Affordable Home Décor Tips from Designer Sarah Shams

The fifteen lakhs were used to fix the three toilets, kitchen, all the flooring, ACs, electrical, carpentry, etc. And since this rented space was going to be a temporary home for her family of four (including her husband and two pets), Sarah decided not to spend more than five lakhs on furnishing it. “I have made so many trips to Ikea. It’s my favourite place,” laughs Sarah. 

While it made practical sense to design the space economically, it wasn’t an easy transition for the designer. “Professionally I will not take on a residential project under 90 lakhs, and I was supposed to furnish my own house in five lakhs. So it was a huge contrast and a big challenge.” That’s where brands like Ikea and Urban Ladder came in. Or using laminate instead of veneers. “To a client I would say you should always have veneer doors, it looks so much richer. It was very difficult to convince myself of the smaller spend, but laminates worked out well,” she adds. 

We got the designer to share details of how she gave a big upgrade to her rental apartment on a small budget, so that you can incorporate these simple ideas in your own home makeover:

Affordable art: “Art tends to have a very unaffordable perception to it, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” says Sarah. She found a photographer on Instagram who takes photos of buildings in Mumbai and Sarah bought six of his prints for her study.

Mood lighting: Conversations and time flow more easily when you don’t have jarring beams of light bouncing off your walls. While you can create mood lighting in various ways, Sarah chose uplighting. She added lamps which direct the beam of light upwards, to her many planters around the living room to set a moodier scene in the evenings.

Check out this article to find some affordable interior design tips.

Watch the full video above for more of these tips and ideas!

In the first part of the story, we took a tour of Sarah Sham’s home and got details of her rental home makeover on a budget. You can read about it and watch the video tour here