Quick & Inexpensive Tips to Increase Your Home Value

Home Transformations in Under 2 Hours

There are many ways you can increase your home’s value, some are quick and easy and others involve a major investment of time, money, and expert assistance. We want to give you some home transformation ideas that can be accomplished in under 2 hours.

The type of upgrades we are talking about could easily fit into a busy weekend schedule and maybe you could knock off a couple of these great ideas in a weekend and reap the rewards of satisfaction and increased home value. We share some of our favorite home improvement ideas below.

Replace Cabinet Hardware

Upgrading your cabinet hardware is such a simple upgrade to a kitchen or a bathroom.  Plus, all it takes is minimal tools, such as a screwdriver or drill, to replace your passe cabinet hardware with pulls and knobs that give your cabinets new life and transform and upgrade your kitchen or bathroom’s look and appeal!

Quick Tricks to Give Cabinets New Life

There are a number of tricks of the trade I learned from the hospitality industry that come in handy for quick home renovation ideas. Cabinets at hotels and bed and breakfasts get lots of use and sometimes abuse and owners can’t be replacing cabinets on a regular basis, so they have come up with some great tricks to give new life to cabinets.

Beeswax, yes good old-fashioned beeswax in paste or lotion hand rubbed into wood cabinets not only gives them a wonderful luster and helps restore wood from sun damage, but beeswax also prolongs wood cabinet life and makes them really great again. If the blemishes on your cabinets run a little deeper, Howards Restore a Finish comes in many different wood colors and restores wood to look nearly new again. Howards products will mask slight indents and scars to help your wood cabinets have restored and renewed life.

Both techniques take a couple of hours or less, some elbow grease, a soft towel, and a well-ventilated room and for your efforts and only a few dollars, you have transformed the look of your bathroom or kitchen.

Upgrade Your Faucets

Most of us figure that if our kitchen and bathroom faucets are functional, we are good! Having done this upgrade this year in my own home, I can’t stress enough how much an upgrade in either kitchen or bathroom faucets can really give your bathroom or kitchen an entirely new look. My new favorite look is the high-profile faucet for sinks because it gives you a lot of room underneath to clean pots and pans.  Plus with a high-profile faucet, it makes it so simple to wash your hair at the sink and save so much water, especially for our friends west of the Rockies.

One of the new looks I love is the waterfall faucet for bathtubs. This faucet looks like the waterfall that is installed on hot tubs and really modernizes the look of your bathroom. Also speaking of saving water, this is a great time to install low-flow faucets and showerheads. For those of us in the west, we’ve been catching our water in the shower as it warms in a 5-gallon bucket and this has been an eye-opener. Each shower on warm-up without an on-demand water heater uses about 1-2 gallons of water to warm up. We have been using this water for dog water and to water plants outdoors.

Install a Statement Lighting Fixture

Swapping out an overhead lighting fixture is pretty easy for most of us to do. You just follow how the previous fixture was wired and follow the pattern or look up the directions on YouTube. Retiring an old overhead lighting fixture and replacing it with a statement lighting fixture can transform the look of an entire room, be it a living room, family room, dining room, bedroom, or entryway.

This is a great way to add more light to a room, introduce new colors, and make your lighting fixture the focal point of the room. There are so many great choices these days and in so many styles, from minimalist to traditional, modern to period-you can find a lighting fixture that lights up your room and gives that room new life and appeal!

Create an Accent Wall

This is a great optical illusion that can really change up the look of a room quickly while introducing a new color as a room accent. Taking one wall in a room and painting it an accent color can uplift the look of the entire room. Using a lighter color can expand a room while a darker color can make a room look smaller, it’s all about placement. You can pick a shade that is a deep or lighter shade of the predominant room color or choose a completely different color that is a pleasing accent to the colors in your room.

 

Add Solar Light to Your Garden or Pool

Solar outdoor lighting has come down in price so much and it is so simple to install. Just make sure where you are installing your solar outdoor lighting gets a few hours of light a day so you have lighting all during the night. They now make solar outdoor lighting that has motion sensors so you don’t use up your solar power when no one is around. All it took was a drill for installing the screws and the lights were installed.

Path lighting is even easier because many times you just stick them in the ground. We have solar lights on our steps to the house with the same concept and ease of installation. We installed solar lighting around our pool and it is amazing for under $200 what an incredible and romantic look it gave our pool area with no added utility costs!

Install a Curved Shower Rod

If you don’t have a glass enclosure for your bathtub shower combination, a curved shower rod looks sexier and also gives you more room. A curved shower rod instantly makes your bath or shower seem bigger and more elegant. Investing in a hotel-style curved shower rod is an under-half-hour project that can really transform the look and feel of your bathroom.

Paint Your Front Door & Increase Curb Appeal

It is amazing what a new coat of paint can do for a front door, especially when choosing a statement color for your entry door. Your entrance to your home has so much to do with the overall look and feel of your home plus its general curb appeal!  We love the idea of picking statement colors that are bold and make the whole entrance to your home more colorful. Try colors such as bold blues, teal, burgundy, red, forest green, lime, or purple. You can also pick up your new front door color with flower boxes or shutters on the front of your home, which we sell through Home Design Extras!

Make Your Home Your Happy Place

With all of us spending a little more time at home these days, adding inexpensive upgrades to your home helps give you a lift and your home a renewed look. It is pretty amazing what a few simple upgrades can do for your home and your outlook. We offer so many inexpensive home upgrades at Shed Windows and More at incredible prices to help transform your home and increase curb appeal while making your home your happy place!