What If You’re Unsured About How To Renovate Your Home?
The idea of spending time to renovate your home is largely a good one – if you invest in your home space, the value should hopefully add to your property’s worth and thus your ownership of such an asset. But of course, renovating a space can be good for its own sake, as it allows you to live in a better, more up-to-date property. It could also expand your square footage, grant you new utilities, or develop a more comfortable household for your family’s changing needs.
But of course, all of the advice about renovating your home somewhat assumes that you know what your goals are in the first place. What if you have the money, time, energy and willingness to renovate your house, but you’re not certain where to start? What if you’ve never decorated thoroughly before, let alone altered the structure and function of a house? What if you’re relatively new to the space and aren’t certain what the home needs to begin with?
There’s no obligation to start a renovation of course, so perhaps waiting a little until you’re sure is a good idea. But if you’re looking for some advice that may help point you in the right direction, some of the following advice could help:
Consider The High-Value Areas
A renovation is an investment most of all. You’re not just paying outright for nothing, you want a better home and ideally, that value to be added when you come to sell. So if you’re unsure of where to begin, focusing on high-value areas can help make sure that your investment pays off for both of those outcomes.
In general, the kitchen, bathroom, and primary bedroom tend to be the most important spaces in the home as value is concerned (interior-wise at least), largely because they get the most use and can define the character of the entire space.
Of course, your day-to-day life can improve dramatically just by upgrading these spots. For instance, modernizing a kitchen to a newer standard (or at least with better functionality in line with the prior rustic aesthetic) not only brings in better appliances but also allows for greater storage and a more usable layout. Perhaps you’ll find room for a breakfast bar, for example, a utility you didn’t have beforehand.
In addition, changing your bedroom’s design to a more relaxed, functional area can improve your sleep and mood, while a bathroom renovation can make certain you’re working with efficient plumbing and modern utilities to make life easier – perhaps you’re adding an en-suite, and so converting your main bathroom into a wet room. Of course, these areas aren’t always in need of major renovations, but targeting them first can help you see the most value if you don’t mind starting somewhere new.
Can You Add Bedrooms?
You don’t have to necessarily extend the property to gain new bedrooms. Perhaps you have a large master bedroom that could be converted into two smaller bedrooms for children, which could be perfect if previously-sharing children are getting older and wish for their own spaces, or if you have another bundle of joy on the way. Maybe you just want a spare bedroom for guest visits, a nice luxury that can help your home seem more valuable on top of that.
Just make sure the spaces have their own entrances, remember that you may need to add windows or implement dividing walls, and also consider different aesthetics. If you have a spare room that could be converted to a bedroom, that would be good too. For example, you might have an older teenage boy who likes to listen to his music on speakers, so using a downstairs spare room converted to a bedroom might prevent him from waking you up at night and also give him autonomy over his own space. Little adjustments like this can be a good start.
Bathroom Renovations Can Teach You
There’s an old adage when it comes to home renovations – if you can refit a bathroom, you can improve any room of the house. That’s not an old adage actually, we just made it up, but the fact it was believable says everything.
It’s a confined space with a clear function, and with the right investment, it can drastically improve how you plan your daily grooming and the comfort you meet and say goodbye to each day. Of course, you don’t need to go for top-of-the-line marble counters or imported tile to make it feel luxurious; as smaller improvements like upgrading fixtures, installing a better shower, or even retiling the floor can make the space look new.
While you shouldn’t ever attend to plumbing and electrical circuits yourself, it’s true to say that planning their rerouting with a contractor can help you understand the basics of how rooms are structured. Of course, other lessons are learned here too, such as how to ensure good ventilation, airflow, and air extraction to prevent dampness. This will be important in your kitchen too, but every room can suffer trapped moisture so it’s a wise lesson to learn now.
Reinvigorate Your Kitchen Space
It’s a cliche by now to call a kitchen the heart of the home, but it’s true – so much of daily life revolves around cooking and eating, not to mention the sense of community that often comes with sharing food or snacks with your family. If your kitchen could be better off for you, perhaps to chang the oven to an oil-burner, or to implement induction hobs, that could be a good place to start.
You could also start by upgrading appliances, as energy-efficient ovens, refrigerators, and dishwashers can save you money in the long run and just make cooking and dealing with dinnertime easier to handle. If you’d prefer a more structural change, knocking down walls to create an open-plan space can completely change how your kitchen feels and impacts the flow of the space. As we mentioned above, perhaps you’re just looking to improve ventilation by installing a great extraction hood to sear steaks without worrying about the alarm.
Kitchen spaces can be the most fun to renovate because you get to decide what works for you and how you like to cook. You can also enjoy different trimmings that help perfect the space, like inset cabinets or a more expensive countertop that suits your taste. It all makes a difference.
Consider A Minor Extension
Extending your home doesn’t need to feel overwhelming if you think about it as a series of small improvements or a small project that has a process already laid out for you to follow. In other words, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for this. In fact, adding just a few meters onto a room can change the entire feeling of a space, and often, that’s all you need to make it feel new. Perhaps you could push the kitchen out a little, allowing for more light or a small dining area, or maybe extend a living room so you can open it up into the garden with French doors that open wide and let nature in during the summer.
A conservatory can be a good place to start, for example. It gives you a comforting exterior space that can also be designed like an interior and gives you somewhere comfortable to sit in summer. Better yet you don’t have to design this room to strict standards, you can make it a utility space, a place for an extra television and a few seats, or just a home office for you to work from. Extensions also tend to add a great deal of value, even if they’re fairly common in design and don’t do anything new.
Garden Renovations Can Add Great Value
“Curb appeal” is an interesting phrase and often used by real estate agents – basically it’s the kind of impression your home gives from the front or back. Impressions do matter, especially when it comes to the final valuation. You could do worse than fixing up the exterior, the front yard, and the driveway of your home. Such a garden renovation could be as simple as setting up a more comfortable seating area or as involved as building a small deck or gazebo where you can host summer entertainment, or even a porch that you can use as a shoe storage area between the front door and your home.
If you’re looking to invest a little more, reworking the landscape, or installing a few easy-to-manage plants could add to your property’s front appeal. Maybe that can have the knock-on effect of widening your driveway a little so the turn out isn’t quite so steep, or adding a small treeline for privacy. This is particularly helpful if your home is in an area where outdoor spaces are a selling point, but even if not, it’s always nice to have an outdoor area you enjoy spending time in.
With these tips, we hope you can see that even if you’re unsure about how to renovate your home, there are still a good amount of options to consider. It’s really hard to go wrong with anything on this list. We’re sure your stellar taste will make the right choices.
