Together home renovations can add value to your home, but there are ways to improve your home without going into debt or destroying your savings. Painting, grouting tiles, and pressure washing your home’s exterior won’t cost much, but these do-it-yourself upgrades can add real value to your home.
With a certain sweat fairness, a do-it-yourself attitude and a few dollars, you can list your home for more cash if you’re ready to sell. And if you’re not quite ready to put your home on the market, you can enjoy a nicer place to live. Here are some low-cost, high-value home improvement projects to consider.
Key points to remember
- Typically, kitchens are the most expensive room in a home to remodel, according to the Houzz & Home Renovation Trends Study for 2021 and 2022.
- The study found that master bathrooms are the second most expensive room in a home to remodel.
- Experts recommend limiting do-it-yourself home renovations to cosmetic upgrades, such as painting, landscaping, and replacing appliances.
Seven Simple Interior Updates
1. Refresh the walls
If your walls have scratches and dirty paint, an outdated color or faded wallpaper, a little elbow grease and a few cans of paint can make a dramatic difference. To maximize your home’s value for a sale, choose a neutral color scheme that unifies the entire home, makes the space more visible, and appeals to a wide variety of potential buyers.
2. Install crown molding
Installing crown molding is a surprisingly easy task that can add character to your rooms. Buy molding from a home improvement store, cut it to size to fit your room (or have the store cut it for you), and attach it to the top of the wall with a nail gun. These decorative strips can even be already painted. Installing crown molding involves a bit of carpentry skill as well as the right tools, but it’s very inexpensive to do it yourself.
3. Update devices
Switch plates, outlet covers, curtain rods, light fixtures and doorknobs are often boring or neglected, but you can add pizzazz for just a few dollars. Attractive metal switch plates and outlet covers can cost as little as $5 each, but seem much more expensive. Light fixtures and decorative curtain rods can be a bit more expensive, but sometimes you can make an inexpensive light fixture look stylish with a spray paint can. Again, if you plan to sell, be sure to choose items with colors and finishes that will appeal to a wide audience.
4. Install ceiling fans
Everyone loves saving money on electric bills, which makes ceiling fans an attractive addition to any home. Ceiling fans reduce air conditioning costs and can also reduce heating costs by circulating warm air away from the ceiling. A main fan costs around $50, and you can get a nice one for no more than a few hundred dollars. If you don’t already have the wiring for the overhead lighting, you may need to hire a professional, which can add significantly to the cost of this project.
5. Upgrade Window Treatments
Cheap plastic vertical blinds, paper blinds or aluminum horizontal blinds that may come with your home do not add value to your home. Consider replacing them with plantation shutters, wooden blinds or curtains. Again, if you’re selling, choose neutral options that can help you get a better price for your home.
6. Reveal and restore hardwood floors
Older homes, in particular, are likely to have hardwood floors hidden under carpeting. Creaky floors are a sign that you may have wood floors. If you’re not sure, pull your mat into an unnoticeable corner and check. If you have wood floors, chances are you’ll need to refinish them back to their original glory, but it’ll cost a lot less than installing a new floor from scratch.
7. Clean the fireplace brick
If you have a brick fireplace and you burn wood in it, chances are that some of the brick is stained with soot and creosote. Because a beautiful fireplace can be a big selling point in a home, make yours as attractive as possible. Use a damp cloth to wipe away some of the soot, then use a chimney cleaner designed to remove creosote. It will take a bit of scrubbing with a stiff brush and maybe several applications, but you’ll have this brick looking amazing when you’re done.
Basic bathroom upgrades
1. Redo the bathroom floor
DIY installation can save you a lot of money. If you don’t know how to install flooring, look for a course at your local home improvement store. Saving money on labor will allow you to choose better-looking flooring than you could otherwise afford. Opt for a neutral colored tile to add the most value.
2. Update Encounters
If you have generic, cheap, or outdated fixtures, replacing them with newer, more custom versions can make your bathroom shine and make it look more upscale. For around $40 to $100, you can replace a shabby vanity or ceiling light with something sleek. A similar cash outlay will get you a new sink faucet. A spa-style chrome showerhead adds a touch of luxury for around $80. Towel racks are a cheap and easy solution at around $20 to $30. sometimes an upgrade may be more energy efficientnot only increasing the aesthetics of your home, but also “greening” it.
Quick fixes to keep the kitchen up to date
1. Paint or stain kitchen cabinets
You can buy all new cabinets and save money by buying pre-made (rather than custom) cabinets and installing them yourself, but that’s more work and money than painting or staining your existing cabinets. . White cabinets will brighten up a kitchen, usually won’t go out of style, and will be easy for a future homeowner to repaint if they want something different. You will need to remove all hardware from your cabinets, including the doors. You’ll also want to clean the cabinets first, so dirt and greasy residue doesn’t ruin your work. Also think about sprucing up your bathroom cabinets.
2. Upgrade cabinet knobs and drawer pulls
It’s surprising how a seemingly innocuous item like a cabinet door handle can make your kitchen look cheap or dated. Updating this hardware can give your kitchen a facelift, whether you’re redoing your cabinets or not.
Seven Ways to Save Money When Cooling the Outdoors
It can be easy for you to ignore the exterior of your home when you spend most of your time indoors, but that’s the first and sometimes only impression others have of your home. Here are some easy ways to make it look its best.
1. Install a new front door
A basic steel front door costs around $100, but for an additional $100 to $200 you can get a door with a lot more character and improve your home’s curb appeal. If you can’t afford a new door, a fresh coat of paint in an attractive color may suffice.
2. Replace the front doormat
When you’ve had the same doormat for years, it can be easy to forget how worn or dirty it is. Since it’s one of the first impressions people have of your home, it’s a place where $20 can make a big difference.
3. Clean the gutters
This task is more about maintaining the value of your home than increasing it, but it is essential. Without properly functioning gutters designed to drain water away from your home, rain can seep inside or collect around the foundation, causing problems like mold and mildew. Eventually, water damage can compromise the structural integrity of the home, resulting in expensive repair bills.
4. Pressure wash the exterior of your home
For less time and money, a good pressure washing can make your home’s exterior look almost as good as a fresh coat of paint.
5. Repaint the exterior
If washing the exterior of your home hasn’t brightened it up as much as you’d hoped, consider a new paint job. With the ladders and heights involved, it might not be a DIY task for everyone, but even if you have to hire other people to do this job, it’s still pretty inexpensive as far as the home improvements and can make your home look like new. outside.
6. Pressure wash driveway, walkways and patio
As long as you rent the pressure washer, you can clean your driveway, patio, and all driveways just as well. You may be surprised at how brand new they will look afterwards.
7. Improve landscaping or clean up existing landscaping
Flowers and other plants are a great way to brighten up the exterior of your home. Use greenery in front of your house and/or along walkways to draw attention to your home. To get the most out of it, choose perennials, which come back year after year, rather than annuals, which, as the name suggests, last a year or less. Patch any bald spots in the yard with fresh sod (or plant grass seed if you have time) and trim existing trees and bushes to complete the new yard look.
The essential
Upgrading your home doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated, and it doesn’t have to involve contractors. A variety of projects for all price ranges and skill and enthusiasm levels can improve the value of your home, whether for future buyers or, perhaps more importantly, for you. Implementing a few of these home improvement ideas will help you make the most of one of your most important assets, whether you plan to stay or sell. And before a DIY project can even be considered, you need to make sure that any new additions or changes will still fit the overall aesthetic of the home, whether the best home design software can help you.