Simple Tricks To Remodel Your Home WITHOUT Breaking Your Budget
Living in the same old boring home can get stale after awhile. But not everyone has the budget to move, or even the money or time to take on an ambitious remodelling project. So what can you do? Have no fear, here are some great ideas to remodel your home for cheap, and make it feel brand new.
- Rearrange Your Furniture
One of the simplest yet most effective things you can do is rearrange your furniture. It might sound simple enough, but changing the flow of a room can really make a huge difference in your perception.
The easiest way to start is to come up with a floor plan to experiment with ideas before you start the heavy lifting. There are plenty of room arrangement programs available online, or you can simply use a piece of paper to represent your space, and smaller pieces to represent each piece of furniture. Make sure everything is to scale though!
Choose what you want the focal point of your room to be, whether it is the tv, a window, or a fireplace. Then arrange your seating spaces around your focal point. Then make sure there are accessible flat surfaces for each seat, such as coffee tables or end tables. Finally, decide where you want accents such as flower pots or table decorations. Have fun with it! Try many different arrangements on paper, such as a large flow area or a cozy nook area centered around your focal point.
- Change Up Your Boring Walls
This is another simple yet powerful change you can do to really make your living spaces pop.
Try some new wallpaper or a new coat of paint. One trendy trick is to choose one “accent wall” to paint a bold color, such as red or a bright blue. Even better, choose an accent color that is featured in your throw pillows, to bring the room together. The accent wall works great to draw attention to wherever the focal point is in your room.
Another easy yet elegant change is the plate covers for your switches and electric outlets. They can be found for cheap, and in a wide variety of colors and styles. This is another great place to choose a matching accent color from your household accessories (such as throw pillows or flower vases). They are simple to replace on your own, no electrical knowledge needed, just a handy screwdriver!
A third idea is just like rearranging furniture, try rearranging your picture frames. You can replace your boring old frames with some new ones, in a wide variety of colors and styles. Or choose a new arrangement, try grouping them into a pattern or spacing them out differently. Add some mirrors to your walls. This not only adds more eye-catching decorations, it can also make rooms appear bigger!
- Embellish Your Entryways
Entryways such as doors and windows are major focal points for rooms and transition you from one place to another. They can be changed up to make not only the inside of your home look brand new, but the outside as well.
One dramatic change is to switch out your doors. These can be bought at any home improvement store or building surplus store. Choose a new color or a new style. You can even have opaque windows in interior doors for a unique, fun look! This is another fairly simple task, just make sure to measure the new door to fit the opening, and replace both the door and the jamb. Alternatively, you can just switch out the door handles for a new set.
Window treatments are another cost effective change you can make to your living spaces. Change out your curtains to a bold color, add a valance, or even switch out your curtains for some festive shutters, the possibilities are endless. Again make sure to measure the size of the windows before you purchase new window treatments to ensure a good fit.
- All The Small Things
Want to make your kitchen look brand new, but don’t want to bust your budget? The little embellishments around your home can go a long way to making things feel fresh again.
Start with changing out your cabinet doors, or even just the pulls and knobs themselves. A fresh coat of paint or even new cabinet doors can be done in a few hours, and make a huge difference in the look of your kitchen. Replace the door pulls on cabinets or drawers in kitchens, on cabinets, or even ones in your living room and bedroom drawers. There are a vast variety of styles to choose from, and many can be had for a fraction of the cost of completely replacing cabinets and furniture.
- Make A Splash!
Similar to changing out the embellishments on your cabinets, a small change that goes a long way is to switch out your faucets in the kitchen and bathrooms. This project is a little more ambitious, but it can be done in a day if you are handy with a wrench (just be sure to shut off the water supply first!) A new faucet can make your kitchen look sleek and modern, and a new showerhead can make every day feel like a day at the spa.
- The Sky’s The Limit
An often overlooked element that can make a dramatic change to your home’s looks is the ceiling. There are a variety of options for sprucing up this often neglected area to transform your room.
Much like painting an accent wall, using an accent color on your ceiling can add a splash of color and liven up your home. Choose a bold color such as red or dark blue to create a more intimate atmosphere, or a bright color such as yellow to open up the room.
Another option is to add crown molding. This helps to give your room definition and create an elegant look for a fraction of cost. There is a vast variety of options, styles, and colors to choose from at your local home repair store. You can also use molding to section off areas of your ceiling in a pattern for another dramatic effect.
If you want to go a little more ambitious, installing new light fixtures is a great DIY project. Add a chandelier in an unexpected room. Replace your boring old ceiling fan with a more modern look. Or even install a dimmer switch to set the mood for a room. Just make sure to shut off the electricity to the room before you start!
- Under Your Feet
Just like redecorating your ceiling, changing out your flooring is a small but dramatic change you can do yourself. Adding new area rugs is an inexpensive simple option for any room. There are even peel and stick vinyl tiles you can get at any home improvement store for pennies, that are easy to install and come in a wide variety of colors and styles. Be sure to measure the square feet of your kitchen, and trim the tiles to fit around cabinets and fixtures.
- Make The Old New Again
Getting tired of your old furniture, but don’t want to spend thousands? Slipcovers and throw pillows can be used instead! For throw pillows, choose something with an accent color featured in other areas of the room, such as flower vases or area rugs, in order to tie the room together. Slipcovers are a cheap but easy option if you want to cover an old or stained couch, and if you’re handy with a sewing machine it can make a fun DIY project. You can also purchase them from any furniture store, and they come in many different materials, sizes, and styles. Elastic linings within make them fit to your furniture as if it was part of it.
As you can see, it doesn’t take hiring an interior designer or spending thousands in new furniture to make dramatic, elegant changes to every room in your house. Even the smallest modifications can make a boring every day room into something new and modern. Experiment and have fun!
