If you’ve found yourself with some time on your hands and a little cash tucked away, why not tackle a couple home improvement projects? Not only are these great for raising the value of your home and bettering day to day life, but most are fun to undertake.
Check out some of our favourites...
Draught proofing
While this may not be the most exciting of home improvement ideas, it’s one of the most important. There are many ways that you can draught proof your room, but here are a couple of the most effective:
- Foam, metal, or plastic draught strips to seal windows
- Snake draught excluders for doors
- Hard-setting decorator’s wall-filler to fill bedroom wall cracks
- Fill gaps around lighting and electrical fittings with wall-filler
The materials involved will all be available at your local hardware store.
While draught proofing your bedroom is beneficial in itself, we recommend that, for maximum effectiveness, you take to draught proofing your whole home. This will not be an overly expensive venture, and it’s one that can save you money on energy bills in the long run.
Clever storage
This can be a really fun project to brainstorm ideas. But, if you need a helping hand, here are some of our favourites:
- Organise your drawers with dividers
- Put up some shelving in your alcoves
- Hang your laundry hamper on the back of the bedroom door
- Invest in a bed frame with built in drawers
- Store socks and smaller items in hanging baskets
If you’re looking for a slightly bigger project to improve your storage space, why not try revamping your closet? This could be done by rearranging hanging rails to provide a more logical layout, fitting additional shelves, or adding a lick of paint to the closet doors.
There are so many options for clever storage solutions, ones that can really have an effect on day to day life. In our opinion, there’s nothing more satisfying than everything in the bedroom having its own place. Plus, what’s so great about fitting storage is that nearly anything you choose to do in this realm can be accomplished with a DIY project.
Upgrade your flooring
No matter what your original flooring type, a makeover is always possible, allowing you to beautify your bedroom while adding value.
If your flooring currently consists of laminate, fake wood, or carpet, a great way to ensure your home sells faster and for a higher price would be to upgrade to hardwood flooring. While hardwood floors typically cost 30%-50% more than laminate, their durability means they can be a great investment.
If your bedroom already has hardwood floors in place, show them a little love. If they already have a wax coating, hire a handyman to rewax and finish your floors. If they do not, you can buff and polish them yourself. However, before undergoing this venture, make sure you’ve done your research on whether this is suitable for your home’s individual flooring.
Another great way to add value would be to revive your carpets. While there are many DIY techniques plastered across the internet for cleaning your carpets, we recommend you hire a professional. If you make a blunder with these at home methods, you can potentially ruin an expensive, and extensive, part of your bedroom.
Adding glazing
Jump on the trend of glazing, glazing, and more glazing. There are so many options for what type and where to install additional windows, but we’ll take you through just a few of them.
A skylight for your bedroom is always a great option. Installation costs are not as excessive as one may think; to add a Velux window to your bedroom ceiling, it can be around £500 for the actual skylight, and £300-£400 for an experienced builder to install. Top tip: where you place your skylight is up to you, but we recommend installing it above your bed in order to make your room feel more centred.
If your bedroom is lucky enough to boast an impressive view, a large horizontal window could really take advantage of this. This has the potential to make a room feel more bright and open - not something to be passed up on. Our favourite window style, and one that is currently popular with many homeowners, is crittall glazing.
If your bedroom suffers from stuffiness in the summer months, adding more windows could be your simple solution to this. By positioning your windows at opposite ends, you can create cross ventilation, meaning fresh air is able to travel all the way through the room. In the long run, with more heat waves predicted, installing additional windows is a much cheaper alternative to air conditioning.
Find out more about the costs of glazing here.
Installing a juliet balcony
Our final suggestion, and truly the pièce de résistance. While juliet balconies are a more luxury home improvement, if at all possible they can be a great addition to your bedroom. They have the capacity to let in plenty of natural light in, provide a lovely view, and connect your bedroom to that all important outside space. They are also the simplest of balcony structures (as there is no protruding floorspace), and so can be done on a tighter budget.
What level of quality you go for will affect your overall spend. If you’re going for basic metal railings with uPVC french doors, the cost incurred will be significantly lower than if you choose a glass railing with top of the line bifold doors.
Top tip: While juliet balconies do not generally require planning approval, it’s always best to check with your local planning officer before any changes are made.
