Expenses go up during the holidays, but the cost of good décor doesn’t have to! Here are a few fast and inexpensive holiday home improvements to get your home Christmas-ready in less than a weekend from the experts at the Rohm and Has Paint Quality Institute .
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Give walls a facelift with a new coat of paint. Bold colors like rosy red, menswear-inspired gray and vibrant green are popular and will carry you through to the new year for as little as $35-$50 for a single room, along with a few hours of sweat equity.
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For only the cost of your time, de-clutter the bathroom and guest bedrooms with those unused decorative baskets or purchase inexpensive plastic bins that can be pushed underneath the bed or hidden in a closet. Love the way this looks? Tackle the whole home and get the entire family involved by donating unwanted items to the Salvation Army or local thrift shop (If you keep the receipt for your donations, you can claim on your taxes in the spring!).
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For another low cost Christmas home improvement, hang wallpaper in a graphic print in small spaces, like bathrooms or entryways, for a new look. Make sure it’s already pasted with adhesive for quicker hanging. Focusing on a small area will keep costs down.
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Add ambience and warmth with an affordable decorative lamp. Remember to replace your old light bulbs with eco-efficient halogen bulbs. Even if you only replace 25 percent of the bulbs in your house, you could cut your electric bill roughly in half.
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At less than $8 for a 12-oz. can, caulk is one of the simplest low cost Christmas home improvement projects and can really help keep cold air out this winter and save money on heating bills. Securely weatherizing your home with weather stripping and acrylic caulk pays off -- according to the Department of Energy’s ENERGY STAR ® program, homeowners who thoroughly seal and insulate their homes can expect up to a 20 percent reduction in heating and cooling costs, which means more to spend on Christmas activities.
