With us all being at home more than normal at the moment you might feel the time is right for finally getting around to doing all those home improvements you have been putting off for years. I know we are! Sometimes it can feel a bit daunting and overwhelming but if you break down any project into smaller chunks it feels a lot more manageable and you would then be amazed how quickly you can get it done. “Sort out living room” feels huge but if you think of it as “repaint walls” and “rearrange furniture” it starts to feel more do-able, and like you can do it in a weekend or over a couple of evenings.
So here are my top three ideas of home improvements you can do over a weekend that will make a huge difference to your home, add value, and give you a real sense of achievement.
Redecorating
This isnt the major challenge people often think it is. The bit that takes longest can often be choosing the paint colours! Trust me, we have been stuck on this point for MONTHS. But once you have chosen your colour scheme it is definitely possible to redecorate a room in a weekend.
- Push all the furniture into the centre of the room and cover in dust sheets
- Take down curtains (maybe a good opportunity to send them to the dry cleaners for the weekend).
- Wash all paintwork with sugar soap to remove any finger prints and dirt on the walls.
- Put masking tape around the edges of coving, skirting boards etc.
- Cover the floor with plastic decorator’s sheets, as careful as you think you will be, paint splatters EVERYWHERE.
- Paint any lighter walls first if you are going to have an adjacent statement wall.
- Cut in the corners and edges with a brush, and use a roller for the main part of the wall. Only go in one direction!
- Once dry, remove masking tape and paint woodwork (if doing)
Don’t forget to have the windows open as much as you can in order to keep the room ventilated.
Replace kitchen or bathroom flooring
Laying a new kitchen or bathroom floor is a relatively easy task, and definitely do-able in a weekend, especially if you use laminate flooring. Heck you could even do a larger room such as a lounge, hallway or bedroom. Not only is it quick and easy but it can completely change the look and feel of the room too. Laminates used to be in a limited range of colours but now the colour range is huge and choose from all sorts of colours. You could rip up an old tired carpet and lay a crisp white farmhouse laminate floor in the kitchen giving it a whole new feel. Just remember if you are doing a bathroom that you make sure your laminate is suitable for that room.
Re-turf the lawn
We did this one recently. There was a patch of grass that we had killed over the winter because we had stored all of our garden furniture on it. Rather than waiting for it to grow by seeding it, we went to the garden centre and bought new turf. Yes, we have to water it daily for six weeks to really bed it in but the change to that grotty area of the garden was instant and only took a few hours.
Hire a skip
I know somebody who asked for a skip as a birthday present once. It made me laugh but I also thought “what a brilliant idea”. You can have a proper clear out of old or broken furniture, stuff from the back of the garage, loft etc and really feel a sense of achievement at the end of the weekend. Obviously as much as possible should be recycled or offered on Freecycle etc but for the stuff you know nobody will want there is nothing more satisfying than throwing it all in a skip.
Do any one of these home improvements and come Sunday night you can look back on all your have achieved, reward yourself with a cold glass of wine and the start the week with a very satisfied look on your face!
Photo of dog lying on laminate floor courtesy of Shutterstock