How Should You Upgrade Your Home This Year?

How Should You Upgrade Your Home This Year?

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Whilst your home may look and feel “lived-in”, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re keeping it in the best shape. If you neglect to properly maintain your home and upgrade it when things start to look shabby or worn-out then your house is quickly going to become dilapidated in appearance. It takes work to make a house look and feel cozy. It isn’t about whether you’ve bought a modern house with all the latest commodities or not. At the end of the day, whether you live in a home that’s 2 years old or 2 decades old, it’s up to you to keep it looking fresh and feeling cozy.

 

How should you upgrade your home this year? That’s a good question. In this article, we’re going to talk about some of the improvements you should think about making to your home. Most of these suggestions involve relatively minor projects that you could complete by yourself with a little bit of DIY and a few Google searches. The key to upgrading your household is to make improvements that will keep your home in good shape for a long time. You don’t want to complete maintenance jobs every year when things start falling apart or the design of your home starts to look faded and dated. Here are some permanent upgrades you should make to your home that will improve it in the long-term.

 

Make your home minimalistic.

The first step to upgrading your home is to make it minimalistic in design. To start, you should declutter the house. Get rid of any unwanted possessions or anything that you’ve simply hoarded and don’t really need. Your home needs to be able to breathe, and that won’t happen if the layout is packed full of “stuff”. Still, spaciousness is only part of creating a minimal aesthetic. The visual side of your house needs to be “decluttered” too. For example, wallpaper with a busy design could be torn down. In its place, you could add a fresh coat of paint to your walls. Choose neutral colors so that you create a blank canvas on which to put any ideas, themes, or color schemes you want.

 

Make your home larger.

Tying in with the first point, your goal is to make your home larger. Cutting down on clutter is a good way to do this, but there’s only so much you can achieve by throwing out old things. If you want to have any belongings left then you need to think about ways in which you can store your possessions so as to better utilize your home’s space and make the household feel much larger. Throughout the decluttering process, you probably kept a lot of furnishings that you deemed practical in nature, such as that nice coffee table in the lounge. But you could replace those old furnishings with even more practical alternatives. For example, you could get a coffee table with drawers that provide additional storage space. Another smart way to create additional storage space could be to keep belongings under beds or even to create a cabinet underneath the stairs. Think about all the space that you’re not utilizing in your home if you want to make each room feel larger. You could put up shelves on walls to store certain things, for example.

 

Another way to make your home larger is to add a brand new room to the house. Perhaps you and the family just need a little more space to breathe. You could consider getting an extension such as a basement in your home so as to create additional space on your property. This space could be converted into a games room, a gym, or even a second living room (perfect for the family who always argues over what to watch on TV or Netflix). Of course, you don’t even have to go to the effort of physically extending your home in order to make it larger. As mentioned in the introduction, there are always easier ways to improve your home than you might think; a healthy dose of DIY is often all you need. You just need to think about the existing space in your household that’s not being used for anything. For example, if your garage does nothing other than serving as storage space for old junk then maybe you could convert it into a gym or family room. Think outside the box.

 

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Do some work on the garden.

It’s time that you did some real work on the garden. Even if you’re an avid gardener, there’s more you could be doing with this outdoor space than simply mowing the lawn and tending to flowers. Nature is vibrant and colorful, but it can be made even more powerful and aesthetically pleasing when combined with the right amount of manufactured design. Obviously, you don’t want to completely pave over your lovely garden, but adding a few creature comforts could really bring this area to life. You should work on the patio first. Get some comfortable chairs or loungers so that you have a place to relax and feel cozy whilst you admire the view of your garden. You could even look at patio awnings so as to provide some roofing and shelter over this outdoor area. Even if the weather takes a turn, you can still feel warm and cozy from your vantage point.

 

Feeling comfortable and relaxed on your patio is one sign that you have a great garden, but you shouldn’t stop there. Visually, you should want to take as much pride in the appearance of your household’s exterior as you do with its interior. And the rules for designing your garden are much the same as the rules for designing any room in your house. You need a strong backdrop, first of all. Repaint your fencing panels to make them feel fresh, and choose a natural color that doesn’t distract from the vibrant flowers, plants, and shrubbery in your garden. Additionally, this outdoor space needs a focal point. You should feel captivated by your garden. You could consider planting a tree in the center of the garden and have a path which leads up to it. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous then you could even consider creating a small fish pond. It’s all about ensuring that you retain the natural elements of the landscape even when human intervention is at play.

Tia, and TipsfromTia.com  is trying to keep you looking good and
feeling good, from the inside out. If you’ve got a problem or a tip email me! Be sure to Like and share on Facebook or Follow on Twitter or Instagram.