Quick and cheap living room ideas: 10 updates you can do in a weekend

Looking for some quick (and cheap) living room ideas? Whether you need to quickly revamp your living room for last minute guests or if you are just bored of your current surroundings and want some easy changes, check out these super speedy design tips that can transform your living room in just a few hours…

For more advice and inspiration, find out how to plan a living room in our guide.

1. Change your living room layout 

Reconfiguring your living room layout can make it look and feel completely different. If you really can’t face moving the sofa from its prime TV watching position, try arranging your armchairs to create a reading corner or shop the rest of your home for a side table and create a small home office. 

Working with a small living room? Maybe you are more limited to where you can move your furniture but try scooting it slightly away from the walls to give furniture more breathing room, you would be surprised by how much this can open up a small space. 

2. The quickest way to update your living room? Switch up the cushions 

Ah, cushions: the most versatile of soft furnishings, and perfect as quick and cheap living room ideas. They have an incredible ability to completely change a room, even if all you have done is add a few new scatter cushions to your collection. Available in so many different sizes, shapes, colours and textures, they could be all your living room needs to feel refreshed. 

3. Update your living room with a gallery wall

We’ve said it before and we will happily say it again – adding a gallery wall is a great way to quickly and cheaply update a living room, fill a blank space and give a room much needed personality. Use photos, record covers, prints – you could even frame fabric cut-offs or spare bits of wallpaper. One of our fave places to source prints is Desenio, plus they have a feature that allows you to arrange your prints in a gallery wall so you can see what it looks like before you buy. 

Check out out guide to how to display collections for more inspiration. 

4. Add plenty of greenery with house plants

House plants are a great way to quickly add colour and shape to a living room. Invest in a couple of larger plants to dot around the edges of your room and add smaller plants like succulents and cacti to shelves and mantelpieces. 

Not exactly what they green fingered? Don’t worry we have everything you need to know about keeping plants alive in our guide to looking after house plants. And find our house plant display ideas to get inspired.

5. For a quick living room update, paint your furniture 

For all you DIY phobes out there don’t worry, anyone with a paintbrush and a positive mindset can gets to grips with updating old furniture: the best of quick and cheap living room ideas, if you ask us. Have a look round your house and scout out the pieces that are looking a bit worse for wear, see if they could potentially find new life in your living room. Then put that neglected furniture to good use by giving it a lick of paint – if you are unsure where to start we suggest with our guide to painting furniture and check out our pick of the best furniture paint too. 

For those of you who really don’t trust yourself with a paint pot, try giving your sofa a new look instead by recovering it with a throw. 

6. Paint the floor of your living room 

Okay so maybe this isn’t a five minute job, but it’s still a pretty quick and cheap living room idea. Painting floorboards is an easy weekend project that won’t cost you too much and can completely change the look of your space. If you are brave enough we love love love the black floorboards in this living room and they are so on trend at the moment.  

For tips an inspiration, head over to our guide to how to paint floorboards.

7. Add an instant wall mural for a quick and cheap living room idea

A quick and cheap living room idea is to incorporate a wall mural. This needn’t mean spending ages pasting one to your wall or painting one yourself, you will find loads of  large scale prints you can just hang up in minutes. Plus wall murals are great if you are decorating a rented home since they aren’t as permanent as wallpaper or paint. 

For more wall mural ideas, check out our feature, and you can find loads more grey living rooms like this one in our design gallery too. 

8. Give your living room a fresh coat of paint

We know it’s an obvious one, but never under-estimate the transformative powers of paint. Painting a feature wall may be interior design 101 but there is a reason they are so popular, cheap, quick and easy, you can’t really go wrong. Since you are only painting one wall too, you can afford to invest in a colour and a brand you really love. For us that’s got to be Farrow and Ball , there are very few of their colours we wouldn’t love to paint our living rooms in so go and be inspired by our pick of the best Farrow & Ball paint colours. 

9. Update a living room with handy (but lovely) storage 

Practical storage may not be the most exciting quick and cheap living room idea, but containing your clutter and using your storage to add personality can really transform a space. If you don’t already have the perfect living room storage, check out our ideas buuut if you do have some kind of book shelf or open shelving use these to update your living room. Regularly switch out what you keep on them, add art work, photos, plants, books and magazines to create a new focus to your living room.

10. Invest in a new living room rug 

At a fraction of the price of a new sofa, a new living room rug can have just as much of an impact. For a very on trend look, layer up a couple of rugs, a large jute rug  looks great peeking out from underneath one or two patterned rugs. 

If you really are on a budget, instead of buying new, shop the other rooms in your house. Could you swap your bedroom rug with your current living room one to give both rooms a bit of a revamp? 

Looking for more living room inspiration?