Affordable ideas to improve your home

Every so often, it’s nice to be able to undertake refurbishments in your home just to brighten it up a little and improve the appearance. Of course, renovation and redecoration can be expensive, and if you want to tackle your entire home, the costs will quickly add up. What you need are a few clever ideas to help you tackle a refurbishment project that won’t cost the earth, so try these top tips for affordable ways you can improve your home.

Increasing storage

This is a great place to start. By improving and increasing the storage in your home, you automatically create a way to declutter, keeping your home tidy and making it look more spacious. Even in a small apartment, there are ways to create storage by fitting shelving above doors and windows, for example, or putting a closet organizer into your existing wardrobe space to make it more effective.

You can display small, attractive items on a shelf above a door or window. An organizer frame, complete with rails for hanging clothes and wire baskets for everything else, is relatively inexpensive to buy. For your kitchen cabinets,a roll out is a great way to increase storage. It also means you can easily reach all those things that tend to get stuck at the back or out of sight.

Windows and doors

Improving the amount of natural daylight in your home will make it look more spacious. Internal doors with glass panes will let the light through to darker corners, and this is a project you can undertake gradually, one door at a time, to lower the financial impact. This also means you can change your door furniture, one door at a time, to update your rooms.

Freshen up your windows by replacing drapes and blinds with affordable shutters. These will let in the light when and where you want it, and the movable slats are adjustable so you can control each room independently. Some lovely styles are available, and they are suitable for any window, even those that are an awkward shape. If your shelf above the window is the same color as the shutters you choose, they will really open up the window spaces and make them look elegant and stylish, no matter what type of home you have. 

Bathrooms 

You might think that your only option in a bathroom is installing a completely new suite.However, if your existing ceramics are fine, turn your attention to smaller-scale improvements. You might fit a new shower screen, for example, or replace hardware such as faucets and shower heads. If you have sufficient space,turn your washbasin into a cute little vanity unit by re purposing an unwanted bedside table to remove the top and the back. Small, cheap changes can give your bathroom a whole new look.

Flooring

Replacing a floor can be a big job that isn’t cheap.However, you might have seen a lot of homes where affordable plywood floors have been installed recently. These have become very popular and are easy to lay. You can paint them if you wish, or you can use a stain and varnish them to make them shine. If you love the effect, buy extra wood for other projects, including your shelving and maybe even a simple baby safety gate. Alternatively, you can just change your area rugs around to give your rooms a fresh look.

Décor 

Decorating your home will always freshen it up, but you don’t have to spend a fortune on wallpaper for every room. Paint is much cheaper, and you can still get a stylish look if you use wallpaper on a single feature wall wherever you want it.Some inexpensive touches to make walls look more interesting include adding trim. Painting trim is easy, and you can choose from a series of different widths. Popular options include baseboard, chair rail and crown molding.

Lighting 

Finally, changing your lighting, whether it’s freestanding lamps or fittings or both, is another simple way to upgrade your home.There are beautiful but inexpensive chandeliers and pendants in both traditional and contemporary designs, wall sconces, elegant candelabras, and many different styles of table lamps and desk lamps from which to choose. If you love what you have already, why not try changing lampshades to update your look?Keep in mind that poor lighting can make a home look dated and rather shabby, so take the time to observe each room in daylight as well as in the evening when you are choosing new lighting.