Personalize Your Furniture

When times are tough, people cut corners wherever they can, but as Kahi Lee from HGTV's Design on a Dime says, you can still personalize your furniture without breaking the bank. "For me, going into somebody's house and seeing a piece of furniture that is identical to something I have in my house is kind of like going to the party in your fabulous outfit and seeing somebody else there in the same outfit," Kahi explains. "You want to own your look, and the same thing applies to your furniture."

Kahi demonstrates three cheap and cheeful ways to spice up your furniture and home:

Starting with a plain white dresser from Ikea, Kahi decorates the drawers with mirrored acrylic. "It's inexpensive and it's easier to work with than glass," she says. "It won't shatter." After cutting the acrylic mirror to fit our dresser drawers(the store will cut it for you if you like), attach them to the doors using mirror adhesive. "I learned the hard way that if you use any other adhesive it will eat through the mirrored backing and the you'll have the fun house effect!" Kahi shares. She finishes up the dresser by spray painting it silver and adding fabric trim around the edges of the mirror with a hot glue gun.

Kahi says to look at a plain cabinet as a blank canvas upon which you can add your own special touch. To spice up the hutch, Kahi uses inexpensive molding pieces that can be glues straight on to the glass. (Ask your hardware store which adhesive type to use.) Then you can paint the hutch any color you like.

Kahi suggests that you can even spruce up your windows in a way that gives you privacy but in a fun way. Take window film, which is like contact paper, and customize it with paint pens -- create your own design or use stencils. Plus, the film is removable so you can change them up depending on the season.