Quick fixes for your home

If you’re not quite ready to commit to a full refurbishment or reconfiguration of your home, there are some quick and relatively low cost fixes you can make to your home to give it a new lease of life. Here are a few suggestions you might like to consider:

Front door refresh

source: urban front

This makes the first impression for a visitor to your home and is, in most cases, always visible from the street. If your front door is looking tired, you could give it a facelift with a fresh coat of brightly coloured paint, or consider replacing it if it’s seen better days and is no longer keeping drafts out and the heat in.

A similar approach can be taken with windows - repainting internal and external woodwork or adding bright curtains, shutters or blinds will not only look great but help to keep heat in and make the home cosy and warm.

A walk on the stylish side

If you are looking for a carpet in high traffic areas, consider a wool blend one for durability and softness. There are a whole range of fabulous colours and patterns to choose from, and can make a real feature within a room or hallway.

If you are lucky enough to have beautiful original floor tiles in a hallway, kitchen or bathroom, they can be professionally cleaned and restored to reclaim the character and charm, especially if they are the first thing you see as you enter a property.

Lightbulb moments

Great lighting is vital in every room - it is not only functional, but illuminates the life within your home. It is often overlooked when updates are planned but is so instrumental on how the rest of the house will look, it should be considered as part of the plans to add aesthetic appeal and modernise rooms.

Natural light, as we discussed in a previous post, is so important to our mood and wellbeing.

Adding one or two rooflights into a dark loft room will transform the space, and standard readily available ones can be fitted by a builder relatively easily and economically.

The clever use of mirrors can reflect both natural and artificial light into darker corners and open up smaller spaces.

Artificial light should perform the right role for the space and purpose it is being used for. Consider adding multiple layers of mood lighting in the form of table or floor lamps as alternatives to overhead lights. LED fixtures are eco friendly and hidden strip-lights add a touch of drama to architectural features on ceilings, joinery, floors and staircases.

Kitchen facelifts

The kitchen is typically the most used room of a house. Depending on your budget, there are a number of ways to refresh the look of your kitchen that gets taken for granted and used every day. If you have little to spend, consider updating old handles on cabinet doors and drawers to something new - styles are available to suit all tastes and looks - from traditional to modern to retro. This is a quick and easy fix and will give the kitchen units a great new look.

You could go one step further and look to replace or paint the tiles or splash backs behind the sink and hob with something new and fresh - again this can have a great impact on the look of your kitchen. There are fantastic tiles and ranges for all budgets - even self adhesive glass splash backs - and again are relatively quick and easy to replace.

Depending on the material and condition, you may want to refresh your well used worktop, or to replace it completely. The latter would involve a bigger cost and should be fitted by tradespeople, but will give the impression of a new kitchen at a fraction of the cost!

Don’t forget the bathroom

Like kitchens, bathrooms get used daily and can look tired quite quickly. To give them a spruce up, it is really easy to update colour schemes on a neutral bathroom by swapping shower curtains, towels and bathmats. Changing sink and bath taps and handles on bathroom units can also update a bathroom easily without having to replace the sanitary ware. Again blinds and lighting can be easily updated without too much effort or money.

A lick of paint

If you do not have the time or energy to embark on the fixes above, a fresh lick of paint on walls ceilings and woodwork can have a huge impact on the look of your home, and in turn your mood!

As we have shown above, you don’t have to spend thousands on big changes to your home if you want to update and modernise it.

However, if you are considering something a bit more involved like a refurbishment or extension, we are always here to talk about your plans and what you could achieve.