The best home renovation ideas don’t just look good; they optimize space and serve a purpose. Innovative remodeling projects make your home look and feel better, and make it easier to live your life.
If you’re planning on remodeling your new house to sell or to live in, think beyond how things look. Take time to consider how they’re used and will it add value to your home. Here are some of the most insanely intelligent remodeling ideas on a budget for your new home.
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Create Wall Alcoves
Leave flat walls in the past and create multipurpose alcoves when renovating your home. These spaces can be used in a variety of ways that are both fashionable and functional. Use the space between wall studs or carve out larger areas on non-support walls to add dimension and texture to the room.
Wall alcoves are great from a design perspective, as they create opportunities for variations in the room. Turn an alcove into a bookshelf or a gallery-inspired art display with targeted lighting. Enhance the effect by visiting Shop @ Instapainting and have a custom painting of your beloved pet created to hang with a gilded frame.
Wall alcoves are also great for adding built-in shelves without taking away space from the rest of the room. The shelves can be used either as artistic displays or for storage purposes. Painting the interior of the alcove a different color than the rest of the room also creates a stunning twist on the traditional accent wall. Alcoves and recessed plugs are also a functional way to help arrange furniture in the rest of the room, allowing for couches to rest flat against a wall without concern about cords.
They are very easy to make and any DIY handyman with some basic tools could cut out an alcove in drywall within a few hours. Just line it with timber and a coat of paint job is done!. It is a great project to enhance the value and storage space of your home.
Rejuvenate your Flooring
Classic flooring is back in style in a big way. Wood floorboards are sleek, elegant and easy to clean. For older homes rip up the carpet and see what is underneath. All that you may be required to do is sand, stain, and polish those floors. You can hire all of the equipment from your local hardware store.
For concrete or damaged wooden floor why not lay down some floating floors. They are easy to lay down and often cheaper than carpet. Many stores will let you take home samples to see what color and style works for your room.
Tools needed will be a hammer, saw table for end cuts, and a few hours of your time. The laminate floor installation kit is all you really need.
Optimize Storage Under the Stairs and Between Floors
Stairwells are often banks of wasted space, both underneath the stairs themselves and in the space between floors. Due to their unique structure, staircases are also an ideal place to incorporate added storage or unique features that add value to a home when remodeling.
Add drawers into your staircase beneath the treads for a clutter-free way to hide seasonal clothing, such as gloves and mittens or bathing suits and sandals. You can also add drawers between floors, and disguise them with wainscotting or photo frames. These hidden compartments are also great for storing shoes, craft supplies for the kids or even important documents.
Sliding or folding doors on your stairs will hide away all the clutter for a clean look.
If you have sufficient storage for your various odds and ends, use the space under your stairs to create a playhouse, a wine rack or a bookshelf. An experienced carpenter can also add hinges to the staircase to flip them up for larger item storage or create a trundle apparatus underneath to slide out a rack for hanging coats.
Install Skylights in Dark Areas
Skylights aren’t just great tools for stargazing from your bed at night; they also create more natural light in spaces that are window-free in the home. For example, an enclosed hallway that has no natural light would benefit from a skylight. Additionally, a kitchen that has windows on an enclosed patio or deck could benefit from a centralized skylight over the center island.
What about those smaller areas that can’t fit a traditional skylight, like that enclosed hallway? Invest in a few tubular-style skylights. These lights look like round pot lights, but actually, bring in natural light from outside. The tubular structure can stretch through an attic to the roof without disrupting the space or creating heat loss issues, as is a common issue with larger skylights. A few of these scattered throughout darker areas in the home reduce shadows and cut back on energy consumption over time.
Skylights are great renovation ideas for old homes. They can be purchased in kit form of you can get a tradesman to come out for a small cost. Usually, they take around 2 hours to install depending on the size.
Install Baseboard Lighting and Vacuum System.
Baseboard lighting creates an elegant alternative to overhead lighting in various areas of the home. Take this feature to the next level by adding motion-sensors baseboard lighting that makes your late-night journeys to the bathroom safer and less disruptive than big lights. Leaving these on is also a nice alternative to plug-in nightlights for kids.
Another insanely convenient feature to incorporate into your baseboards is vacuum suction slots, particularly in high-traffic areas like the kitchen. While most homeowners are moving away from central vacuums others are embracing this old technology with a modern twist.
When you install these inlets into your central vacuum system, you simply open the valve switch with your foot plug in your vacuum hose. It is an easy and lightweight way of vacuuming your entire home. You can even install these under your cabinets to keep them hidden from view.
No more lugging around a heavy vacuum cleaner. The cost will be higher to start off with but it will add value to your home in the long term.
Install Smart Home Optimizations
Smart home technology is the wave of the future. While this emergent technology is still developing and has yet to become the norm in home remodeling, getting ahead of the curve can increase the value of your new home and make life a lot easier.
The best place to start is with a smart thermostat. Over time, this feature will pay for itself. Smart thermostats allow you to set schedules and control the temperature at home remotely. These thermostats can also be installed with relative ease by the average homeowner.
It’s also worthwhile to install smart outlets, as smart appliances are becoming more prevalent. With these outlets, you can use your home assistant to make you a pot of coffee or start your slow cooker, saving on energy and perfecting your time management skills. Smart outlets can also be encouraging to those who end up sitting at work wondering if they unplugged the kettle before leaving.
Smart lighting is the easiest smart upgrade to make when renovating. Using smart bulbs with motion sensors to cut back on energy consumption will save you money. Not to mention the cool glow of these smart bulbs is endless. You can now get them in warm tones or 1 million other colors with the ability to dim or be remotely controlled on a set timer.
We use Philips Hue smart lighting and they are a great color changing lighting system for our whole house. We set them to turn on as alarm clocks to wake us up in the morning as well as motion sensor lighting with different colors for different times of the day or night.
Lighting is a simple home renovation idea on a budget. Get rid of those old incandescent light bulbs and go with either downlights or smart globs.
Pocket Doors
Pocket doors are a door that slides into a cavity in the wall. They are a modern feature that creates a clean flow throughout the home and prevents damage to the walls from swinging door knobs.
They make a statement in terms of interior design and create separation without cutting up the house. As they are simple to install and versatile in design, avid DIY home remodelers can handle it with minimal experience.
Often interior pocket door walls are slightly thicker to accommodate the door as well as the wall framing. Check out the video below on how to install a pocket door.
When making changes to your new home, find the balance between elegance and efficiency. Investing in upgrades will benefit you in the long run and increase your home’s resale value.
Feature Wall
Everyone likes a feature wall. They can be painted or styled the way you want. Wallpaper is coming back into fashion with man different styles and colors available.
Wall art made from printed vinyl can tell a story or say a message that will inspire others. If you incorporate the feature wall with something like a fireplace than you have the perfect combination.
If you have an old internal brick feature wall you could render it and then paint the wall for a very nice flat look. This home renovation idea on a budget would be very cheap and anyone could do it. Just ask for brick render at your local hardware store.
I am a qualified Industrial Electrician for the past 20 years and I love to share my knowledge on home repair and maintenance jobs.
I love fast toys like Motorcycles, Cars, Jetskis, Boats, and Computers so writing about them is easy. Working on them is fun.
To keeps costs down I do all my own mods, repairs, and servicing. These skills I want to share with everyone. DIY is a skill everyone can learn.
