Re-styling Your Older Home Without Remodeling

My neighborhood is comprised of homes build in the mid- 80's.  It is also full of couples in their mid 20's to mid 30's.  I was kind of surprised by this.  I thought we were just old souls. Apparently with the market full of short sales and repo's people buy older homes because they're cheap!  In cases like mine where we got a decent deal on our home, we also got a home that hadn't been updated since "Full House" came on TGIF.  Therefore there are things I like about my house but also things that aren't so fabulous.  The wall paper and boarders came down immediately, but there were other areas that really needed improvement. Here are some ways we fixed things up without breaking the bank.

1. Painting

• Man, what a fresh coat of paint can do for a room.  
• I recommend picking a relaxing color.  One you can live with and love. 
• $5 Per Gallon Paint- Paint gets expensive!  So every time I went to Home Depot, Lowes, Ace or even Walmart, I immediately went to the, "Opps!" paint shelf.  Everyone of these stores has one, you just have to ask where it's located. 



$5.00 Price Tag on Opp's Paint

•  The "Opps!" paint shelf is where stores house gallons of paint that people have returned or denied because there was an issue with the color.  Meaning, it wasn't exactly what they wanted or didn't match.  
• So the store discounts these gallons to cost anywhere from $2.50 to $5.00.  I look for light/neutral colors.  Sometimes you luck out and there is more than one gallon.
• But for my closets, small rooms or small bathrooms, these were perfect!!!
• These are also perfect for priming those rooms where you plan to radically change the color, thereby needing more coats than normal.

  

  Opp's Paint Can

• Paint w/ Primer- Lowes (Valspar Paint + Primer) and Home Depot (Behr Ultra) sell this kind of paint.  It works better at getting a good coverage on the walls.  I still have to do two coats but they are solid coats when I'm finished.  I have only used Behr brand.  I will never buy plain paint again.
• Warning on Color Selection-  For years we had rented.  When renting, I never wanted to mess with painting because I didn't want to have to paint it back when I moved out.  So when we bought our first home, I couldn't wait to paint my bedroom a deep red color.  TERRIBLE IDEA!!!  
• First of all, it took 4 coats of paint/primer to get the walls covered.  Then, I really disliked being in my room.  Pick a calming color for the rooms you spend the most time.

2. Counter-tops

• Counter-tops are one of those expensive messy jobs.
• Ours were a dark forest green color.  
• It was quit terrible.
• While at Home Depot I ran across this small container of paint made by Rust-Oleum that was supposed to be made for painting counter-tops.
• I was really skeptical at first.  In fact I bought some and my husband was so skeptical he asked me to return it.
• But after we decided that replacing the counter tops was not in the budget, we just went for it!
• It was worth it!!!
• It does exactly what it said it would do and now I have really nice looking counter-tops in my bathroom for about $40 with no ripping out of anything.

AFTER- Counter-tops painted brown, covering old forest green top.

3. Lighting/Ceiling fans

• My husband is an electrical engineer so I kind of have a pro around to do these kinds of jobs.
• To make our house consistent, we tried to pick the brushed bronze finish fixtures for our whole house as we replaced lighting.

BEFORE- Old Fan w/Shiny Gold Accents

• Ceiling Fans- We used to have old black fans with gold accents and half the light fixtures were dangling or not even working.  Grab a new ceiling fan w/ light and you get an instant update to a room. 
• New fans can range from $60-$200.  

AFTER- New Updated Fan

BEFORE- Old Bathroom Vanity Lighting

AFTER- New Bathroom Vanity Lighting

• Bathroom Vanity Lights- Just buying a new, updated vanity light can change your bathroom's look!
• Price range $40-$100.

• Chandeliers- I think these are great for high ceiling entry ways. However, we had a really weird hanging chandelier style light that was really low in our small kitchenette.  
• We replaced the low hanging chandelier light with a flush dome light and now we don't hit our heads, we have plenty of light, and it looks like we added a few feet to our kitchen space.
• Price range $20 - $50.

4. New Faucets

• These make a huge difference in updating a bathroom or kitchen.
• They can also improve functionality.
• I hated wrestling to get things like canning pots or bottles under my old faucet.  Now that it is arched and skinny I can fill up all kinds of stuff in my sink! 
• Price range $50-$200.

Before- Old Sink Fixture

AFTER- New Sink Fixture

Well, there you have it.  Four ways that you can update your house without having to do a major re-model.  It really makes a huge difference and you can expect to pay under $100 each if you are be thrifty about it.

Feel free to leave comments, ideas or questions!