No matter how big or small your home is, it is up to you to make sure you take care of, and improve your biggest investment. Even if you aren’t planning to put it on the market any time soon, maintaining it’s home value is important for the future. Luckily we have these easy DIY projects that will boost your home’s value, curb appeal and livability!
Landscaping for Home Value
Add Flowers. An inexpensive picket fence and just 3 types of flowers made this home into a showpiece, from ‘DIY Network‘. Want to steal this exact look? The flowers are a pink shrub rose, blue salvia, and green lady’s mantle. (White Alyssum would be a good inexpensive substitute for the lady’s mantle that you can grow from seed!)
Plant a tree. Nothing looks toward the future more than planting a tree! Not only will it boost the look of your landscape if you are selling soon, it will increase your home value in the long run by adding mature shade, energy savings and an established look to your home. Learn how to plant a tree from ‘HGTV‘.
Install Smart Home Devices
Install a programmable or smart thermostat for energy savings and convenience. You know you want one. 🙂 Today’s homes have home technology integrated into everything from the garage door to the coffee pot. You can start with something easy, like a smart thermostat such as “Nest”. These thermostats allow you to adjust the controls remotely via your phone or other device. Ok, maybe that just means you can turn up the heat from bed on Sunday morning. (These are great systems when you are away from home though, even at work!) Learn how to install a Nest thermostat from ‘Apartment Therapy‘.
Install a Home Automation Hub to take your home to smart home level. The more you increase the home technology that your home will be able to utilize, the more you increase your home value. Now that you mastered the smart home thermostat, with a smart home hub you can integrate more technology when you’re ready, such as video monitoring and alarms. It’s relatively affordable, a good investment for future home technology to increase your home value and your happiness while you live there!
Remove Popcorn Ceilings
Always remove popcorn ceilings! They damage the home value of any house. Yes, you have to be careful of asbestos if your home was built before 1978. If it was, or if you have any doubts, be sure to have it tested before you do anything. But popcorn ceilings without asbestos can easily be removed DIY. Nothing, and we mean nothing, will update the interior of your home faster! Find out how at ‘Instructables‘.
Want to know how to test for asbestos? You can either call in a professional, or can you can order an asbestos test kit. ‘Do It Yourself‘ has directions for how to obtain a sample, and ‘Lowe’s’ and most other home improvement stores carry an asbestos test kit. After you obtain your sample using the safety precautions prescribed, you mail it off to a lab. Then, and only then, can you be 100% sure you can remove your popcorn ceiling safely at home.
Declutter Your Home
Declutter! Ok, maybe this should have been number one, it is so important! Nothing subtracts from home value more than clutter and “stuff”. This one takes some elbow grease, and maybe a little “learning to let go”, but costs the least. Take it room by room and step by step, and be brutal.
We love these five easy steps to declutter your home from ‘House Beautiful UK. They take you through room by room and give you the top tips to getting your home organized.
Or, try these four easy steps to declutter your home from ‘Southern Living‘.
DIY Paint
Paint selectively. Ok, when we say paint, what we mean is “re-paint”. Why? One of the top turn offs to prospective buyers are paint colors that aren’t neutral. Even in kids’ rooms, people have a hard time seeing past the personal nature of your choice in paint colors. It doesn’t mean you have to repaint the whole house! Generally, rooms that have scuffs and wear, such as kitchen and baths, kids rooms and hallways need DIY paint touch ups the most. And, of course, that purple bedroom. 🙂 That doesn’t mean it has to be all beige though. Learn about the new neutrals at ‘DYSS’!
Change Light Fixtures
Update lighting. Few things date a home like those old brass light fixtures. Updating the lighting in your home can be done room by room, and should reflect the overall style of the home. Modern fixtures can be used to add a more contemporary feeling to a builder grade home, which makes it look more expensive. Industrial or farmhouse style lighting can add vintage charm to a house that lacks detail in other places. Learn how to change a light fixture, safely and easily with this step by step tutorial from ‘BHG‘.
