Quick and Affordable Home Updates

With so much time spent at home lately, I have been really enjoying adding small affordable touches to make our apartment really feel like “ours”. From fully updating our little kitchen (read more about that here), to finally hanging pieces we’ve had laying around since we moved in, everything is finally starting together, and our apartment is really starting to feel nice and homey! Since I know a lot of us are looking for things to do around the house, I thought I’d share some of my favorite cheap and easy home updates and projects I’ve done!

Curtains

Honestly, I never thought I would be a curtains person. Up until recently, I had always related curtains to old lady decor and thought that they would darken our apartment and make it look smaller. But I was SO wrong! We found these curtains on Amazon (and they’re super affordable, which is a bonus!) and I seriously cannot believe how much they have transformed both our bedroom and our living room! They don’t darken the apartment at all, and actually make it look bigger, rather than smaller like I was worried about! The key is making sure that they’re long enough to lightly dust the floor. Even if your window starts higher up on the wall, you want your curtains to go all the way to the floor! They’re such a fun and easy way to make a statement in your apartment, and they’re functional, too! They’re a great instant gratification project, because they only take about 20 minutes to an hour to hang.

DIY Chunky Throw Blanket

This is honestly one of my favorite DIY projects I’ve ever done! It takes a couple of hours, but throw on a show or a good podcast and it goes by so quickly! I had been wanting a chunky knit throw FOREVER, but didn’t want to spend the money on it, so I bought some yarn and followed this tutorial. It honestly is way easier than it looks, and the finished result looks luxurious and expensive! I love the texture that it adds to our bed, and kind of want to make a second one to keep on the couch. I believe I used about 6 skeins of the Bernat Big Blanket yarn to make my blanket, because I wanted it extra big!

Hang Some Art

Ever since this started, Jerry has been working from his home office, which we hadn’t really done anything with because we hadn’t really planned on him using it all that much. Since he’s been spending so much time there, I wanted to spruce it up a bit so I got him this print from Grafomap! I chose Ibiza as the location, because I know that if he could choose one single place to vacation as soon as this is all over, that’s where it would be. Eventually when we have a bigger space, I love the idea of getting a framed one for every place we’ve lived together and hanging them side by side. Also, I was able to get you guys a discount code for this one if you want one for your own home! You can get 10% off of your prints with the code “OLIVIA10”.

If you have any favorite old photos or vacation pictures laying around, now is the perfect time to decorate your apartment with them! I ordered these frames on Amazon and framed some old photos that I took and developed back in my college film photography class and feel they add so much to the overall look of my living room.

Upgrade Your Organization Game

This was clearly taken pre-kitchen update, but we recently added this bakers rack to our kitchen and OH MY GOSH is it amazing! We desperately needed more storage space, so this gave us extra space for non perishable food and appliances, while also serving as a cute little coffee bar!

Try Your Hand at Chalkboard Art

I had these chalkboards left over from our wedding, and decided to put them to use as decor around our apartment! I found some cute fonts I liked online, and then just had fun trying to recreate them on my own chalkboards to make some fun kitchen (the chalkboard on top of the coffee cart) and bathroom art! It’s such an easy project, and if you mess up you can just wipe it off and start over! I love them, because you can even change it seasonally if you want!

What updates have you made to your own home lately? If you try any of these, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram so I can re-post it!

XOXO,

Olivia