Major home remodeling projects come with major price tags and majorly disrupt your life. But you don’t have to tear your house down to the studs to make an impact.

Enter the mini-renovation. 

Smaller renovations are easier to budget, can be done on a tighter time frame, and are usually less nerve-wracking. And even small projects have the potential to take a good home and make it great. 

Consider these glow-ups for small improvements with big impacts. 

#6 Enlist everyone’s favorite: Paint

Paint is easy enough to tackle yourself, but even if you enlist professional help, you’re still not paying much out of pocket. 

You’re going to need to take down all of your art and move all your furniture out of the way, so take the opportunity to rethink how you use whatever room you’re repainting. Often, simply rearranging furniture and updating artwork can give stale rooms a new lease on life.

The magic of paint extends to your exterior as well. A fresh coat of exterior paint on your siding can make your home stand out from the neighbors and increase curb appeal (with an ROI of 107%). It’s a surprisingly affordable re-do. 

#5 Install a patio

Building a deck or screened-in porch will cost you some coin, but pouring a patio pad is an affordable and practical option. Consider going with pavers, brick, stone, or concrete. 

Take the opportunity to spruce up your landscaping, buy a few new pieces of outdoor furniture or a new grill, and install a patio door off of the kitchen. Projects that increase your home’s functional space tend to have the highest return on investment, and with a new patio you’ve got a whole new outdoor room. 

#4 Give your kitchen a facelift

Kitchens may sell homes, but kitchen renovations are expensive. To avoid a hefty price tag (and probably a few months of washing dishes in your bathroom), it’s smart to step back and look at your kitchen with fresh eyes.

If you can pinpoint exactly what makes your kitchen look dated, you can choose the mini-remodel project that is right for you. Say you have a dated backsplash—get that redone! Those orangey wood cabinets could get refaced with a more timeless white cabinet. Upgrade your cabinet hardware while you’re at it. Cash in on the big box store’s yearly appliance sale and install a new suite of appliances. 

Plus, mid-range kitchen remodels have a higher ROI than fancier ones. It pays to pick your battles.

#3 Update your flooring

Wall-to-wall carpeting always seems to come with an expiration date—even if you enforce a strict no-shoes policy. You can shampoo those carpets and baby them as much as you want, but they’ll eventually look dingy. 

Upgrade once and upgrade well by installing classic hardwood floors. While laminates get better every year, if you are considering selling down the line, buyers love hardwood floors. They’re easy to take care of, gorgeous, and will never go out of style.

#2 Rethink your home’s lighting

Small outdated lighting fixtures make a home look small and…well, outdated. 

You don’t have to have advanced DIY skills for this one. If you know where your home’s breakers are and can commit to watching a few online tutorials, you can swap out your outdated overhead light. Install a dimmer while you are at it for more pizzazz. 

Lighting fixtures are the jewelry of the room. Time for some new jewelry. 

#1 Upgrade your windows

While lighting fixtures are fun to upgrade, it’s natural lighting that makes a home feel rich and spacious. If you can’t afford to knock out a wall, let in the light and add a window. 

Installing bigger windows will open up your views, make your home seem larger, and even improve your mood. Home window replacement is an easy job to break into smaller steps. If you can’t afford to replace all your windows at once, it’s simple to address those drafty downstairs windows first, and the next year take on the upstairs. If you’re looking for a big curb appeal boost, do the front of your home first. 

Reach out to Window Nation today and request a free quote for an affordable home upgrade with major impact. 

So, you have finally done what you said you were going to do for the last several years; you have replaced the old drafty windows in your home with new energy efficient ones. Now, the question is, what do you do with the old windows? This is an easy answer! Keep them and use them to create art or other useful items in or around your home. The trend right now is to turn old items like pallets, barn wood, old doors, sheet metal, and, of course, old windows into something that is both beautiful to look at and functional!

There are many resources that you can use to get inspiration for your home’s windows, but a good place to start is Pinterest. Pinterest can provide you with inspiration and instruction with just the click of a button! Listed below are five ideas that we have come across to hopefully get you started on the right track when re-purposing old windows that you may have lying around your attic or garage.

• Use old windows to create a headboard behind your bed. Use one window or several, depending on the size of the bed and wall, to create a unique headboard. As a bonus, photos or art can be placed behind the windows of the new headboard to create a personalized touch.
• Make a place to hang and store jewelry. Using an old window frame, chicken wire, a hammer, and a few nails you can create a shabby chic place to keep your necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that will have all your friends asking where you bought it from.
• Create a chalkboard to use as a calendar, menu board, or message board using the frame of an old window. This DIY project is a great way to add some style to your home along with a bit of organization.
• Use old window frames to create unique pictures frames. You can paint the wooden frame to add a pop of color or leave it as is for a more rustic feel. DIY window picture frames are a great addition to any room of the house.
• Use windows to create a DIY greenhouse. This project may require a bit of a higher skill level to pull off, but is a great way to re-use a large number of old windows and create an economical greenhouse that is environmentally friendly and beneficial.

