Apartment Living Room Ideas on a Budget

Apartment Living Room Ideas on a Budget with Hilldale Shopping Center.

A few weekends ago, my boyfriend and I went shopping at Hilldale Madison to look for some new decor to refresh our living space. And let me tell you, we came home with some awesome finds! I shared a reel on Instagram of us styling all the pieces in our space, if you want to take a look here to see the finished result!

But I swear, every time spring rolls around, I get this urge to re-decorate and spice up our entire apartment. The warmer spring weather always puts me in a cleaning, organizing and decorating kind of mood LOL! Does anyone else feel this way!?

Plus, the decor each season keeps getting better and better, so it’s hard not to want to re-decorate! So, if you’re like me and LOVE decorating your home, but don’t have a huge budget to spend on new decor, I’m going to be sharing a few budget-friendly ideas on how you can refresh your living area for spring with Hilldale Madison!

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Apartment Living Room Ideas on a Budget

Fill Your Space with Indoor Plants

If you’re local to Madison, WI, Wildewood is the best place to find high quality and unique houseplants along with cute vessels for them to grow in! I always look forward to stopping in here because all the plants make me so happy! There are tons and tons of houseplants to choose from, vessels, books and home goods. If you’re someone that loves plants, you are going to love Wildewood!

We came home with a Philodendron Birkin because we were told these are great houseplants for beginners! We wanted something fairly easy to take care of that didn’t require much work, and this one is perfect. I water it once a week, make sure it gets a medium amount of sunlight and that’s it! It’s the perfect addition to our living room.

Side table | Marble Coasters | Plant

If you need help finding the perfect plant for your space, Wildewood’s associates are very knowledgeable and can definitely assist you!

Add a Pop of Color with new Throw Pillows

Adding in new decorative throw pillows is an easy and inexpensive way to give your living room an entirely different feel. You can make your space more cozy, modern, boho or traditional, just by switching up the colors, textures and patterns of your pillows. It’s actually pretty crazy how big of a difference throw pillows make!

Plus if you’re living room is primarily neutral tones, pillows give you an easy way to experiment with color, without buying new furniture or re-painting your walls.

We bought our pillows from Macy’s at Hilldale and they had such a large selection. There were tons of different prints to choose from and honestly we loved them all so we had a hard time deciding on what we wanted! We ended up going with this striped navy and white 20×20 pillow and an oblong linear dotted pillow. Both were on sale, so we ended up paying less than $40 for both.

When shopping at Macy’s, always look for the sales! If something isn’t on sale right now, check back in a few days. They’re constantly running deals and specials on different items.

Add a Fresh Scent to your Home with Candles

To me, candles are the finishing touch. I’m a huge scent person, so I love having a good-smelling home at all times! One of our favorite places to buy candles is Anthropologie – they have THE most beautiful glass and ceramic vessels and of course everything smells so good.

While we were at Hilldale, we picked up Voluspa’s Casa Pacifica candle and oh my gosh.. this is my new favorite! It has notes of California driftwood, sea salt and shore brush and reminds me of the ocean. It’s the perfect candle to burn in the spring and summertime!

We also love the Capri Blue’s signature Volcano scented candles. They’re fresh and fruity and fill the entire room! The 19 oz candles have up to an 85 hour burn time so they’ll last you a long time.

Hang New Artwork or Picture Frames

If you have some empty wall space in your living room, try adding some new wall decor! Last fall, we hung two large vertical canvases above our couch and they made a world of a difference. Our living room finally feels complete now! We ordered ours from Canvaspop, (that’s where most of the canvases in our apartment are from) and they are such great quality. You can turn your favorite photos into framed prints or canvases to create a focal point or even a gallery wall in your living room!

Another idea, for those of you on a small budget who love a good DIY project – buy a few large canvases from your local craft store and create your own artwork to hang!

Refresh Your Coffee Table

I switch up our coffee table decor every season! It’s a great way to make your living room feel refreshed and new, without doing anything major. I have a few different decorative trays that I like to swap out, coffee table books that I have on rotation, candles, plants and coasters that I mix and max to create a new look each season.

We actually just picked up a new set of round wood and marble coasters while we were at Macy’s. I love the look of these! They’re simple and modern and totally elevate the entire look of our table.

Transform your Space with a Large Area Rug

If you really want to give your living room a refresh, add a new area rug to your space. We recently swapped out our old living room rug for a pet-friendly, spill proof rug and we love it! For one, it makes cleaning up spills/accidents SO easy and two, it makes our space feel so cozy and home-y!

We have light grey flooring covering our entryway, kitchen and living room, so the rug creates some separation between the spaces and adds warmth to the room. They seriously make such a big difference!

If you have kids or pets, going with a machine washable, liquid proof rug is definitely the way to go. It’s a huge stress reliever and will make your life so much easier when it comes to cleaning.

Experiment with Removable Wallpaper

So we haven’t done this yet, but I’ve been wanting to add removable, peel and stick wallpaper to create an accent wall in our living room! I’ve heard that Wall Blush and Love vs. Design have really great renter-friendly wallpaper options, so we might try one of these. They have so many different styles and prints to choose from!

If you live in an apartment or are just looking for an easy, DIY way to spice up your wall space, peel and stick wallpaper could be a great idea!

Upgrade your Old Furniture

Now I get that this isn’t the most “budget-friendly” option, but, if you’re in need of some new furniture pieces for your home, Lovesac will be opening this month at Hilldale! I am SO excited. I’ve been counting down the days until they open!

For those of you who haven’t heard of Lovesac before, they create the most comfy, customizable and adaptable furniture. They have a designed for life philosophy, so everything is built to last and made to evolve. So, as your family grows or you move homes, your furniture will grow with you. You’re able to add on, remove and reconfigure the couches to fit your lifestyle. There’s over 200 couch covers to choose from and they’re machine washable, so it’s easy to clean or update your couch. It’s so cool!

I’ve been wanting a Sactional (a Lovesac sectional) for the longest time, so I cannot wait to stop in the store once it opens this spring!

More Apartment-Friendly Spring Refresh Ideas

Now I know this is a living room refresh post, but if you live in an apartment like we do and your kitchen or dining area is connected to your living room, I wanted to share a few easy and affordable ways you can refresh your counter space.

We just bought these rattan placemats from Sur La Table and I think they totally add a personal touch to the counter! I can’t believe we didn’t buy them sooner. This is a great way to make your home feel more put-together and styled, without spending a lot of money!

Apartment living room ideas on a budget

I also recommend buying a new set of hand towels that you can set out. It’s something so simple, but can make your space feel cleaner and refreshed. While we were shopping at Sur La Table, we picked up these grey striped kitchen towels!

Make sure you keep your space clean and decluttered

I’m going to leave you with one last tip! For those of you living in a smaller space, keep your counters, end tables, coffee table and console table clean and decluttered. This doesn’t cost you any money, and can make your apartment feel new and refreshed!

You can buy file folders or boxes to organize papers. Add a small bin to your counter to throw keys, mail, hand sanitizer, etc. If you need more storage space, add one or two storage ottomans to your living room to store extra blankets and pillows so your room doesn’t look cluttered.

There are so many different ways you can decorate and re-arrange your space to make it feel brand new! Let me know in the comments below how you plan to refresh your space for spring!