If you and your family are staying home to help stop the coronavirus, finding things to do can be a challenge. You’re probably setting up schedules to keep your kids busy. But, if you’re interested in giving your house a refresh, now would be an excellent time to take on some relatively simple updates that the entire family can enjoy. Here are some of the best home projects around.
Easy Exterior Updates
You’d be surprised at how a few easy changes to the exterior of your home will increase its curb appeal and make it a welcoming entry to your home.
- Change your lighting fixtures. If your outdoor lighting is boring, you can bring new life by changing your outdoor light fixtures. Consider the style of your home and find light fixtures that will complement it.
- Relieve the front door blues. Is your front door the focal point of your exterior? If it’s old or a standard builder’s door, you can replace it. If it just needs a refresh, try using it to bring a splash of color to the exterior.
- Update your landscaping. Landscaping can get overgrown before you know it. If you have trees or shrubs that cover most of the exterior of your home, you have two problems. First, you’re cutting down on the amount of natural light that’s reaching your interior. Second, your home starts to look like a jungle with a home in the middle. Take this opportunity to replace overgrown plants and prune trees and shrubs.
- Treat your wood decks. If you have a deck in the front of your home, the back, or both, this is a good time of year to retreat the deck and make it look like new. Choose the type of treatment you use based on the age of your decks. If the wood of your deck is in excellent shape, you may only need a clear stain. Semi-transparent stains will protect the wood and leave the grain showing. If your wood is a bit worn, you might want to use solid stain. You won’t see the grain, but it does a better job of protecting the wood.
- Install additional outdoor lighting. Whether you want to light up a walkway or add more security for a dark backyard, you can replace your existing lights with either a motion-detector or a dawn-to-dusk light Motion detectors are useful in places that you don’t normally use at night and just want security lighting. They’re not good in a place where animals or neighbors will set them off continuously.
Easy and Inexpensive Interior Projects
Here are some easy projects that don’t cost a lot and can be fun projects where the kids can help, too.
Replacing Window Treatments
If you have a window over your sink in the kitchen, the window treatments there can get water stained and may be outdated. A roman shade is a great way to give privacy when you need it while letting light in, also. When you make your own roman shades, you can have the look without the expense.
Remove Clutter from Your Entry
If you don’t have a formal mudroom, your entry probably gets stacked up with hats, coats, boots and more. For a simple fix, add a shelf with pegs that can hold hats and coats, then get a boot tray to put underneath.
Add Storage Bins to a Pantry or Closet
When you have time on your hands, it’s a good time to clean out the kitchen pantry or that laundry closet that is always overflowing. Use labelled plastic bins to get things organized!
Make a Bedside Table for a Small Space
Some bedrooms are too small to hold a bedside table at both sides of the bed. Here’s a very creative way to provide the storage you need next to your bed. If you need light, add a wall mounting lamp.
Refresh Your House Numbers
It’s important that people can see your house numbers, especially in the case of an emergency when fire or EMS needs to find you quickly. Use this cute house number planter to make your address stand out.
Add Texture to a Bookcase
This is a great idea for a kid’s room, not to mention the living or dining room. You can easily give a bookcase new life and your room a new look with patterned backdrops. Just mount paper or fabric to the back of each shelf. If you don’t want to make a permanent change, use poster board and you’ll be able to change the design whenever you want. The best home projects are flexible.
Give a Bathroom New Life
Sometimes, all you need is to paint the vanity in a bathroom to give it new life. Here are some instructions on how to paint a vanity the easy way, and before and after photos. Here are more before and afters to give you additional inspiration. You can change the hardware easily, and you can also change the fixtures and countertop. But you’ll notice a significant difference if all you do is paint the vanity.
And, if you’ve decided that a vanity facelift isn’t enough and you want a new home, consider the best Realtors in Broward County, the Teri Arbogast Real Estate Team. Take a look at our Google reviews, and you’ll see that our clients have lots of good things to say. We’re very proud of our five-star ratings on Google, Zillow, and other real estate review websites. We’d love to make you our next successful client! Call us at 954-242-8030 or send an email today.
