If your house isn’t the beautiful dream home you always wanted and instead has become a bit of a nightmare, it might be time to put a little effort into making it gorgeous.

However, if you start haphazardly improving small aspects of your house without first coming up with a game plan, you may end up with a mismatched home that’s even worse than it was before. Worst of all, you could waste a lot of money in the process.

Your best bet is to focus your efforts on a few things that won’t cost a lot, but will make a big difference.

Paint

One of the easiest and most drastic changes you can make is changing the colors of your house, and because it’s not very expensive, this is also an area where you can experiment and have fun.

To make your house look sun-filled, paint some rooms a soft yellow, or go with a coffee-color to give it a luxurious quality. You could give each room a different feel by using a slightly different color, and you could even use sponge-painting or stencils to give your walls a designer quality.

Carpet

While carpet can be very expensive, it doesn’t have to be, and it can be a huge change for the better if your floors are starting to look dingy. If you have kids or pets but still want a beautiful house, buy a darker color to mask stains and dirt.

You could also switch to faux wood floors without it costing that much more, which look beautiful and clean easily. There are wood floors that you can even install yourself without too much difficulty, as long as you have time and a saw.

Old furniture

Sometimes it’s not the house itself that has become old and outdated, but the furniture inside. Still, purchasing all new furniture for every room can be far too expensive. Instead, revamp your old furniture using paint and some creative ideas you can find online and just purchase a few key items from Craigslist to keep the cost down.

Depending on what furniture you have laying around and what you can get cheap online, you may be able to come up with something amazing. If you have an old ladder, for example, there are directions online explaining how to turn it into a hanging laundry rack, or make it into shelving. The possibilities are endless.

Gardening

While some people love gardening, most people have difficulty finding the time and energy that it takes. However, the flora of your house can make the outside look beautiful or like a dump, if you’re not careful. If your exterior has gotten out of control, it’s time to make a change.

Either find some easy-growing plants that don’t take much effort in your climate, or change everything to be both beautiful and easy for you to maintain. People living in the southwest can switch to desert landscaping, while others might want to go with an astro-turf lawn (which sounds bad, but you’ll be surprised with how real it can look). While the initial change can be fairly expensive, this move can make your life easier, cut down on maintenance and water costs, and make your house look much more attractive from the outside.

Whatever you choose to do, it’s important to make your house look beautiful and keep it that way, because a little time and money is a small price to pay to walk into your very own dream home day after day. If you make smart decisions about your changes, it doesn’t have to cost a lot to give yourself that experience and to love where you live.

Brandon Tucker is a loan consultant, and a content contributor for companies providing cheap unsecured loans. He insists that cheap loans are still available for all types of borrowers.