Staying in on the weekend? Try some budget-friendly home improvement projects
With so much time spent at home, many of us are paying more attention to our environment – and discovering that we don't like what we see.
At present might not be the time for a gut renovation, given the social distancing measures still in place and shifting rules regarding construction in different areas and apartment buildings. But it's a good fourth dimension to call up virtually smaller habitation improvement projects.
If y'all're willing to tackle the work yourself, there are changes you can make that won't cost much simply will have a big result on the appearance and comfort of your home. A few designers recently shared some of their favourite budget-friendly DIY projects.
PAINT TARGETED AREAS
Painting has long been touted as i of the least expensive means to make a big aesthetic modify. But at that place's a caveat that's often left out: Painting all the rooms in a home, from ceilings to baseboards, is a massive undertaking that can require weeks of neck-craning effort.
For more than immediate gratification, take a targeted arroyo to introducing a new paint color.
"Paint a pocket-sized space – say, a bathroom – a brighter or bolder colour that makes yous happy," suggested Rebecca Atwood, a Brooklyn-based fabric designer and the author of Living With Color and Living With Pattern.
Or apply a favourite colour to all the trim in one room, or all the interior doors, to change them from background elements to decorative features. "Nosotros all recall about the color of our walls," she said. "But we don't think enough about the doors."
Robert McKinley, a New York interior designer, offered another suggestion: Choose paint with an uncommon finish. In his beach firm in Montauk, New York, well-nigh of the walls are white, but the den is painted with a cloudy, deep-ruddy lime wash from Domingue Architectural Finishes.
"The lime wash basically gives the look and experience of a plastered wall, but anybody can practise it," he said. "I mean, talk about changing the room – it fabricated this simple, white room into the most special room in our business firm."
ADD WALL PANELLING
Home-comeback TV personalities similar Chip and Joanna Gaines accept been highlighting the appeal of shiplap and other kinds of wall panelling for years.
Panelling is relatively easy to install, said Joanne Palmisano, an interior designer in Shelburne, Vermont, and an author of Rock York Rental and other books on designing with salvaged materials. And a piddling panelling, she noted, can go a long manner.
"A lot of times we utilise it as a headboard panelling wall," she said, rather than panelling an entire room. "It gives it this dramatic feel and look."
When she renovated Main and Mountain, a cabin in Ludlow, Vermont, she used a scattering of green-painted vertical boards in invitee-room niches to create eye-catching storage areas. Ms Palmisano has even used reclaimed Shaker-mode chiffonier doors to create a panelled headboard wall.
The best installation method "depends on the expect you're going for and what'due south behind the wall," she said. In most cases, it involves identifying where the studs are, cutting the boards to size and securing them with a smash gun.
If y'all need help, she added, "At that place are so many YouTube tutorials."
CHANGE THE LIGHT
"Lighting is an like shooting fish in a barrel fix" – and one that tin significantly change the feeling of a room, said Tara Mangini, a founder of the Jersey Ice Foam Company, a blueprint firm.
Ms Mangini'due south firm has been offering Zoom pattern consultations during the pandemic, and she oftentimes sees a certain trouble: "So many people are in houses where they're just living with the same lighting that the contractors put in: Information technology's a affluent-mount light with one bulb that's too bright."
As well as replacing affluent-mount fixtures with more flattering pendants or chandeliers, Ms Mangini said, she also tells people to add fixtures closer to eye level: "Add some lamps and sconces, which is likewise a really great mode to bring in character."
If y'all utilize plug-in sconces, installation is easy. Just mountain them on the wall most outlets. Sconces are particularly useful beside beds or sofas and in a higher place counters or desks.
Compared to a unmarried, vivid ceiling light, having multiple lower-wattage fixtures "creates a mood," Ms Mangini said.
Peel AND STICK A Design
Wallpapering is another job that might sound piece of cake but can speedily become problematic when the paste spills and the paper bubbles and sags. One option for a simpler installation is peel-and-stick wallpaper, which is effectively a giant sticker for your wall.
"I'm embarrassed nigh how frequently I utilise it," Ms Palmisano said. "Simply it'due south a really easy way to make a dramatic change in a room."
Another reward: Removal is almost as easy as installation. "If it'southward put on correct, information technology can concluding a long time," she said. "But if you lot modify your mind, or you're renting, you can take it off earlier you lot movement, normally without damage."
And if you lot want to cover ugly flooring in a bathroom, mudroom or kitchen, at that place are skin-and-stick vinyl floor tiles – an old production that companies have improved with new patterns and colours.
During the pandemic, these products take surged in popularity, said Ryan Breau, the web marketing managing director at WallPops, a company that sells peel-and-stick wallpaper, floor tiles and backsplash treatments.
"Year over year, in April and May, nosotros saw a 350 per cent increase" in sales, Mr Breau said. "People were at habitation without much to do. With just a utility knife and a measuring record, they could do something really impactful to their environment."
OVERHAUL YOUR HEADBOARD
The bed is unremarkably the focal bespeak of the master bedroom, and the headboard is typically its well-nigh distinctive element. If you have an upholstered headboard that you don't dear, reupholstering information technology is an easy DIY project.
"You merely demand a staple gun," Ms Atwood said. "Y'all're stretching the fabric taut and staple-gunning it to the back. It's only like stretching a canvas."
Unlike reupholstering a sofa, re-covering a headboard requires a minimal amount of fabric, she said, and yous could fifty-fifty dye or print your own. (Ms Atwood'south book Living With Blueprint includes instructions for a DIY shibori-dyed headboard.)
If you don't have a headboard, you lot can make your own, said Ms Palmisano, who has made them out of plywood covered with carpet padding and imitation leather.
It doesn't even demand to attach to the bed frame. "You but brand a wall cleat," she said, or purchase ane, to mountain the headboard direct to the wall behind the bed.
BUILD A BAR
If new paint, calorie-free fixtures and wallpaper aren't enough to brand you happy with your interior, Mr McKinley suggested adding a bar. In his Montauk house, he and his wife, Kate Nauta, removed a door from a small closet to convert it into a space for mixing drinks.
"We did it ourselves," he said, by installing a couple of depression IKEA wall cabinets topped by a counter finished in back-painted acrylic. Above, they added sconces, a mirror and a vintage wall shelf to concord bottles.
This sort of improvement has multiple advantages during lockdown. "It looks and so cool," Mr McKinley said. And it'southward well equipped to ease anxiety.
By Tim McKeough © 2022 The New York Times
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/budget-friendly-home-renovation-projects-241656
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