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Homeowners know that improvement and redecorating projects can be financially draining. However, you can still invest in some simple home decorating projects that provide a big impact, and you won’t have to spend a fortune to complete them.

Here are some quick and easy ways to boost the look of your home while stretching your funds to the maximum.

Try Before You Buy
Adding some color to the walls is a trouble-free and inexpensive way to extend your home improvement dollar. Dutch Boy offers affordable interior paint in a variety of colors with the average price per gallon starting around $16, depending upon the retailer. To help you save even more time and money, rather than buying expensive and messy jars of test paint colors, consider turning to online sources before you launch into a painting project.

An online color visualizer provides that extra boost of confidence when pulling paint colors together by showcasing photographs of how professionals combine colors on walls, trim and accent areas in various rooms. The visualizer allows you to manipulate wall, trim and accent colors in a variety of room settings. A simple click of a mouse lets you see first-hand how any room in your home might look with one or more colors.

Freshen Up Your Décor
If your furniture is tired looking, or you need to match your new wall color with your current décor, you can lighten and brighten chairs, loveseats and couches with the creative use of decorative throw pillows. Rather than spending thousands of dollars on new pieces of furniture, you can purchase a few pillows at your local home outlet store for less than $100 and strategically place them throughout the room. For an even more dramatic look, use a luxurious pashmina shawl, wrap, or scarf as a throw. A fashionable pashmina can be the perfect finishing touch for almost any décor.

To further accent your newly refreshed room, consider adding an area rug. Unlike wall-to-wall carpet, area rugs can bring colorful designs and patterns into your room without overwhelming it. Area rugs can be well used by the frugal decorator, as they’re extremely versatile, and can serve many purposes. For example, they can start off in the living room, move to the family room or bedroom, and eventually end up in an indoor/outdoor room.

Grow a Worry-Free Garden
Fresh flowers are a great way to add life, and color, to any space. To give the interior of your home an even bigger boost, consider bringing in fresh-cut flowers from your yard and placing them in your home.

In order to stretch your home improvement dollars even further, consider planting a vegetable garden. Not only will it add dimension into your yard, but you’ll be able to harvest your own fresh vegetables for summer meals, saving you money at the grocery store. If you have the time and know-how, can your vegetables for use in the winter months. It will help you keep your food costs down throughout the entire year, especially during the holiday season when budgets can be tight.

Be a Savvy Shopper
No matter what home-oriented projects you decide to undertake, be certain to check for specials or incentives. As the economy has slowed, several major retailers are offering special discounts to lure shoppers into spending again. So take a few minutes to search the Web before heading out the door. Remember, by strategically investing money into the look of your home, both inside and out, you can be sure to increase its value and your affection for it. But you don’t need to spend a bundle to do it.

In an effort to jumpstart the struggling economy, the federal government has approved an economic stimulus package that will send rebate checks to qualifying taxpayers, some as early as May. Homeowners can use this refund to invest in home improvements that add value in a difficult housing market.

Qualifying individual taxpayers will get up to $600 in rebates, working couples $1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child. Add that to the average refund some taxpayers can expect after filing their taxes ($2,548 in 2007, according to CNNMoney.com) and that’s approximately $3,800 in total refunds from the federal government this year.

Investing these dollars in home improvements, such as replacing old leaky windows with newer, energy efficient ones, can offer homeowners a significant return on investment. Some experts believe that replacement windows are one of the best home improvement investments you can make in your home.

“Remodeling Magazine’s” 2007 Cost vs Value Report estimates that a homeowner may recoup 81 percent of the cost of installing low maintenance replacement windows at resale. That means on an $8,000 window replacement project, homeowners may recoup $6,480 at the time of sale.

In addition, new energy efficient windows can lower heating and cooling bills, improve a home’s comfort and aesthetics, and add long-lasting value.

If the cost of new windows is out of reach consider changing or adding an area rug. Area rugs are an inexpensive purchase that can change the style and mood of an entire room. An oriental rug of unique design or striking colors will immediately draw the eye and become the focal point. You can use this feature to highlight a prized piece of furniture. Come Winter you will appreciate the comforting warmness.

With a substantial savings in energy costs along with a solid return on investment from home improvement projects, buying energy efficient windows is a wise use of your rebate dollars. And, if you ever decide to sell your home, energy efficient windows can give you the edge — and often a higher resale value — over other sellers in an increasingly competitive housing market.

An area rug is one of the few home décor items that can change the style and mood of an entire room. An oriental rug of unique design or striking colors will immediately draw the eye and become the focal point. You can use this feature to highlight a prized piece of furniture like your baby grand piano or a teak coffee table and that fabulous new sofa.