I’m the type of person who likes to change the decor in my home to reflect the seasons. Three or four months of the same look gets too boring and uninspiring. Between family meals and enthralling, I employ a lot of time in my kitchen, so this room gets priority attention for seasonal updates. But that doesn’t mean I spend a lot of money on creating the new look. Often times, it costs me around $50 to $100, but the minor changes originate a big disagreement.

One quick way to update the look of any room for under $100 is to give the walls a unique paint color or wallpaper design. You can also add borders or stencil designs to your novel walls as an alternative to redoing the entire walls . In my home kitchen, the bottom half of the walls are medium-size tiles, so it would be too expensive to remove them. Instead, I focus on the top half of the wall and change the paint color. I also add an accent color to my cabinets and sometimes change the outside facing cabinet hardware to another style. The two gallons of paint, along with cabinet knobs, total about $93. Sometimes the cost is less if I shop paint sales, or a bit more if I throw in a new paintbrush, roller, or other tools.

The work takes just about a day, including shopping for my supplies. Rather than the mega home improvement stores, I like to buy my paint and fixtures from a local hardware store in my area. The prices and selection are about the same as the bigger stores, but I get great one-on-one service, with valuable tips, ideas and advice.

At other times of the year, I might also update some other areas of the kitchen, such as lighting and window coverings. With lighting, I have just one ceiling fan with four lights in the center of the kitchen, so my options are limited. Depending on how long I’ve had the light fixture, I might change the entire unit. But often times, I might just paint the wood fan panels to go with my new wall or accent color.

But there are other inexpensive kitchen lighting alternatives available, especially if you have one fluorescent light fixture in the center of the kitchen. For instance, you can change the bulb to a full spectrum one and use a light covering/shade, or add accent lighting using wall clips or a lighting strip in areas where you perform the most cooking tasks. Accent lighting also works well over cabinets to create soft ambience. The key is to think of your lighting not only in terms of its purpose, but also its decorative values.

Updating window coverings offers the most creativity and design. For the two windows in my kitchen, I currently have mini blinds that I purchased for $20 in a bargain basement outlet, but I often switch them to vertical blinds, wood blinds, curtains, pleated shades, wood shutters, or a combination of shade and top swag. In order to buy window coverings and conclude under a $100 budget, shop the sales in your local discount stores or check out the various online merchants that sell wholesale to the public. If you’re a wonderful sewer, you can make curtains, swags, or a cloth shade from any type of material. This option offers a multitude of prints, patterns and textures and really sparks up a room.

Here are other ways to update your kitchen for under $100:

* Add some additional color accents to your kitchen, whether it’s a wreath for a wall, some cooking-related knick knacks for shelves, or a new tablecloth.

* Change your sink faucet to a new design.

perform Replace your table and/or chairs. A broad place to find unique offerings and grand buys are antique shops or second hand stores. A friend of mine actually found a 1950s diner-style table and four matching chairs for $100 (the recent price was $135, but she was able to negotiate a price break).

shatter If you have display shelves in your kitchen, paint them or accessorize them.

* Accent the walls with artwork. This can be done inexpensively by using your photos. Some ideas could include enlarging a particularly nice picture, making a collage of your children’s art work, or creating a shadow box of collectible items, such as salt and pepper shakers, wine corks, a restaurant menu from a memorable dining experience, or whatever your interest may be.