While we may not hesitate to spend significant amounts of money on vacations, clothing or cars, home improvements seem to fall to the bottom of the list. Though hiring experts to help us out is a good idea, we can also make some small changes on our own. Often all we need is a little push in the right direction. With a little creativity and some free hints from professional designers, any budget can be stretched to satisfy your tastes.

“Look around at what you have first and sleep on it,” says Gary Unger, owner of the design company Ideagineer. “Ideas will come to you.” Since many of his small changes have come from using what’s around the house, he says limitations often are a great motivator. “The more limits you put on me, the more creative I’m going to be,” he says. Keep that in mind if your budget is smaller than you’d like.

Whatever your tastes or budget, we’ve gathered 23 examples of simple ways to make over your living room, bedroom, dining room or kitchen with a minimum amount of time and money.

FOR THE PAINTER

1. Free Paint
“I wanted to give my office that old, musty-European feel, with huge bookshelves full of books,” Unger says. While working in the crawl space under his home one day, he found six cans of burgundy paint the last homeowner had left behind—a perfect start to the “cave-like” impression he was trying to create.

2. Dinner Time
“When my client saw a picture of a clock table in my portfolio, she knew immediately that she wanted one,” says designer Mary Anne Merfeld. “She already owned an old pedestal oak table and chairs which were perfect for the paint finish. The table is the centerpiece of her breakfast room. I patterned the design after an old French clock that I found in
a magazine.”

3. Set the Scene
“If you can paint, you can do a lot of things,” says homeowner Beth Janeway, including setting a relaxing atmosphere. For example, designer Christine Barnes created a serene mural of tree branches with muted greens and browns in the bedroom of Nancy Egan, who is fighting cancer.

4. Speak with an Accent
“Any time you update an accent piece, whether it’s painting the fireplace, cabinetry or other type of woodwork, you change the whole attitude about how good it feels to be in that room,” says Jim Terry of Capital City Contracting. He often puts new coats of paint on old homes to increase the resale value. Try his suggestion to increase the value of your home while you still live in it.

5. Fruits of Your Labor
If you can paint simple shapes, paint topiaries or fruit clusters on your kitchen cabinets. This is an easy way to make your kitchen look like a professional helped you. Don’t worry about making shapes look exact.

FOR THE SERIOUS DIY-er

6. Rough-Hewn Beauty
Designer Kathleen Pyrce tries to meet her clients half-way on refurbishing plans. “One of the ways I work with clients is to come up with a design plan for them that they will execute. Sometimes it’s a color plan that includes paint, fabrics and other surfaces. Sometimes it’s a remodeling plan such as Joe Stroup’s kitchen.” The cabinetry in Stroup’s ’70s Cape Cod kitchen was of such a high quality that he just refinished them with tung oil and replaced the ceramic knobs with upscale handles that Pyrce found.

7. Stucco on You
Unger took some leftover drywall spackle and literally slapped it on like mud, sponge painting over it. Instant old-world walls! “If it’s something you can screw up and noboby will know, you should try it,” he says.

8. Garden of Eden
We all have old pots left over from plants that have died. Make use of them again with a technique that many garden designers, such as those at Habersham Gardens, use. Buy five or six small perennial green plants, then separate and mix them in each pot, creating a verdant, overflowing look.

9. Rescue Mission
Janeway and her husband salvaged his old childhood dresser from the basement and cleaned it up with new paint and new knobs, making it fresh for their new son.

10. Of a Different Stripe
Once a feminine pink, Janeway’s easy chair is transformed with nautical red stripes for her son.

FOR THE LOVE OF ART

11. Transparent Art
Here is a great way to liven up your shower experience if you have a minimal budget but want the look of stained glass. For around $350, local painter Allen Rodgers will create beautiful art, have it made into a transparency, mount it onto plexiglass, and install it the window of your choice. A real stained-glass window could cost upwards of $1,500.

12. Painter of Light
Designer Jo Rabaut took a plain white room and transformed it with colorful, abstract artwork and appropriate lighting. Lighting can change the mood in any room and make even the simplest art look stunning.

13. Design on a Dime
Don’t assume designers are out of your league. “I believe interior design should be available to people at all price points, so I try to provide services that can utilize my expertise in the most efficient fashion for each individual client,” Pyrce says.

KITCHEN KABOODLE

14. The Melting Pot
After a serious tornado struck Norcross, damaging many of Nancy and Andrew Egan’s belongings, they enlisted the help of Christine Barnes to refurbish their beloved furniture. This was a typical ’50s dark-stained dining table that Egan and Barnes painted black with inspirational Chinese words at each corner. The German beer stein was also their own. Don’t be afraid to be eclectic.

15. Lonely Island
If you aren’t ready to refurbish your entire kitchen, start with the island. Merfeld added paneling and new leafwork to one island, staining it a deep pecan brown color. Granite countertops were also installed.

16. Shabby Chic to Uptown Modern
For just under $170, designer Nancy Bruno brought an old dining room set from the country to the city using paint, while a new chandelier and a few fun accessories added to the room.

FOR THE ACCESSORIZER

17. Cutting Corners
If you don’t stage your sitting areas right, you may end up with empty corners. Try this hint from designer Laura Sheeley Holt: create a corner daydream seat with some inexpensive outdoor furniture or splurge on a wrought iron settee. Recover old pillows for cushions, and find some inexpensive wall art to match the new pillows.

18. Bookish
Changing out the accessories in any room makes a difference. Bruno changed the rug under a trunk/coffee table to a darker rug to visually anchor the weight of the trunk. She also used larger, heavier accessories on the mantel and in the bookcases to add weight
and interest.

19. Flower Power
To update the Laura Ashley floral explosion in her client’s bathroom, Nancy Bruno changed out the shower curtain to a simple satin beige one, which made a big difference. She also painted over the floral wallpaper, keeping one or two floral accents, like the bath mat and counter accessories.

20. From Grandma to Grandiose
Designer Kim Haire wanted a more romantic feel for her bedroom, so she painted over the baby blue with cream and replaced the bed
and other accessories with cream and chocolate accents.

FOR THE ACCESSORIZER

21. Flat to Fabulous
Just because a futon/daybed is for guests doesn’t mean it should be ignored when no one’s visiting. Bring unused bookshelves, artwork, pillows and lighting from the rest of the house to create a cozy space.

22. Distant Relatives
If you have to strain your neck in an awkward direction to talk to guests, it’s time to rearrange your furniture. Imagine there’s a campfire in the middle of your sitting room, and gather the couches and seating
around it.

23. Room to Room Round-up
For a quick remedy for a too-white guestroom, take some colorful artwork from another room and replace the white with vibrant hues. Bruno found this painting and high-backed sitting bench in another crowded room of her client’s home.