How to redecorate your house for free — using items you already own

Redecorating your home doesn’t have to involve a big budget, months of planning and trips to seemingly every store in town. Although you may love to shop, it’s faster, easier and obviously less expensive to use items you have under your own roof.

We enlisted the help of two local pros — Cheri Etchelecu Martin of Cheri Etchelecu Interior Design and Kim Armstrong of Kim Armstrong Interior Design — for tips on restyling what’s already in your home.

Rethink the way you use the rooms in your house.

Begin by thinking about how you label your spaces. “I always approach a room from a functional aspect first,” Martin says. “Just because someone told you, ‘This is the dining room,’ you automatically put your dining table there, but that doesn’t have to be the case. You can rearrange rooms to function better for you.”

Next, remove all the furnishings and belongings from a room. Deep clean everything (closets, cabinets, credenzas) and get a good sense of what you want to work with and what you don’t.

“Purge and donate items that you no longer love. By doing this, you’ll open up spaces to display items you love in a new way,” Armstrong says. “It’s kind of like a fresh start.”

Once you’ve identified the furnishings you want to use, strategically place them in a way that helps each room function in the way you prefer.

“Disregard how it was before, and just move things as if you were just getting there for the first time,” Martin advises. Consider what furnishings would create the perfect reading area, sitting space, TV view, game table or workspace. That grounds the room, and then you can accessorize.

Rearrange and reimagine your home decor accessories.

“After you’ve rearranged the big items, take all the remaining accessories you love and place them in new locations so it feels different,” Armstrong says.

Martin agrees. “People get very attached to items being in a certain room, with no real reason. Gather all your accessories and put them in one room, and group them together differently. That gives you a whole fresh look.”

When you go to accessorize the room, start with the main table. “Create that grouping first,” Martin says. For example, reimagine a decorative tray from your kitchen as a coffee table catch-all for a few travel mementoes or coffee table books, or you could display that antique checkerboard or another collectible you inherited.

Then it’s time to determine your focal wall. “You need to make that wall look the prettiest,” Martin shares. “Start with your favorite piece of art, or a mirror, or a plant, or whatever you can do to that space to make it catch your eye and be exciting. That’s going to give you a new perspective on the room.”

For another new perspective, consider rugs, runners and throws. Ones with interesting colors, patterns or textures may work on the wall.

Clearly, decor can take many forms. In a child’s bedroom, you can show off their artwork in unused picture frames or display sports awards — complete with that game ball — in shadow boxes. In the dining room, your grandmother’s toile dish collection can grace the walls. Hang photos or artsy maps from your travels in the family room. All that beloved college memorabilia collecting dust in the attic may make the perfect game room decor. Even your cowboy or fall hat collection may look at home artfully displayed on the wall of your bedroom.

“Collections are wonderful, but it’s the way you organize them that makes them art or clutter,” Martin says, so carefully curate your selections.

Get out the paint you’ve been saving.

Most people have a stash of paint, whether that’s spray paints left over from an old project or cans from a DIY attempt that went in a different direction. Look at those colors again. Ask yourself if any of them can be used to give dated furniture, or even a whole wall, a fresh pop.

“Paint goes such a long way,” Armstrong says. “Look for some end tables that are feeling a little drab and paint them a fresh color.”

You can put leftover paint to work even in the kitchen. Remove cabinet doors to create modern open shelving. Fill hardware holes with putty and use the original paint or stain to finish out the interior. Display those prized glasses that have been hiding in your butler’s pantry or simply finish out the space with pantry staples (flour, sugar, pasta, etc.) sealed in cannisters or clear containers.

In addition to paint, unused wallpaper, peel-and-stick paper or even wrapping paper can be used to spruce up the backdrop of a bookshelf or other shelving anywhere in your home.

Bring the outdoors in for a unique touch.

As a finishing touch, go outside and see what nature has waiting for you. Organic elements breathe new life into a space that may have once felt stale or dated. Philodendron leaves in water, wildflowers in an antique vase, berry or fall leaf branches in glass container, pinecones in a basket or fruit in an old apothecary jar all work in their respective seasons.

You can modernize that empty fireplace by filling it with birchwood or even a collection of white candles that have been stashed in a chest for the past decade. Those beautiful wicker or rattan chairs that you won’t be using during the dead of winter can be cleaned and brought inside to fill an empty space or provide extra seating in a family room or bedroom.