Simple Ways to Upgrade Your Home

One thing I realized a long while back is how much even some of the simplest projects can upgrade our lives! I remember just adding a little basket to my kitchen sink area for soap and sponges and things and OMG it was so great them not balanced on the back of the sink anymore! It took so little time but it was such a huge upgrade for us at the time. Since then I gave up and put in full on open shelving above the sink but I’ll never forgot what an easy little project once did to upgrade my kitchen life.

(This is a contributed post, for more information about my compensation please read my disclosure policy)

We all want our homes to be the best that they can be. This is understandable. These are the spaces where we spend the most time.

We want them to be up to our standards and tick all of our boxes. They’re also probably the biggest investment that the vast majority of us will make in our lifetime.

So, we want to ensure that they hold their value and will sell for more than we paid for them if we ever decide to sell up and move. The good news is that there are countless ways to improve and upgrade your home.

These projects can make your home suitable for you and increase its value. What’s not to love? Here are a few ideas that you might want to consider trying out in your own home!

Carry Out Renovations

Carrying out renovations is a major project and will take time, patience and a fair amount of financial investment. But the results are equally substantial. When you renovate your home, you change it drastically to better suit you and your family’s needs, or to maximize its value before putting it up for sale on the market.

Whatever your reason for renovating, it’s important that you get planning permission before getting started. Put simply, planning permission is the process of finding out whether local authorities will allow you to make changes to your property.

Wherever you live, there are likely to be building regulations in place that serve to protect the value of the properties surrounding your home. Planning permission ensures that any changes you make don’t bother people living around you. If you fail to get planning permission and someone complains, you may have to revert your home back to its original state. Not only is this hugely inconvenient, but it’s a huge cost for no reason.

If you can gain planning permission, here are a few popular renovations that can give your home a serious upgrade.

Loft Conversion

You may find that you need an extra room in your home. There could be various reasons for this. Perhaps you have a child (or another child) and require a room for them to grow up in. Maybe you’d like a guest room.

You might even want an extra room to use as a games room, a snug or an office. Whatever your reason for wanting a spare room, a loft conversion could be ideal. It provides you with the means of creating another room in your home, even if you don’t have sufficient land or space surrounding your property to add a conventional extension.

For most people, the loft is a relatively disused space. Having a loft conversion carried out effectively transforms this wasted loft space into a functional room that can meet all of your needs. Having an extra bedroom in your property can also significantly increase your home’s value. While it may feel a little disruptive having builders working inside your home, it’s more than worth it.

These projects don’t take all too long to complete and the benefits that come hand in hand with the extra room are priceless!

En Suite

An en suite is essentially a small bathroom that is attached to your bedroom. There are countless benefits of having an en suite – especially if you live with multiple people. Anyone who lives in a multi-person household is likely to be familiar with the stress of sharing a single bathroom.

Everyone tends to need to use the bathroom at the same time – when getting ready for work in the morning or getting ready for bed at night. Having an en suite reduces queuing and ensures that you have a bathroom to use as and when you want it. You can get ready quickly and easily without arguments or being rushed. En suites are also great for guest rooms, allowing guests more time and privacy when getting ready.

You will have to have plumbing work carried out to ensure there’s water available for the toilet, sink and shower or bath. But it’s definitely worth that work being carried out!

Upgrade Your Air Conditioning

Nowadays, most homes have air conditioning systems. But some of us have had the same systems for years now.

They may not be functioning as well as they used to, or there may simply be more efficient units on the market now. It’s definitely worth having an air conditioning service carried out, so professionals can identify and repair any faults or replace your unit with a better model if necessary. Air conditioning monitors air temperature and can also help to improve air quality by keeping air circulating.

So, never neglect your air conditioning unit!

Get Decorating

Sometimes, you don’t need to make major changes to your property in order to improve upon it. Instead, you can decorate your home to make it look better than it does right now.

Decoration can take many forms, but often, a new lick of paint on the walls can really make all the difference. This is simple to do, or, if you are unable to paint yourself, there are countless professionals out there who can take the hard work off your hands and give your property the perfect finish.

Make sure to patch test any paint colours you’re considering using. Sometimes, they can differ slightly from the colour in the pot once they’ve dried. They may also look different in different lighting. Testing patches on your own walls is the best way to determine how a colour will actually look and whether it meets your preferences and expectations!

These, of course, are just a few different ways you can upgrade your home at any given time. Hopefully, some of the ideas above have got your imagination going and will help you to make your home the best it can be!

(This is a contributed post, for more information about my compensation please read my disclosure policy)