Cheap Fixes to get you a bang for your buck – Agents Recommendations
Have you just bought the worst house on the best street? Or maybe you’re selling up and want to achieve a higher sale price! Whatever your position, there are loads of pain-free methods to update and ultimately add value to your home – not to mention making it a nicer place for your family to live.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the easiest options.
1. Paint – your new best friend
Painting is often named as the best return on investment you can make when it comes to improving the look of your home.
But don’t be limited by just painting the walls: Consider a treatment for cupboards, doors or even look at respraying a dated bathroom, which can add a modern touch.
Always speak to a professional first, as many jobs may require different treatments and primers to ensure a neat finish. The last thing you want to do is re-do your paint work after a long day with the brushes because you have used a non-compatible paint!
2. Replace tapware
For a fraction of the price of a full renovation, you can modernise and lift the look of a whole room by replacing dated taps in the kitchen and bathroom with more modern options – think contemporary.
3. Replace old handles
Doors, cupboards and drawers! Old handles are often overlooked when it comes to upkeeping your spaces – but these can have huge impacts on the look of your home. For less than $100 you can replace all of the old, outdated handles in your kitchen and bathrooms. All you need to get the job done are a tape measure, a screwdriver… maybe even a beer or two!
It won’t be the biggest change, but it’ll be one you notice every time you go to open a cupboard – which, we think, is priceless.
4. Keep an eye on your window treatments
Small touches, such as the position of your curtain rod or broken blinds, can completely change the look and feel of a space. You can bring life to a room with a few smart changes:
Address curtain height
Disguise your low ceilings by hanging a curtain rod closer to the ceiling, which lifts the eye level and makes the ceiling feel much higher. A curtain kit will cost less than $100 and make a room feel airier and lighter in no time.
Bad blinds
Replacing your broken, old blinds with modern options will also add much more style to a room. You can enlist the help of a professional or, for smaller jobs, you can DIY by buying ready-to-install blind kits from your local hardware store.
5. Reconsider benchtops and cupboard doors
There’s no need to be deterred by expensive kitchen prices! Time to keep the carcass and throw away the rest! Replacing your old kitchen or bathroom benchtops and doors with new, contemporary ones will create a whole new look and feel for the rooms, for a fraction of the price!
6. Up your storage game
Feel a bit blue every time you walk into your cluttered and outdated laundry? Never fear, IKEA is here! A simple trip to IKEA or Bunnings will help you find built-in storage heaven with plenty of modern and affordable storage systems that you can DIY.
You’ll no longer be putting off laundry day once you’ve got a decent storage system in place, helping everything feel more organised and pleasant.
7. Brighten up with lighting
Life is too short to suffer through poor visibility in the home. So if the lighting in your home needs some attention (think outdated flickering ceiling sconces; dark workbenches; and depressing fluorescent tubes) then run – don’t walk – to your local lighting store. While built-in lighting is one thing that should always be installed by a professional, there are some affordable battery-operated lighting systems that you can install yourself in minutes.
But for real impact, consider hanging pendant lighting over the dining table, LED strip lights over benches, and directional lighting in the bathroom. It’ll cost you just a few hundred dollars, but the new lighting will pay for itself when you no longer have to endure poor visibility in your home.
Welcome to the 21st century home, go get the big bucks!