Looking for some touch-up ideas to make your home look expensive? No worries, we know how to cheer things up a little. While home upgrades may sound like a hectic job, we tried to find something easier. Also, changing a few areas of your home shouldn’t cost you a fortune, so we have curated affordable home upgrading techniques. You can transform your space within a budget with some creativity and planning.
The purpose is to give your house a fresh feel without breaking the bank. Whether you want to refresh your living room, enhance the outdoor space, or add a touch of tech, you can do so within a budget. Let’s dive into some budget-friendly ideas to give your home the makeover it deserves.
Why Home Upgrades Matter?
Upgrading your home is not just following a trend. Rather, it’s an investment in your lifestyle, comfort, and financial future. Home upgrades can do a wonderful job by enhancing your property visually and practically. Home upgrades can be useful if you’re preparing to sell or want to elevate your daily living experience.
When we make small and thoughtful changes within our homes, they enhance overall comfort and can bring a sense of joy. Also, with a thoughtful upgrade, you can increase the resale value of your property.
Below are some answers to why you should consider affordable home upgrades –
1. Home Upgrades Can Enhance the Quality of Living
When we think of renovating our home, the first reason is to cater the needs. Upgrading your kitchen fittings, modernizing your bathrooms, or adding extra storage can make daily living more enjoyable and efficient.
2. Increases The Property Value
The second thing here is that you are adding value to your property. Renovation works can add substantial value to your home, which can attract potential buyers if you decide to sell. High-impact upgrades like a fresh coat of paint, updated landscaping, or a new roof can bring impressive returns.
3. Keep Up-to-Date with Modern Trends
Outdated fixtures and designs can make your home feel tired. Adding contemporary design elements or smart home technology ensures your home remains stylish and functional.
4. Improve Safety and Security
Upgrades like reinforced doors, better lighting, or modern electrical wiring can make your home safer and protect your investment.
5. Elevate Your Lifestyle
A home upgrade, such as creating an outdoor area, or a cosy reading nook can help you embrace a lifestyle.
Affordable Home Upgrades To Do
There are many affordable ways to upgrade a home, but here are the ones that will take less time and less money and give the home an expensive look.
1. Crown Molding
Crown moulding is a great way to add style to the blandest room. You can use affordable materials like foam moulding, which is lightweight, quick to install, and allows you to paint it as you choose.
How to Do It: Get thin foam crown moulding, which is lighter and easier to cut and install. Measure the outside of your room, strip crown moulding to length, and then attach it at the junction of the wall and ceiling with adhesive or nails. Paint it in the same colour, or you can use contrasting colours for a classy style.
Costings: Tools and paint can cost $20-50, and foam moulding can cost $1-$3 per linear foot.
Time: 1-2 days for a small room
Resale Value: Forging refinement and grace could lift home value (1-3%) in older homes lacking architectural details.
2. Paint Kitchen Cabinets
Paint Over Kitchen Cabinets will bring a new look to your kitchen in minutes. To up the style game, purchase beautiful hardware (choose between gold or matte black pulls).
How to Do It: Remove the cabinet doors, lightly sand them, and apply primer. Paint the kitchen cabinets durable, semi-glossy, and shiny.
The costs are $50-$100 for materials and paints and $20- $100 for new hardware, depending on the style.
Time: 2-3 days, including drying time
Resale Value: New cabinets can make a kitchen look updated and in many cases add $2,000-$5,000 to the perceived value of the residence.
3. Bring In Statement Lighting
Replace old ceiling lights with new chandeliers or pendant lights. Thrift stores and online retailers offer amazing deals, and you can find high-end designs there, too.
How to Do It: For your living room, you can go with a chandelier or pendant light. Also, make sure you have good wiring, or call an electrician if necessary.
Costings: $50-$300 per fixture (if any are needed) and electrician fees usually charge around $50 – $150
Time: 1 – 3 hours
Resale Value: Updated lighting can serve as a feature, making spaces more enticing targets to buyers; value boost of 1-2%
4. Rejuvenate Bathroom Fixtures
Change your basic, old faucets, showerheads, and cabinet pulls with smooth, contemporary finishes of brushed nickel matte black brass. It will transform your bathroom from functional to stylish.
How to Do It: Replace oiled brass or bronze faucets, showerheads, towel bars, and drawer pulls with stainless steel in a modern style, such as brushed nickel or matte black. Most fixtures are pretty simple to install.
Costings: $30-$150 per fixture; $100-$300 to upgrade everything.
Time: 2-4 hours per fixture.
Resale Value: Newer and nicer bathroom fixtures can increase the home’s value by $1,000- $3,000.
5. Peel-and-Stick Tiles – Affordable Idea for Home Upgrades
Mutate your kitchen backsplash, bathroom walls, or floors with peel-and-stick tiles. They are economical, quick to set up, and replicate the effects of marble or subway tiles.
How to Do It: Thoroughly clean the surface. Then, start measuring and cutting tiles to size and gluing them directly onto walls or floors. Make sure to align them properly, just as high-end tiling is done.
Costings: $1-$5 per square foot
Time: 1 day for most kitchen backsplash or small bathroom tile floors.
Resale Value: The materials poured overhead create a premium feel, and the value can increase up to 1–3%.
6. Install Oversized Mirrors
Larger mirrors make spaces look bigger and brighter. You can pick up affordable large mirrors with trim at a discount or pin your bespoke glowing frame. This is most useful if you live in a tiny apartment.