Hopefully we have jump started your creativity, and you are ready to put those old windows that have been lying around to good use.

For more information about Window Nation and how we can replace any older windows that are still installed in your home with new energy efficient windows, give us a call today! We would be happy to help you get started choosing the right windows for your home and would love to see the after pictures of how you re-purposed those old windows!

Fall is Here! Our absolute favorite time of year. The leaves are changing to beautiful, vibrant colors, the nights are rosey cheek cool and the sunny days still require sunglasses. Perfect. Mother Nature is redecorating the trees and shrubs. What are you doing to redecorate your home in the celebration of the arrival of fall? There’s endless ways to re-decorate to celebrate the fall and harvest season of the year. Here are a few of our favorite ideas to help your home look the part this fall season.

Traditional fall decorating has been to commemorate the harvest season, as fall was the last real harvest of the year before the cold winter months made their debut. Bunches of dried corn stalks wrapped around light or porch posts and mailboxes with a twine belt to hold them there, are simple, easy and inexpensive. Add color to these easy bunches by poking in some dried holly berry or small tree branches with some bright red and yellow leaves. Add a hale bale or two on your front porch or near your entrance door with some beautiful pumpkins, squash and gourds of different size and color. Pumpkins don’t have to be carved to be a fall decor, of course the occasional jack-o-lantern is fun to make and use!

Pumpkins, gourds and squash of all shapes, sizes and colors are very friendly for indoor fall decorating. Painting them different colors, in patterns or with fun faces quickly melds them into your existing decor, except with a fall flair. Setting out and using candles that are red, auburn, yellow or brown in color seem to bring the colorful fall leaves inside. Wonderful fall smells like cinnamon and apple will bring your taste buds back to the realization that it’s apple picking season. Which means a bowl or basket full of nice, bright red apples is an edible healthy addition to your fall decor.

Of course, if you want to have a fun and easy project to remind you of your childhood days then bring in some fall leaves, add crayons, wax paper and an iron and you can make some colorful and fun leaf accents. Use these accents to tack up on existing picture frames on your walls to add the fall flair without removing what is already on your walls. String the waxed leaves together to make leaf garland that can be used on mantels, light fixtures and over doors and windows. Stick these colorful waxed leaves up on your windows for a fall stained glass-like look.

Flowers like pots of Mums, and sunflowers that are intertwined with grapevine, cornstalks, pumpkins and even a beautiful bloom of a purple cabbage are an easy and pleasing way to accent both the outside and inside of your home. Decorating your home for the perfect season of fall doesn’t have to be expensive, stressful or hard. Using traditional harvest items and switching them up a little bit to add texture color or style is all it takes. The options are almost endless. Help honor and celebrate this fall season with some of our favorite fall projects, but don’t forget, above all have fun!

There is just something empowering about being able to say I built that with my own two hands. Do-It-Yourself home improvement projects are becoming more and more popular these days. Especially if your home is on a tight budget, like many are with today’s economy. Projects that you can do yourself can save you the expense of labor and give you a sense of accomplishment. There are some set backs to DIY projects if you have not done the proper research and invested the appropriate amount of time, they can be dangerous and more costly in the long run.

Here are a few DIY safety tips for getting things started on the right track. Take a minute to look these helpful tips over before diving into any DIY project.

• Safety First: The number one thing to be aware of when starting a DIY job is unsafe work conditions. It is easy to think you have to cut corners on safety when doing a DIY project. Safety is the most important part of any home improvement project. It could not only make the difference between getting the job done but also it could save your life. It is important to read all safety material when using power tools, have a spotter available when using ladders or heavy equipment and also go through the right safety routes when dealing with things like electrical wiring.
• Tools: Having the correct tools for the project will not only get the job done faster but also keep things safer. You can purchase or sometimes even rent the right tools to get the job done. Make sure you read directions fully before using any unfamiliar tools. Safety is always the first step to getting any project done. If you are unsure about how to use a tool ask a local hardware store clerk for tips and ask a friend to be present when using major equipment.
• Materials: having the correct material for your DIY project is essential to getting the job done right the first time. You can ask professionals at your local hardware store for help picking proper material. It is not always best to choose the cheapest material. This could slow down the project later on. Asking for help and choosing the right material for your job is the best place to start picking material.
• Measuring right: Making proper measurements for your DIY project is essential for a good outcome. If measurements are off by an inch it can hurt the projects outcome. The rule of thumb is to always measure twice and cut once. If your measurement is off you may need to buy more material or start the project over.
• Building Permits: Having the proper building permits are very necessary to any project. If you have not secured the proper permit and you build on an addition. The town will tell you to take down the whole project and redo it with the appropriate permits.

These helpful tips are just the beginning of your DIY project. Local hardware store staff can help assist you further with project questions. Safety is the number one concern when starting any DIY project. Keep things safe and enjoy the learning experience.