4 Small Home Upgrades That Have Transformed Our Living Space
I've talked about home renovations quite a bit so far on the blog, mainly because it's all we seem to be doing lately. The is the most recent home renovation blog post I've done: 'One Year of Being Home Owners: Renovations So Far & What Wee're Planning Next'.
But there are some things we've done around the place that didn't require a full strip out of the entire room. So let me share with you some small things we've done to transform the place until we're ready to completely transform our living space.
New skirting boards
The skirting boards that are in at least half of the house are at least 25-30 years old and they've been painted with white emulsion trade paint instead of gloss, as have the architraves. But the only thing that stopped us from sanding it all down and repainting all of them was the fact that they're actually not in very good condition.
A lot of them have cracked and haven't been fitted properly, so they've warped. We thought that the best thing to do was to just replace them. It might sound like a big job, but it's actually not. All you have to do is crowbar off the old boards and use a mitre saw to get the right angle on your new pieces of skirting board.
Then butt them up against each other and screw into the wall. Where you've screwed them in, use Polyfilla to fill in the holes, wait for it to go off and then sand it back, flush with the rest of the board. Then use an undercoat before glossing.
You can get two different types of gloss: sating finish and glossy finish. We've gone for the glossy finish as I think you get a bolder, brighter colour from it. It took one coat of undercoat and three coats of gloss to get our skirting boards to where it is now.
Depending on the size of your room, it could take a few days to get it all done, including the painting. We spent a lot of evenings and weekends doing up our house and we managed to do it all within a week. So if you're dedicated and determined enough, you'll get it all done super quick.
Let me price it all up for you below (bare in mind that we haven't even got through half a tin of gloss having painted the skirting boards in two good-sized rooms (three coats each) and painted a large door for the living room, also taking three coats on every side).
All Purpose Polyfilla powder, 2kg - £10.55
Stanley Mitre Saw - £50
Replacement internal doors
We haven't actually replaced every single door in the house, but we have them all ready and waiting in our spare room to go up ASAP. So far, we've added one to the living room, because there wasn't actually a door on there when we moved in, and replaced the old cronky door that went into the downstairs WC. The doors themselves aren't actually too expensive to buy and neither are the handles or the hinges.
Where fitting a door in an older property might not be so easy, it's a pretty effective way to transform your space, especially if the doors were old and rickety to start with. I haven't actually got around to painting it yet, but I'll list everything we needed to fit the two doors we've hung already, including what we'll use to paint the newly-fitted door (the living room door has already been painted).
Repainting the bathroom
The bathroom was magnolia when we moved in. It wasn't a bad colour as it matched the tiles, but it was a bit drab and old-fashioned so we changed it. We painted the walls grey instead to give it more of a modern twist. I find that adding a splash of colour or painting on a more vibrant colour can make a huge difference, making it look almost as if you have a whole new bathroom.
Swapping out vertical blinds for quality curtains
When we first moved into our house, there were vertical blinds fitted in the living room. They were really in bad condition. They smelled weird, were discoloured and the rail was filthy, so we took it down the very first night we got the keys.
We didn't want blinds up in the living room window, mainly because it is pretty big. So instead, we headed to Dunelm and bought a modern-looking polished chrome curtain rail and some really trendy, good quality curtains. They're thick and feel wonderful.
We actually based the entire colour scheme of the room around these curtains, we loved them that much. It made such a difference having curtains instead of blinds, so I recommend switching your vertical blinds out for curtains. They look more homely and feel more cosy.
Elements Triangles Navy Eyelet Curtains - £55-£115
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post? Let me know in the comments what you have done to your living space that was small-yet-effective. I'll see you again very soon with a brand new blog post :)
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