Home Décor Ideas: Decorating on a budget with Anna Reidinger

Elegant and serene, the home of Anna Reidinger cracks the code on chic, affordable interiors. This savvy fashion buyer proves that you can decorate with grand style on a small budget.

1. Favourite tips for decorating on a budget?

The elegantly minimal home of @anna_balboa_ presents like a playbook on decorating with confidence regardless of budget. This talented fashion buyer's well-honed eye has transformed her minimalist flat into a Scandi sanctuary with affordable finds.

"Try to think outside the box, even if you’re looking for something particular," shares Anna Reidinger. "I often get inspiration from Pinterest or Instagram and create my versions of what I like."

One of Anna's favourite tips is to reference a pricer piece and reinvent it by sourcing from TK Maxx, Amazon and sample sales and repurposing what she has at home.

2. How to find a fresh way of thinking about decorating?

"Try to step out of your comfort zone a little bit here and there," enthuses Anna about the process of rethinking your home's decor. "Create a mood board if you are struggling to visualise your ideas - putting colours, fabrics, swatches an inspiration photos next to each other can show you what will work and what might look off."

3. What are the best budget-friendly decorating tools?

"I think a splash of colour is always an excellent way to start, especially if (like me) you’re terrified of colour! This can be a painted wall, a colourful piece of furniture, or even just some bedding in a colour you wouldn’t usually go for - and then you can work your way up and experiment more.
Velvet also introduces an exciting structure to a room as long as it’s not overused. As for me, I’ve seen a lot of people do panelling work online over the last year, and I would love to try that myself one day."

4. What inspires your home style?

"In general, I try to keep it minimal and clean. I love trying to mix Scandi style with mid-century modern features. I also love decorating our flat with pieces that mean something to us; all the artwork we have up at the moment has a significance. From the two hand-painted watercolour portraits of our cats to Stuart’s grandma’s embroidery piece that we’ve had reframed to fit into a modern home, everything has a story behind it."

5. What elements make a home feel more personal?

"I’m not an interior whizz, but I like to have a focal point in the room and style.," shares Anna who moved into her flat in 2019 with her fiancee Stuart. "I concentrate on that critical piece and think about what other elements and colours would work around that."
In Anna's case, the main piece was our streamlined Clara sofa which looks incredible in olive green velvet.
"Green is my favourite colour, and I find it quite calming and exciting, so I somehow wanted to represent it. So when it came to getting the rest of the furniture, I always had the sofa as the main feature in mind, thinking about what would compliment it but not take the attention away."

6. How to keep re-inventing your interior?

Even with her confidence, Anna sometimes needs to rethink her own surroundings and always takes an open-minded approach. "I’ve always been hesitant to use many colours, but I’ve started following people online whose homes are pure colour explosions. Although that would be too extreme for me, I still find inspiration in those different approaches. I think one of the most blow-my-mind experiences was seeing @thehousethatcolourbuilt's pink/yellow living room."