11 DIY Projects to Add Value to Your Home

By Mark Spain Real Estate

So your home is feeling outdated and worn and it may be time to spruce up your space with DIY projects for a fresh, modern aesthetic. Well, most people are too intimidated by the potential financial black hole of remodeling. And with the average remodel of a bathroom costing $10,000 and $50,000 for a typical kitchen, it’s easy to see why. 

But YOU don’t have to blow your budget to spiff up your space and add value to your property! And no, you don’t even need to be a professional carpenter or designer to recreate your outdated home into a high-end, trendy sanctuary at a reasonable price. With this special list, we’ve gathered, you’ll get THE top DIY projects to enhance your property and add value to your home – all at an affordable price. So get your tool belt out and prepare to update your home with these DIY tips for a refreshing new start to increase your property value!

1. Get Out Your Paint Brushes

As simple as it may sound, a fresh coat of paint does wonders for the aesthetics and quality of living space. When walls are grubby, scratched, and dented, it gives an aged, dirty ambiance.

Maybe you’re living with bad paint choices from the past that still haunt your home … turquoise bedrooms or canary yellow dining rooms might seem good at the moment but can turn a good home into a busy and chaotic feeling atmosphere. Regardless, start your remodeling journey with a fresh coat of neutrals for a clean, sophisticated aesthetic.

Don’t feel like your home needs to be all one neutral color — mix and match your neutrals. Work from earth tone palettes for an easy and cheap way to achieve an expensive-looking home. Lastly, use a semi-gloss or gloss paint finish to make sure the paint stays fresh looking and make cleanups easy.

2. Install White Crown Molding

Install crown molding to create a charming character and a high-end, sophisticated look. All the project requires is molding, which you can find at almost any home hardware store.  Have the store cut it to size for you, and make sure you have a nail gun. Install it to the base and tops of your walls throughout your home to transform the space into a modern, fresh look with white crisp lines.

The dimensions and texture of the molding add some antiquated texture, giving you both modern freshness and historical character. While creams and other neutral colors can work for molding, we recommend a pure white, which will contrast beautifully with any wall color giving you the cleanest, most elegant aesthetic. With just some fresh paint and molding you already have a canvas to work off of in your remodeling journey.

3.  Rip Up Your Carpet

If you live in an older home, there’s a good chance that there are hardwood floors hiding under your coffee-stained carpet. Peel up a piece of carpet in the corner to check. Whether you found new hardwood floors or have them already exposed, restoring them and adding a fresh coat of stain and sealant is an inexpensive way to get an elegant, earthy look that says ‘I’m expensive and durable’.

The upkeep of wood lasts longer and is easily cleanable, which adds a lot of value to your home. If you don’t already have wood floors and installing hardwood floors is out of your budget, there are many inexpensive alternatives that will give you the same look: natural bamboo, painted plywood, and cork tiles. Long-lasting laminate and porcelain now come in textures that mimic natural textures like wood, stone, and marble.

4. Update Fixtures

For the love of all things DIY, take out your old fixtures! Nothing says ‘I’m old and outdated’ like rusted bathroom knobs and tacky light fixtures. Replacing faucets, ceiling fans, and old light fixtures will transform the caliber of your home’s value and appeal of your home. Focus on bathrooms and kitchen areas where you want to especially communicate the feel of a sanitized and clean environment.

You can usually do this from $100-200. If you are under a real budget crunch, go vintage and find fixtures at flea markets and antique stores. Although these may be used, they give an elegant look with their distinctly vintage charm and antique appeal. Updated fixtures also increase the energy efficiency of your home, making your home and wallet more eco-friendly.

5. New Window Treatments

Cheap paper or plastic blinds can really inhibit the aesthetics of a high-end-looking home. Replace them with shutters, wooden blinds, or drapes. Drapes make a dramatically elegant statement. If you are selling, your drapes show off the potential for your space, but you get to take them with you as well, so it’s a win-win!

6. Freshen Up Your Kitchen

Installing new cabinets can be very expensive; but, adding a fresh coat of paint to your cabinets can give the same freshened appeal! Decide if you want to stain or paint. If you have wood cabinets, sand them down and stain them a rich, dark color like mahogany or espresso.

Or, paint a fresh coat of white to all your cabinets to immediately give a fresh and airy look to your kitchen. If you like the distressed look, you can easily achieve this with 100-200 grit sandpaper, wearing the edges where it would naturally get worn. Finish off your DIY project by replacing the handles and knobs for a full kitchen make-over for a cheap but beautiful solution!

7. DIY Your Bathroom Floors

Do not, repeat, do NOT overlook your bathroom floors! Carpet in bathrooms can make you (and everyone else) feel dirty and makes cleaning up next to impossible. Not to mention carpet can hold all kinds of water, moisture, and mildew in that fluffy mass. Consider resurfacing your bathroom floors! Most of the cost of installing bathroom floors is installation. Teach yourself how to install tile or natural textured linoleum with some online tutorials and you can have a more sanitary and visually pleasing bathroom without shelling out the big bucks.

8. Step Up Your Fireplace Game

Fireplaces are central to living places and family gatherings, making them a central aesthetic focus. If you have brick around your fireplace make sure it’s cleaned properly with a fireplace cleaner that gets off soot and built-up creosote. Adding a fresh coat of white paint to brick is an alternative for a modern, minimalistic look.

If you have a generic fireplace, doing a DIY remodel could be a major selling point to future buyers and add an expensive aesthetic to your home. Buying stone or brick and installing and grouting it yourself can be a fairly cheap way to add a beautiful stone fireplace.

9. Power Wash Everything

The exterior of your home has no doubt seen a lot through the years. Keeping up the maintenance of the external cleanliness will keep your house looking new and up-to-date. Cyclically power wash your exterior, or if you haven’t in a while, give it a whirl! You would be surprised at the effect of a good cleaning! You can rent a power washer for as cheap as $50 a day; this often will replace the need to paint, which is a huge saving! Also, power wash your driveway, walkways, and all your patio surfaces.

10. Replace Your Front Door

Replacing your front door with one with more character and charm will immediately increase the curb appeal of your house, making it look like a place of importance and grandeur. Custom doors that have a lot of detail can get pretty pricey, but, you can find doors at antique stores that have all the nuanced details you may be looking for. Or, if you’re more of a minimalist soul, giving your front door a good solid coat of paint will give it a fresh, clean look. Not to mention make you feel that much more excited to get to your front door after a long day!

11. Landscape, Landscape Landscape!

Landscaping literally transforms a home; the difference can be night and day. Plants add colorful scenery around your home and can turn a dull house into a quaint, visually engaging property. Creating a landscape that accentuates and nestles your property gives it dimensions and intrigue. One can’t just get the homey charm that mature trees give. So, accentuating and sprucing up your trees and planting new ones give your property lots of beautiful value.

To learn more real estate DIY tips, visit our blog!

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Mark Spain Real Estate is grateful to serve all of Metro Atlanta and Athens in Georgia, Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina, Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville in Florida, and Nashville in Tennessee!