There are few things I love even more than renting versus owing. One is paint! After nine months in my newest sweet home, I craved to enhance its walls with fuchsia and teal highlights.

For best results, I had two options: (a) buy enough paint for every inch of wall, or (b) buy just enough for highlights.

For option (a), I could choose my preferred accent colours, and then a complementary base to go on all the remaining space. Across even a 450 sq foot suite, paint sufficient for all walls adds up, though! It becomes not only financially expensive, but also costly in terms of time that I could be using to generate income, learn about investing, and so on. (We have so many techniques for distracting ourselves!)

Option (b) would involve matching a paint chip to my current wall colour (a beige), then finding accent colours to complement that. Perhaps this is a “raspberry” or “magenta” rather than fuchsia, and turquoise or aqua rather than teal. A slight variation, with massive savings. For a few dollars, I achieve the effect that I want without the financial devastation. I immerse myself in the ambiance that gives me joy, while returning my attention to building wealth. Win win!

The image above comes not from my own home (I haven’t started my accent project yet) but rather from the following blog, in a post which just so happens to mention a few other relatively frugal ways to create beauty: https://decorationideas.wordpress.com/tag/summer-decor-ideas/

What is your quick, simple, and cheap way to make your surroundings more beautiful?