How to Do It: Get a super-large yet moveable mirror with a suitable frame. You can also create your own frame with some DIY ideas. Collect the large mirrors, frame them, and hang them to catch light and increase open space.
Costings: The mirror costs $50–200, and framing it yourself costs around $20-$50.
Time: 1-2 hours
Resale Value: Adding mirrors can create an illusion by creating a sense of increasing the space. They can also brighten the room. For potential buyers, the value of selling the property increases by 1%.
7. Feature Wall – Easiest of All Home Upgrades
You can consider using removable wallpaper or painting. Choose a wallpaper/painting that will be the focal point in your home. Go for patterns or colours closely replicating the high-end design, like geometric patterns, faux wood, or textured finishes.
How to Do It: Pick and place a strong-coloured painting or wallpaper peel. After preparing your wall (clean, primer, paint, or wallpaper), add any finishes like artwork and a shelf to complete the look.
Costings: $30-$100 for paint/paper
Time: 4-6 hours for painting; 1 day on wallpaper
ResaleValue: Makes the house more appealing, gets buyers’ numbers, and increases perceived value by 1–2%.
8. Update Door, Window Trim
You can replace the ordinary trim with wider, ornate mouldings around doors and windows for a cleaner look on your house. This is a small change, but it can surely elevate your spaces.
How To Do It: First, carefully remove the old trims. Then, measure and cut new wider mouldings and install ad or nails.
Costings: $1-$3 per linear foot of siding; Tools and paint can add another $20-$50 in cost.
Time: For average-sized room — 1-2 days
Resale value: Modern trim can improve the architectural look of a house and you trade 2-3% in value.
9. Layer with Fabulous Pattern Rugs
If you have furniture in a room dusting a high-pile or Persian rug under it, the room automatically gets slightly richer. Search for patterns or bright, deep colours to replace your grand designs.
How To Do It: Select deep pile or patterned rugs that coordinate with your existing colour scheme. Put rugs between furniture to mark areas and make the space feel cosier.
Costings: $50 to $300 per rug
Time: Under an hour
Resale Value: Improves staging to attract potential buyers ensuring homes are sold faster and for more.
10. Install New Interior Doors
Replacing standard hollow-core doors with panel or French doors has an elite feel. If you cannot replace the whole set, consider repainting the doors and replacing the hardware.
How to Do It: Remove old doors and replace them with panel or French doors. You could also paint and replace the hardware on your old doors.
Costings: cheap options $50–150 per door, hardware upgrades between $20–50
Time: 1-2 hours per door.
Resale Value: Upgrading new doors can add up to 2% to the property value in aesthetics and utility.
11. Install Floating shelves
Floating shelves are an extremely stylish way to show off decor, books, and plants. Stain the wood or use painted finishes to paint in with your home decor and add a minimalist, costly look.
How To Do It: Buy pre-finished floating shelves, or build them with wood planks and brackets.
Attach them tightly to the walls by level and anchors;
Costings: $10-$50 per shelf.
Time: 1-2 hours per shelf
Resale Value: Adds storage and style (workspaces), increases the value by 1%
12. Frame The TV
Framing your TV can transform the TV area into a built-in entertainment centre. Wrap it in trim or moulding and paint for a pared-back, pricey-looking approach to the walls.
How To Do It: The easy way to frame your TV is using wood moulding or trim Product – Wall mount kit and headboard frame
Costings: $20-$100 depending on materials.
Time: 2-4 hours.
Resale Value: Gives your living room a custom, high-end look, improving the touch of the buyer and doubling the value of perception by 1-2%.
Some Optional Cheap Home Upgrades You May Consider
Here are some optional and cheap home upgrading tips combining style, functionality, and value.
Create a Built-In Bookshelves
In your home’s Living room or study, simply fill one wall with bookshelves and glue them together so built-in with ease. Fill gaps between shelves and ceiling with crown moulding, or trim (if you want to add that). Paint your shelves the same colour as the walls for a seamless, custom-built look
Costings: $100-$300 for the shelves and trim.
Time: 1-2 days.
Remove Shower Curtains & Bring Glass Panels
If you currently use a shower curtain, you can easily remove it and add shower panels instead! Frameless or even semi-framed shower doors provide a real spa look. Glass panels are costly, but DIY kits are also available. The DIY techniques also come with affordable installation solutions.
Costings: DIY kits-$200-$500
Time: 1-2 days.
Add A Pergola to Your Outdoor Space
A pergola can turn your backyard into a stylish retreat. You can either buy a kit of DIY pergola for pre-screwing boards or build it yourself made out of nothing but also wood or metals. Add string lights, curtains or grow-in plants to it and have a lovely outdoor seating area
Costings: Around $200-$800 per unit (size and materials)
Time: 1-3 days.
Conclusion
We all expect to have a refreshing home, and bringing some life to your old home has to be easy and affordable. We believe affordable home upgrades are all about maximising efficiency while minimizing costs. Spending a lot on upgrading your home is not necessarily needed in this case.
We hope you will consider our list of possible arrangements for upgrading a home. We have mentioned some tips and techniques to guide you properly and offer the easiest method. Without making the process difficult, you can now easily transform your old home into a beautiful space.
If you want to learn more about easy home upgrades and renovation ideas, keep following Dekoraid.
