Decor | DIY | Home Maintenance | Interior Design

5 Ways to Make an Old Home Feel New

Is your home looking a bit worse for wear? Over time, even the tidiest of houses inevitably lose their charm, and no amount of cleaning can restore the original crispy shape. Still, you can do a few things to update your shabby place and modernize it without ruining its vintage appeal. From fresh lacquer and wall paint number to cozy accessories and lighting upgrades, your worn-looking living space can shine in a whole new light with minimal investments involved!

Chair

Image credit Nicola Holtkamp

1. Spruce up wooden surfaces

Restore the rosy sheen to antiquated wooden furnishings by applying a fresh lacquer coat and polishing the surface to a high shine. First off, eliminate impurities, peeling paint, and dust from the surface, sand it, and wipe it clean with a soft cloth and gentle cleaning liquid. Then, apply transparent lacquer to the wood using an aerosol gun, remove stains from the area with a tack cloth, and let it dry well before applying the next coat. 

sweet kitchen

Image credit countrykitty

2. A playful splash of color

Spring is the best time for repainting and re-plastering works around the house. Determine the dominant color scheme in the room before launching a DIY wall paint project: bright tones will work well in spacious homes, but smaller spaces usually look much better in white or neutral hues as these reflect light and create an illusion of added space. Updated walls can add 3-5% to your home value, and repainting is a popular house flipping project which can be executed the DIY way for maximum savings.

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Image credit charlotte holmes

3. Let the LED light in

Sunlight is the best source of illumination for spacious homes, but if your place could use a bit more light, replace heavy drapes or blackout blinds with airy curtains and consider adding LED strips to shady corners such as the staircase, wardrobes, and windowless hallways. Ceiling fixtures look awfully outdated, so replace them with recessed lighting, or swap conventional for compact fluorescent or next-generation halogen bulbs: these last longer and can significantly lower your electricity bills in the long run.

4. Inner child at play

Why not transform a vacant wall into the focal point in the room with the help of wall art or cork panels? Empty living room space looks grim and unwelcoming, and you should not put up with it because DIY wall masterpieces are extremely easy to create. Just print out a stack of cool photos, decorate the wall with ribbons, pin up a few love notes and/or your kid’s drawings, and finish the panel off by gluing on a few dried rose petals or seashells. A perfect backdrop for leisurely weekends, imaginative wall art will bring back a smile to your face at every glance.

sweet kitchen

Image credit countrykitty

5. Spatial skills revisited

One more small-scale project that can help you fall in love with your home again, reorganization of existing furniture can transform a plain-looking room and increase its visual interest. If you have a large room, break it up with open-back shelving, a wall of potted plants, or floor-to-ceiling macramé, or use area rugs to divide the space into separate visual units. Move heavy furniture away from the window area, bring seating closer to the source of natural light, and take the TV out of the boudoir and plop it in the guest room.

However neglected, every home can become sparkling new with just a little tender, love, and care. Repair leaks and broken wall outlets, throw a splash of color onto the walls, replace curtains with new ones, rethink the room layout, and upgrade lighting: these projects are simple enough for any homeowner to conduct on their own, and they also come with a minimal price tag attached, but the charm they can add to the living area is priceless.

This article was written by Zoe. Zoe is a proud mom of one baby girl and a miniature schnauzer. When not obsessing about designing perfect homes, Zoe is spending time with her family. You can find her on Twitter.

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