We all deserve a warm, welcoming, well-decorated home environment to return to after a long day. Yet, many of us must work harder for this than others, as evidenced by the 49% of the UK’s population who made improvements to their homes back in 2021.
Some people spend endless hours improving, expanding, and beautifying their property, whether it’s knocking a wall through to create a more spacious living room or building a garden office to enhance your outdoor space. Yet, while working towards a well-decorated, welcoming, warm home might be straightforward to avid DIY enthusiasts, to those who struggle to tell the difference between a hammer and a workbench, there are various ways to refresh your property’s interior without forking out for a costly renovation.
Anyone who has had a renovation can attest that they can turn your house into a worksite for a couple of days/months, not to mention the havoc they can wreak on your bank account! But how do you improve your existing property without tearing down walls and ripping up floorboards.?
Fortunately, we outline several easy ways that you can refresh your property without breaking the bank on a costly renovation. From hiring local roofers to do some cost-efficient roofing projects to make your roof look more attractive to adding new lighting elements – keep reading to find out more.
Make Your Roof Look More Attractive
We’re all so used to such mediocre weather in the UK that getting a spot of sunshine can feel like an out-of-body experience. Just a speck of sun can send us Brits into a frenzy: digging in the back of our wardrobes for our summer t-shirts, rushing down to the local supermarket for a four-pack of fruit-infused cider, firing up the barbeque, and much more.
In our rush to get ready for the warmer weather, it isn’t until we sit down in our gardens with a beverage in one hand and a burger in the other that we start to notice how much the exterior of our homes has deteriorated, especially our roofs. Our roofs withstand much wear over the years, so they can begin needing minor repairs (and a good clean!) to look attractive from all angles.
Fortunately, you don’t need a whole roof replacement to spruce up your roof. There are many ways to make your roof look more attractive, from cleaning away all debris, installing new gutters, replacing any cracked tiles, changing the colors of the tiles, and much more. Due to the nature of the project, it would be best if you considered hiring roofers near you to do the job on your behalf.
Using online directories like MyBuilder, homeowners can post an advert and be matched with the most relevant tradespeople for the job. Whether you’re looking for a plumber, stonemason, carpenter, or a reliable roofer, using their site, you’ll be able to find all these tradespeople and more.
Add New Lighting Elements
One of the most common complaints UK homeowners have with their properties is that they’re too cramped and could benefit from extra space. Many homeowners aim to resolve this issue by knocking down walls to make individual rooms more spacious, getting a loft extension, or expanding their kitchen; however, these can be expensive and cause much disruption.
Yet unbeknownst to many, there are various ways to make your home appear more spacious without turning it into a building site; one of the most straightforward ways is adding new lighting elements. Let’s face it; a dark room isn’t welcoming at all and can also make it appear smaller than it is.
A brightly lit room does the opposite and can add space that darkness typically hides. One of the most straightforward ways of making your home appear more spacious using lighting is by decorating every table with a lamp, and adding a floor-length light to dark corners. You could also consider replacing the main light fixtures once you’ve finished experimenting with layering.
Doing so makes the rooms of your house look warm, inviting, and cosy, which increases the aesthetics of your home and practicality! Fortunately, most light fixtures can be installed without the help of an electrician. Yet, if you’re opting for a more complex fitting, you might need to enlist the services of a knowledgeable professional, which can soon rack up costs.
Create Open Spaces In Your Home
One of the most popular trends in residential construction for decades has been open floor plans, which are spaces void of partition walls and where two or more rooms are joined to form a larger area. Modern homeowners prefer open floor plans since they allow for better socializing, improved traffic flow between rooms, easier to get natural light, make rooms multi-functional and many more benefits.
Yet, open floor plans are often created at the time of building, so it can be more challenging for those with period properties to create an open floor plan without knocking walls down. Despite being more complex, it doesn’t mean it is impossible. There are several ways that homeowners can create the illusion of an open floor plan without much work.
Some of the most straightforward ways to create a more airy, open space in your home are as follows:
- Experimenting with moving your existing furnishings around and seeing which layout allows for more freedom around the room.
- Get rid of bulkier, more significant furnishings that create less space instead of allowing for more.
- Invest in raised furnishings that create a sense of light and air between the furnishings and the rest of the room.
- Use wall-to-wall bookcases for storage.
- Painting the walls a lighter color gives the room the illusion of being more prominent.
- Hanging artwork on the walls.
- Using mirrors to reflect light and make the room appear more open, and much more.
Invite The Outdoors In
Nothing is quite as airy, open, and all-encompassing as the outdoors, so inviting it inside can sometimes be one of the best ways to open a room. Even if you don’t have an outside space, you can still bring the outdoors inside using several clever tricks and techniques.
Providing that you have a conservatory or patio, you could add greenery by purchasing various colorful plants, placing a green-hued rug in the middle of the room, draping string lights around the perimeter of the room, investing in a space heater, and much more. Doing this is an excellent way of adding an extra ‘room’ to your house, which is especially effective if you don’t have a garden, front yard, or communal outdoor space to enjoy. Not only does it make your property appear more open (quite literally!), but it will allow you and your friends to reap the benefits of being outdoors without having to go outside literally.
If you’d like to go a step further when creating your outdoor space, you could consider adding wicker chairs, privacy curtains, and a sound system, which can be enjoyed with a glass of wine and a good book. Yet, this project might take a little longer than others on this list; it’s nothing that can’t be completed on the weekend, unlike many home renovation projects!
