Home Decor Under $50 and Our Upcoming Kitchen Project

Late spring is such a great time to spruce up around the home. I like bringing in more summery elements like greenery or subtle pops of color (like blush). I’m also in full “nesting” mode because we just started an addition on our house.  A big home project like this can be great inspiration to spruce up other areas of the house too. I find simple, small home decor pieces can be an easy way to change the look of a room or make it feel more updated without doing a full makeover.  I thought I’d round up some amazing home decor pieces under $50 that I’ve fallen in love with while working on my own home decor projects.

Storage Pieces

Cream Storage Box
– I think these boxes would look amazing placed on shelving. You could either use them in a home office, or if you have open shelving in your kitchen you could use them to store smaller kitchen utensiles or recipe cards.

Rattan Basket Large – A great large storage basket for extra blankets in the living room. It’d also work great to store some of your children’s toys in a chic way.

Steel Beverage Tub with Handles – Is this the cutest beverage tub or what? The blush pink and a sweet cutout design make it the most feminine steel tub every.

Greenery Home Decor

Threshold Artificial Plant in White Pot Medium – Ain’t nothing wrong with fake plants. Listen, I keep my kids alive everyday, the last thing I need to worry about it keeping plants a live. Plus, artifical plants are great for rooms that don’t get good natural sunlight.

Vase with Folded Rim– Perfect for bringing in some fresh blooms for the garde (or Trader Joe’s).

Opalhouse Artificial Cactus Large– I love the quirky look of cactus. This one is perfect for a bedside or side table.

Carmen Short Vase– A secondary option for fresh flowers.

Functional Home Decor

Pinewood & Marble Cheese Board– Does the word “cheese board” just make you happy? I love boards like this because they are so versatile. If you’re not a big cheese eater (maybe trying to go more vegan) they double has platters for fruit or veggies.

3R Studios Wood Tablet Holder – I think this piece is so unique. Put it in your kitchen to place your tablet so you can read recipes while you cook! Or, hang in it another room and use it to show off a book that’s important to you.

Round White Marble With Sheesham Paddle Cheese Board – Another cheese board option.

Hexagon Set of 4 Marble Coasters – Finding coasters that match your decor instead of clash can be tricky. I LOVE how chich these marble hexagon ones are.

Acacia Serving Tray – Serving trays have so many uses. Sure, you can use them to serve food, but they also work great as caddies. Place some books and a candle on one, or use it to display some fresh flowers.

Round Wood and Wire Tray– Another great tray option!

Purely Decorative

Galvanized House Lantern – These types of lanterns are great for decorating. Place a candle inside or a few green succulents.

Scalloped Pieced Bone Frame 4″x6″ – I definitely print photos less than I used to, but I like to keep some family photos around the house. This frame would look great in a gallery wall or on a nightstand.

Peri Home Fringe Pillow– How fun is this pillow! I like adding some texture with pillows and this is a great one to do that with.

Ceramic Pineapple Jar Candle – I love that this candle doubles as a decorative piece. It’d look great in a bookshelf or on a mantle.

Our Kitchen

When we moved into our house in 2015 the kitchen was “updated” but not to my personal tastes.    I wanted to redo it but we had no budget at the time.   My father in law is EXTREMELY handy and kindly helped us remove a wall between our kitchen and “dining room” which really opened up the space.    Between him, Chris, and I, there was a LOT of demo, we painted the cabinets, put in overhead lighting, and did a LOT of painting.   We outsourced for counters and the backsplash.  I would NEVER AGAIN paint cabinets.    For the amount of time and how they turned out I would pay someone if I took on a similar project in the future.

I’ll be sharing more pictures as we update our kitchen throughout this renovation project but here are some before, during, and current photos of what’s going on over here:

What are we changing?

I want to simplify the cabinets to a shaker style door and change out the hardware to brass.  Along with that we’ll be adding coordinating molding to the peninsula we built where the dining room wall previously existed.

We are relocating our fridge and some surrounding cabinets to open up the space.  Since we are adding a huge amount of eating space at the back of the house we will have room for a kitchen island!!    I’m curious from more seasoned moms – where do your older children do homework? I wasn’t sure if I should carve out space in the kitchen for my kids to do work as they get older or if they retreat to their bedrooms?   I actually can’t remember where (or if) I did homework while living under my mom’s roof.

You can see below I painted our kitchen breakfast nook as a VERY inexpensive way to brighten the space when we first moved it.  Almost 3 years later the paint is getting grimy but this space will be gutted in just a few weeks so I haven’t wanted to put more time into sprucing it up.

If you want to follow along on our home projects I’ll be sharing posts here on the blog (you can sign up for the bi-weekly newsletter so you don’t miss a post) or follow along on Instagram stories!!