It can feel daunting to take on “do it yourself” or DIY projects. However, working on projects to improve your home can also be exciting, cost effective, and completed on your timeline, with everything of your choosing!

DIY projects are a great way to increase the value of your home when done effectively. Let’s look at some of the simple but fun projects you can complete on your own to improve your home.

Kitchen

Kitchen Backsplash: It may be old tile, or even just paint. There are plenty of options to choose from, including stick-on tiles, wallpaper, or a fresh coat of paint to revamp your backsplash.

Flooring: Another change you may want to make to your kitchen (or any room!) is new flooring. While hardwood or tile flooring are both nice choices, vinyl flooring is a great DIY option. Depending on your already-existing floor, you may need to pull up flooring, but vinyl flooring can be quickly and easily applied over the top of your current flooring. This can add a brighter, more “you” touch to any room in the house, especially the kitchen!

Under Cabinet Lighting: A fun, recently popularized DIY project is under cabinet lighting for your kitchen! Choose between rope LED lights that plug in or use battery operated lights. Whatever choice you make, under cabinet lighting is easy to install and can provide some much needed lighting when you are cooking or baking.

Living Spaces

Interior Paint and Wallpaper: Do you hate your wall colors? Paint them or add wallpaper! Adding a splash of color or pattern to your walls is one of the simplest DIY tasks you can do, and the color options are endless. You have full creative control over your home. Did you know it can be simple to remove wallpaper as well? A mixture of dish soap and water in a spray bottle can help remove strips of wallpaper.

Window Treatments: Your windows are a central focal point in your living spaces. Updating or upgrading old window treatments can give a modern look and feel to living spaces. Consider a new fabric for curtains or incorporating a pattern, change plastic blinds to wood or woven shades. There are many options to DIY to refresh your window fixtures.

Bookshelf: Building a bookshelf is another great DIY project! You may build a standalone bookshelf or build shelves into a wall. Either way, building a place to store your books and trinkets can be a satisfying and easy project to improve a living room or bedroom.

Bathroom

Bathroom Storage: You may or may not have enough storage in your bathroom, and a great way to resolve this is to add shelving! This could be as easy as adding floating shelves or building a simple shelf with brackets and boards. Storing easy-to-access things like toilet paper or air freshener here may be helpful for you or for guests.

Flooring: Could your bathroom floor use some improvement? Similar to replacing a kitchen floor, vinyl flooring can be adhered on top of already-existing flooring. Additionally, stick-on tile can easily to applied to the small square footage of a bathroom. This is an easy, cost-effective DIY project to make a small improvement to your bathroom!

Shower Tiling: It may sound like a complex task, but adding stick-on tiles to your shower wall is a quick improvement that can be visually appealing. Painting is another alternative to changing your shower wall.

Countertops: A quick DIY project for your bathroom countertop is to add contact paper that is waterproof. Contact paper gives a brand-new look to the surface of the countertop and is usually installed with no major equipment needed. This can be a quick but temporary change for your bathroom countertop.

Outdoor Spaces

Garden Beds: If you’re wanting to spruce up the outdoor area at your home, but don’t have a lot of space, raised beds for a garden is a fun idea! You can use old tractor tires or build a square box, place dirt in it, and plant seeds for your desired garden. This takes up a small amount of space but can really add something beautiful and useful to the exterior of your home.

Outdoor Deck: Do you have a deck that needs improvement? A great way to simply improve your deck on your own is to power wash the deck, then re-stain and re-finish the wood. This can change the color of your deck, if desired, and can make it look brand new!

Fire Pit: If spending time outdoors is your specialty, building a fire pit could be the right project for you! Placing bricks or stones in a circle or square is a simple way to build a fire pit in your yard. There are many cost-effective options for this fun project in your backyard.

Start small and work your way up to bigger projects to improve your home. DIY projects can be a fun way to make your home feel homier and can later improve the sale value of your home. Let us know what you are doing around the house!

The Branch | News and Advice from Flat Branch Home Loans