6 Quick Ways To Improve A House That You Can Do Yourself

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When people look at houses to buy, they are often put off by how it looks inside. Peeling paint, dated wallpaper, stained carpets, broken kitchen units and the like are often enough to scare away the bulk of the people who come to look around.

For me, it has always been different as I look for ways to improve a house. Therefore I mainly focus on room sizes and general layout, along with property location and the all-important price! The internal aesthetic issues can generally be fixed fairly easily with a bit of effort and some basic DIY skills – and the property tends to be easier to get and a bit cheaper than if it was fully up-to-date and in perfect condition.

Ways To Improve A House

So here’s a few things we’ve done in every house we’ve moved into, to turn some pretty grotty houses into some really lovely family homes. You don’t always need to knock down walls or build an extension…

Update the Walls

Quick and easy, but makes a world of difference to a room. Strip off any wallpaper that is damaged or just not to your taste, pick a nice, neutral paint for the walls, and maybe add a feature wall in paint or wallpaper to give it a bit of style. This is what we went for in the hallway. Don’t forget to paint the ceilings of course!

Coving and Skirting

For us, we always put some coving up in every room, as it feels more homely and seems to finish off the wall nicely as the top. To add a bit of extra style we also always go for corner pieces. Not only do they look nice, they also mean you can hide your poorly cut coving corners!

Flooring

We’ve moved into houses with some horrific carpets and pretty cheap laminate flooring over the years. One time the bedroom carpet had literally been used to stub out cigarettes by the previous owner!

We’ve always gone for carpet upstairs, as it absorbs any noise that may otherwise drift through the floor to the rooms below and just feels nice underfoot in the bedrooms.

Downstairs we generally have gone for wood flooring throughout, apart from the utility room and cloakroom and a nice, cosy carpet in the lounge. We love the look of wooden flooring flowing from room to room and find the lines of the flooring make the room look bigger as they draw your eyes to the furthest point. Wooden flooring is also good for spills, which can be wiped off unlike a carpet! This guide might help too.

Light Fittings

Changing tired, characterless lights can also transform a room and really improve a house. Either by simply changing out a shade for something more stylish or by installing a feature light fitting, a few quid can make a lot of difference.

Internal Doors

We have always gone for matching six panel internal doors in our houses. A well-fitted, nicely painted and glossed set of doors with stylish handles can really set off a room well.

The Small Details

Finally, small simple touches such as curtains and personalised cushions can really help turn a house into a home. We generally like each room to have its own colour scheme and personality so it feels like you’re entering a different mood when you go between rooms, and cushions and curtains really help with that. You can also then accent those colours with other accessories, such as lamps and ornaments.

So there we go – a few ways to improve a house so you too can make a drab, tired house into a home that you feel is more to your own taste and has a more relaxing, classy vibe to it. Good luck in your own makeovers!

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