Over time, your home can start to look a little rundown thanks to the wear and tear of family life. However, you don’t need to re-mortgage the house to fund a full renovation to make it sparkle again. Even small, affordable updates can breathe new life into your place, modernising it without eating into your savings.
1. Change the tapware
Out-dated, rusty faucets and taps don’t do any favours for your bathroom or your home in general. As long as you go for like-for-like tapware replacements (so there’s no plumbing alterations required), this is one of the easiest updates you can make in your home. You’ll be amazed at the difference shiny, modern tapware can make and, as it’s a fairly easy change, you can skip the cost of hiring a handyman and DIY it to save even more money.
2. Install floorboards
Timber flooring not only makes your home look more modern, it’s also much easier to keep clean compared to carpet. While solid timber floorboards can be pricey and tricky to install, laminate or floating floorboards from brands such as Quick-Step can create the same effect, but at a fraction of the cost. Best of all you can install them yourself and save even more money.
3. Switch the window treatments
Windows are an architectural feature of your home so you should dress them to impress; in doing so you’ll add appeal to your home both inside and out. Blinds are a much more cost-effective option than curtains and come in a range of textiles including blockout (great for bedrooms), sheer (so you can look out, but at night others can’t see in) and light filtering (to allow light through but no direct vision, giving you a bright room as well as privacy).
4. Unleash the power of paint
Low-cost and high impact – that should be paint’s motto. Whether inside or out, a coat of paint will instantly freshen your home and is a task that can easily be done in a weekend. Before you get stuck into it, it’s always best to buy a sample pot and paint a few brush strokes on a number of walls in the house. That way you can get an idea of the finished result in different light and angles, before forking over your hard-earned dollars and investing hours of your time only to find it’s not quite right. Depending on the size of the area you want to paint, you can usually buy all the supplies you need for under $1000.
5. Re-do your lighting
The right light creates ambiance in a room, making it appear warm and inviting. For a fast fix, trade in old-fashioned fixtures for energy-efficient bulbs and then update your lampshades with newer ones. For a more involved makeover, go room to room and consider which spaces could do with pendant lighting, or a statement chandelier, or benefit from scattered downlights. Cost for new light fixtures varies greatly, depending on how expensive your taste is, and if you need rewiring done you can expect to pay around $75 per hour for an electrician.
Brought to you by Quick-Step
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