Home improvement projects don’t always have to be an expensive endeavour. Sometimes, the smallest of changes can have a drastic impact on making your home look and function better. You will be truly surprised with just how much of a change a few mini projects on a modest budget, with a few tools, and just a little bit of free time on your hands, will bring. Here are just a handful of simple, budget-friendly, mini home improvement ideas to get you started.
Polish the Look of Your Entrance
Your entrance is the very first thing both you and your visitors see when entering your home. Adding a few small details, fixtures, and accessories will give your entrance a uniquely tailored look that will leave a lasting impression and give your home a distinct personality and theme. These can include anything from potted plants, welcome mats, and custom nameplate to some outdoor furniture and custom lighting.
Walkways and Greenery
An often-overlooked part of a home is the path from your front gate to your door. Regardless of how short it may be, a landscaped walkway will really give your entrance a very welcoming feel. You can achieve some truly spectacular effects within budget with something as simple as irregularly-shaped flagstones or tiles together with some old bricks, painted stones or even just some potted plants to line it. Once your entrance is done you can carry this theme over the rest of the exterior of your house over time; building similarly designed walkways to your garden, garage, and other points of interest around your house.
To complement your new walkway, we recommend adding some greenery around the exterior of your home and the garden. Whether in the ground, potted, or a mix of both, every plant you add to your home adds to its natural beauty.
Beautify your Windows
Another often overlooked area of a home are the windows. The simple addition of window boxes or baskets gives you yet another location to add some natural greenery to your home. These boxes and baskets come in a ton of designs and you’ll definitely find some that will suit both your budget and style. Alternatively, you could always save your money and just go ahead and build the window boxes yourself. There are several readily available guides online on how you can make some relatively easily with just basic tools and minimal costs.
Light Up Your Home Exteriors
If you don’t already have some exterior lighting, this is a great way to go about drastically changing the look of your home in the night. With some shop hopping and online searching, you can find low-voltage outdoor garden lighting for cheap with relative ease. There are even those of the solar variety that you can use to line your walkways or just key areas of your garden. Such lighting adds to the safety and security of your home as well as adds to the beauty of any alfresco spaces you may have at your home.
Declutter Your Doorway
With your outdoors now transformed, you can move to the interior. As with the exterior, your entryway is critical in making that all important good first impression on your guests. As such, it is vital to keep it clutter-free. This can be easily achieved with some simple planning and couple of budget friendly pieces of choice furniture. One way to achieve good results is to look for do-it-all storage systems or dual-purpose furniture, which can double as a storage for shoes and other items. You could also quite easily build or transform a book shelf into a versatile shelf storage system or organiser for your doorway. Giving it a bright colour will also help add splash of style to your entrance. Adding a couple of wall hooks to either the shelving or wall near the entryway is also a great idea.
Make Use of Large Empty Walls
Especially so if you lack space in your home. A great way to do this is to use some form of modular shelving. These can be readily purchased from most furniture stores. They are also relatively easy to build yourself. The great thing about such shelving units is that they are relatively cheap, are incredibly versatile and can easily fit any size or shape. Repurposed book shelves or even custom designs using off-the-shelf parts are also a great cost-effective alternative.
Repaint your Cabinets
The simple act of changing the colour of a cabinet in a room can have a drastic impact on the overall look and theme of an otherwise uniform room. Additionally, the simple act of repainting a cabinet gives it a brand-new look and feel, all in a budget; and all you need is a few simple tools, some colour, and a bit of spare time.
Create an Entertainment Hub
If you have any spare cabinet, armoire, or bookcase lying around at home, these can make for a great option for creating an entertainment hub for when guests come over. Any clear open spaces can easily be used for storing bottles, plates, and beverage glasses. Any drawers or closed cabinet areas can be used to store the serving trays and utensils.
Similarly, if your family and friends are into board gaming, movies, music, or other similar interests. You can use similar pieces of furniture to keep all of these items in one dedicated location. Using shelf dividers, baskets and bins will help you stay organised, while using labels will make it easy for other to easily find what they are looking for as well as where to return the items to.
More Lighting
As with the exterior, lighting can have a drastic impact on the look and theme of the interior of your house. Beautiful and eye-catching lighting fixtures are relatively easy to come by within a budget with a little bit of searching. Furthermore, spend some time to carefully plan the lighting around your home, and look towards layering your task (lighting designed provide increased light to assist with tasks), accent (focused lighting used to highlight a specific area or point of interest), and ambient (used as soft illumination for a space) lighting to really transform the look of your home.
Details are Everything
Details can make all the difference in a home. Replacing some simple fittings such as outlet covers, light switches, or door knobs with ones that better fit the theme of your home will add to the overall character of your home. Best of all, these are very simple, low-effort, low-cost, high-impact changes that will definitely not go unnoticed by anyone that visits your home.