Or, try making your own DIY farmhouse bathroom vanity light fixture with this tutorial over at ‘Liz Marie Blog‘. Really added character!
Update the Bathroom
Freshen the bathroom. Outdated bathrooms suck the home value right out of any house. We spend a lot of time there, and we want to feel pampered, not afraid of what is under that bath mat! You don’t have to do an expensive bath remodel to update. This DIY bathroom reveal by ‘Bower Power‘ shows a great before and after of an average bath… transformed with DIY projects like paint, a new light fixture and some details, like a new shower curtain. Go check it out, you could do this this weekend!
Want to install a bathroom vanity yourself? ‘Cherished Bliss‘ takes you through the whole process, from removing the old vanity, to replacing the new one. From plumbing to installing a new countertop, you can do this! What a change!
Update the Kitchen
Redo the Kitchen Cabinets. Ok, admittedly it’s a little more work to update the kitchen, if only because it is a larger space. However, same thing applies here… you don’t have to do a kitchen remodel to make a difference in your home value. Painting the cabinets, updating the faucet and adding a backsplash can make a serious improvement. Learn how to paint kitchen cabinets with this tutorial from ‘Place of My Taste‘. Check out the before and after. What a fresh kitchen update! The two toned cabinets for the upper and lower is really on trend, too.
Before
After
Install a New Kitchen Backsplash. Want the easiest kitchen backsplash ever? Then install a peel and stick backsplash with this tutorial from ‘Craving Some Creativity‘! It really is peel and stick, no power tools required! And it looks like real glass tile, ’cause it is.
Increase Your Home Value with Curb Appeal
Enhance your Exterior. You can do so many things to enhance your home value with curb appeal. What your home looks like from the curb is a direct reflection on how people will value it in their minds. This Before & After Curb Appeal makeover from ‘HGTV‘ shows a variety of ideas. You can pick and choose the ones that will work best for your home value goals. What catches our eye first here is the address sign. While this one was done by a contractor, you can o your own version of a DIY address plaque. We have a tutorial for that as the next project after your check out this whole curb appeal redo!
We can’t say it enough, curb appeal, curb appeal, curb appeal. Make sure your home shines from the street! Clean it up, cut back overgrown plants, add a window box, replace an old mailbox… you get the idea. A nice new door mat and maybe this new house numbers project from ‘4 Men 1 Lady‘ are just the thing to give your home value that added boost.
Lastly, Steve and I have seen so many homes whose value were ruined by an outdated front door. It is the “eye” to your home and the first thing everyone looks for. Make it count! Learn how to paint your front door with this tutorial from ‘BHG‘. If you do nothing else to amp up your curb appeal, this one thing will make the most difference.
We hope you enjoyed learning about how to Boost Your Home Value with DIY Projects! We think you will also love our posts on How to Reupholster Almost Anything and How to Hide the Ugly: Outdoor Eyesores! And check out Floating Deck Ideas you can build over at TGG!
Note: This post has been refreshed with updated projects.
Tackling popcorn ceilings yourself is doable but it can turn out to be a tedious and horribly messy job. You may find damage that needs to be repaired. Your bare ceilings will need a coat of primer and one or more coats of ceiling paint and that can turn into touch ups on the walls. If you take it down dry, you’ll have dust in places you didn’t know you had places. Not sure how this can be described as “easy. “
I’m looking for your staircase where you changed the out dated stair railing into a narrow cubbies
I’m trying to find the instruction.
Thanks and hope you can help me.
Author
Hi Karen, Not sure what you are looking for exactly, but perhaps it’s our stair railing post at https://www.decoratingyoursmallspace.com/diy-stair-railing-projects-makeovers/. Hope that helps!
I love your bathroom pick and gray paint choices. This list is great and I’m hoping in the next few months I can convince my husband to add a Nest system to our house.
Author
We are building and decided on the “EcoBee” instead of the Nest… there are others!