Five Favorite Budget Home Projects!

Swapping Out Closet Doors for Curtains

The closet in our master bedroom is definitely on the smallish side for two people and the fact that it was divided into two sections with two sets of bifold doors made it super hard to access. Basically about half of our hanging clothes space was hidden behind the center partition and the space that the bifold doors took up: 

I had thought about replacing the doors with curtains for a while but honestly hadn’t seen very many decent looking curtained closets out there so was pretty leery about the end result. But a few years back I decided to get those they-drive-me-so-crazy bifold doors outta there. We removed the doors, our contractor removed the center partition and patched the floor, I repainted the trim & stained & sealed the patched floor, and then I installed {these new drapes} and hardware. And I LOVE it! It is so, so much more functional (it’s now a breeze to access every inch of the closet) and while I was worried about it looking awkward, I think the end result is a lot better looking than what we started with:

Of course the new acrylic rods and wallpapering the back of the closet helped a bit too 🙂 You can check out my entire tutorial and source list for replacing my closet door with curtains {here}. If you have a closet with bifold doors that drive you nuts, replacing them with drapes is a great budget project to knock out! Also check out {this post on adding shiplap to your walls} if you’re looking for another way to dress up your bedroom.

Changing Metal Finishes with Rub ‘n Buff

If you have cabinet knobs or pulls, metal framed mirrors, or any other decorative metal piece that has a pretty design but you hate the finish, you need to know about Rub ‘n Buff! It’s this amazing metallic-finish paste that comes in small tubes in 16 different finishes including six golds plus black, pewter, silver leaf, antique white and others. I’ve used it for years with my most recent use being to change the finish on the drawer pulls of {these new nightstands} in our master bedroom.

All you do is put a small dab on a cloth and rub it onto the metal piece. If you want a shiny finish, wait a few minutes until after it’s dry and buff it – it’s as simple as that! My drawer pulls went from a dark metal to a pretty gold in a matter of minutes:

I just did one light coat so some of the darker color would still show through but you could second-coat once the first coat is dry if you want a more uniform gold look. The three Rub ‘n Buff colors that I use the most are these three golds: Grecian Gold (available {here}), Antique Gold (available {here}), and Gold Leaf (available {here}). Gold Leaf is the one I used on my knobs – it’s my favorite of the three since it’s a bit softer of a gold than the other two. Here’s my nightstand’s new look with my now-gold knobs:

A few other Rub ‘n Buff project favorites are changing the finish on {this loop wall hook}:

that I used to hang {this round rope mirror} by our door to the garage:

And I also used it to change the metal surround of {this round mirror} in our master bedroom from bronze to gold:

Creating a Gallery Wall with Homemade Art

I love gallery walls but the cost can add up when you’re talking about buying 10+ pieces of art plus the frames. A great budget solution is to either create your own art or use art from the budding artists in your family such as your kids, grandkids, nieces, or nephews. For the gallery wall over the daybed in our bonus room, I used art that my girls created throughout the years and also saved money by reusing several frames that we already had so that the only costs for the entire gallery wall were a few new frames (I got most of my new ones {here})!

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And here’s a little tip that might help you knock this project out – a lot of the art that my girls did when they were younger was too large to easily frame but I didn’t want to destroy it by cutting or bending it to fit a smaller frame. So for these pieces, I made color photocopies of the portion of the original artwork that I wanted to frame and in some cases I even used the copier settings to reduce the printed size down to the exact size I needed. The colorful little house on the bottom right of our bonus room gallery wall is one of the pieces I did this with:

Another tip is to consider using a ceramic piece of art too if you have it! I incorporated a ceramic flower that one of my daughters had painted into the mix by using a box frame and hot glue gunning it to the back which keeps it on securely but (I think) will come off without harming the ceramic art piece if I ever decide to remove it. This art wall is my favorite one in our house because it’s filled with meaningful pieces that make me smile each time I look at it!

You can see more pics of our bonus room and a complete source list for this space {here} and if you want to see the other gallery walls in our home, check out our home office gallery wall {here} and our family room gallery wall {here}. 

Painting Our Tile Floors

One of my all-time favorite DIY projects is painting the tile floors in our hall bathroom. It’s not only a super inexpensive project but a pretty easy DIY too! I was super nervous about how this project would turn out but since we had plans to remove the tub and retile the floor in 1-2 years, I figured the worst that could happen is that I’d have to live with a peeling, scraped mess of a floor for a little while. That’s not much worse than this glaring red I had already been living with for several years already so I decided to give it a shot!

Not only do I love the look of the painted tile floors (I wasn’t sure whether painting the grout along with the tile would look ridiculous!), but it has held up amazingly well (it’s been 2 1/2 years since we did it)!

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It’s actually held up so well that we decided just to leave the floor as-is instead of eventually replacing it like we originally planned! You can check out all the details of my tile painting project {here}, including a step by step tutorial. And you can read more about stenciling my bathroom walls {here} – that’s another good budget project to tackle! 

Refinishing a Furniture Piece

Refinishing furniture isn’t hard but it can take a good chunk of time so if you’re finding yourself with more free time on your hands than usual lately, think about refinishing a dated but loved piece of furniture in your home! One of my favorite furniture refinishing jobs was on a sentimental favorite end table that was full of scratches on the top and had a darker finish than I wanted:

I sanded it down…

and re-stained it and LOVE its new look:

Scroll & click/tap to shop our family room:

I walk you through my refinishing project step by step including links to the supplies you need (they’re all available online) in {this post}. And remember that it doesn’t have to be a table that you refinish – you could refinish a chest, nightstand, or any other wood furniture piece in your home!

I hope you found a project or two that inspired you to make some simple changes to your home! I appreciate that you stopped by to visit today – if you haven’t already, join 20,000+ other Driven by Decor readers by subscribing to get new decorating and DIY posts delivered to your inbox 1-2 times a week {HERE}.

And if you’re looking for even more project inspiration, check out my favorite DIY projects {here}, my favorite decorating projects {here}, and my favorite organizing projects {here}. 

XO,