to function as weights and to add depth to the overall look.

This whole thing shouldn't cost you more than like $5 plus a little time.

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You can get nice, fairly large, mirrors for around $15 from the Dollar Store or Walmart. Mirrors add A LOT of punch in any given room and help to add light. Check yard sales, thrift stores, and others and you might find them cheaper.

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Use bright tacks, ribbon, clear spray paint (to spray the paper to add shine) and construction paper to make a funky decolage background for a wall clock. I made mine into a 4 point star and used the tacks to hold the ribbon so that my 4 point star became an 8 point one. Adds depth to the room and makes use of a small wall clock that by itself would be boring.

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Yard sale, yard sale, yard sale! Go early in the morning and you can find some AWESOME stuff for REALLY cheap. I mean pennies on the dollar! This also applies to thrift stores! Look around and see what you can find. You don't have to decorate it all at once!

Answer 2

I am tight on money and for my girls room I decorated her wall with pictures of her with her friends. I just used a stapler( from the dollar store) and stapled the pictures to the wall. You can try stapling a few together to make a small square above your bed, or in a circle, or in a spiral may be fun! Also, if you have photo suite or any kind of photo shop on you computer, you can change the color of the picture to black and white, etc. Hope this helps! P.S. dollar store construction paper makes a nice background, or "frame" or swirly thing around your spiral and so on.

Answer 3

One of the cutest things I have seen is to buy an old window at a junk yard that has been taken out of a house. Make sure it has the small panes... you know the kind of windows that looks like a tic tac toe board... anyway just put that on your wall and if it has shutters, put them on each side of the window and then put a flower box under the window and just but interesting things in the box... not flowers or a board accross it could make a shelf. You could put a poster behind the window to make it look like it is a real window or you could put photos in the panes behind the glass or you could just leave it plain like a regular window. It would fill your wall and cost almost nothing!

Answer 4

You can buy artist canvas and just paint a bold stripe or something. You can buy inexpensive shelves from Micheals or AC Moore and paint them or look for clearance at Target. I have a garden gate I got on clearance after the summer hanging on my dining room wall ($10). I have also printed some quotes or poems on colored paper and put them in frames from the dollar store.

Answer 5

Those candle holders that get hung in the wall corners

Posters of something/someone you like

Mirrors (plain, or with a theme)

Shelves (which you can buy used, and paint)

You can look in thrift shops, yard sales, estate sales, etc. for pictures with frames. I got a nice landscape one for my longest living room wall for about $3

Answer 6

1) You could get some pretty cloth and hang it over your walls.

2) You could buy a bunch of cheap bulliten boards at kmart and hand them up. Then you could cover them with your photos, etc.

3) Take some black and white photos and have them printed out in a larger size. (You usually take a disk or a memory card to one of those special machines in CVS or Larmon Photo). Then hang them on your wall -- with push pins.

Personally, I like number 3. It'll make you're room cute, original and one-of-a-kind.

Answer 7

Look through this site for some decorating ideas. It has Moroccan decor. Something might interest you that you could then incorporate into your home and own style. The items available on this site are really unique. They have Berber carpets that may be hung on walls. That's a great look.

http://www.nineseasdecor.com

Hope you find what you are looking for!

Answer 8

If you are creative it is easy to make a hand stamped or painted material tapestry. You will need dowels(whatever length you like), hooks(to hang it), needle and thread( sew the material tops and bottom to put over dowels, material your choice, washable is good make sure it is even and balanced all around. And also material paint and go for it. I did this for a project in Art school and it was fun and something easy to carry if you move. You can also make several material design pieces and switch them if you get tired...you will have more.
Create something that is refreshing and you! Good luck.