Simple Home Updates

1 Comment

Do you look at your home and think it needs updates, but the thought of the time, money & energy required to make the updates prevent you from doing the work?  You don’t need to tackle the whole house at once, instead think of one space at a time.  Additionally, there is no need to do a complete overhaul of the space – there are little things you can do that go a long way.  Here are some things to think about.

Take a step outside:

  • Mailbox.  This is sometimes the first thing people see when they pull up to your house.  A new mailbox, post, and set of house numbers is a relatively inexpensive & easy fix that will clean up the image of your home.
  • Landscaping.  You do not need entirely new landscaping, but cleaning up weeds & overgrowth and putting down some new mulch will polish up your outdoor space. Don’t stop at just cleaning up the yard & garden – tackle your driveway and any walkways too if you see grass or weeds growing up through cracks.
  • Front door.  Give your home a facelift by replacing your front door or even just repaint it if it’s in good shape.  Consider a fun pop of color that complements the rest of the paint colors of your house for a statement door.  If your budget allows, updating the door hardware will increase the curb appeal even more.

Inside:

  • Lighting.  If you have the budget to swap out some tired, old lights for more modern fixtures, this goes a long way in my opinion.  You could address one room at a time and you don’t have to spend hundreds on each light – I’ve seen many pretty lights for under $20.  Electricians usually charge an hourly rate so try to get an estimate for how many lights they can replace in an hour or two.  If this is outside your budget, simply swapping out your light bulbs can give your home a much more comforting feel.  Get rid of those bright, fluorescent lights and put in soft white bulbs.

  • Touch-up paint.  The general wear & tear of life puts a stress on baseboards, doors, and walls.  If you don’t want to completely repaint a room, consider just touching up the paint – hiding imperfections with a fresh brush stroke of paint.  Now is the time to patch any holes or fill in any dings.  Make sure you choose the right finish paint and you don’t use a gloss paint on what was initially an eggshell.

  • Fixtures.  If you have outdated or run-down knobs on cabinets, handles on doors, towel racks, or even vent covers, all of these are easy to swap out.  Replacing these give you an opportunity to let your personality shine through, while also making your space look more polished.  

  • Blinds.  If your home still has aluminum blinds or temporary paper blinds you threw up for a quick fix years ago, consider replacing them.  New window coverings can really modernize a room. 

Decor:

  • Furniture.  If you are disappointed with how worn some of your furniture looks, sanding & painting wood pieces for a fresh new look is always a great option.  This is an area where you can try out something different & have fun with it.  I almost tossed an old, weathered Adirondack chair a few summers ago, but decided to bring it back to life & painted it a bright blue to match some of my other patio furniture.
  • Decor.  Throw pillows, comfy blankets, candles, baskets to hold clutter, throw rugs, artwork for the walls, a statement wall with a peel-and-stick wallpaper, real or fake potted planets, table lamps.  All these are simple, easy ideas to update a space and make it more enjoyable to live in.  I personally love shopping affordable decor Target and Joss & Main.

If you found this information valuable and are interested in seeing my inspiration for home updates & decor, follow my Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/ecgoltz/

 

***Real Estate Tip***

If your home looks as though it needs updates to you, a potential buyer will see the same thing.  Making some of these indoor and outdoor updates could potentially help with the resale of your home.  Feel free to reach out if you’d like to run your thinking by me.

 

 

 

2016 Reflection

Leave a comment

img_1286

I’ve seen so many comments from a variety of sources about how terrible 2016 was and 2017 needs “to get here already.” I agree that we have lost some really talented individuals in 2016 (including my sweet Grandpa, Ed), but for us we were blessed with our son and for that reason alone, 2016 was a remarkable year for us. I will look back at 2016 with a lot of happy memories – it was a year for me where I really focused on myself and my family and tried to get the whole “Mom” thing down. It’s still a work in progress, but our little family is doing great and we will close out the year with a smile.

I also think 2016 was a fun year for us in that it was the year where we really started to tweak our home to be even more in line with our style. We purchased the home in 2015 so our first year was really spent moving in and getting settled in the space: new furniture, some area rugs, and cleaning up the yard. We made the house comfortable in 2015 and started fresh in 2016 with a laundry list of design elements to tackle; high up on the priority list was lighting.

My husband joked mid-year that he didn’t realize he married a “lighting expert.”  I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I did research lights a bit obsessively this year, trying to find the best lights for our home from chandeliers to wall sconces, ceiling mounts to pendant lights, exterior house lights to landscape lights.  We pretty much swapped out every light on the property and we have A LOT of lights.   I did so much research because as it turns out, there are a lot of things to take into consideration with lights.  First off, I wanted to keep in mind the traditional style of the house to make sure the new lights fit perfectly within the home architecture, including ensuring the lights flow smoothly from room to room.  Secondly, I wanted to move away from the shiny gold lights that were in place in the home, but since we weren’t changing the gold hardware on the windows & doors,  I had to find styles that complemented the existing hardware without pinning myself into a box of only shiny gold.  Finally, there are so many interesting lights out there that it took me awhile to commit to the purchases.  My hardest decision was probably the 2 hanging pendant lights over our kitchen island – for some reason, I couldn’t for the life of me make a commitment!

Once the lights were purchased, there were even more decisions to make including the length to hang specific lights, whether to put them on a dimmer or not, and the wattage of the bulb to put in (under the max wattage of course).  It took the full year to do all the lights as I broke the project up into about three different sessions of purchasing, installing, and then reflecting.  I found my lights from a variety of sources, all online: Pottery Barn, Serena & Lily, Ballard Designs, Lamps Plus, Shades of Light, Lumens, & Restoration Hardware.  I purchased a lot of lights in the black family (which complimented the gold hardware) and played around with some wood accents, as well as a handful of lights with some muted, brushed gold which turns out to really warm up a space.   I’m a huge advocate for putting lights on dimmers when you can — turn the lights up bright during the day and down to a soft glow at night.  My three favorite lights all turned out to be the big statement lights: Our Serena & Lily Chandelier for the front entryway, the Ballard Designs Weathered Oak pendant light for the bonus room, and the Pottery Barn Bellora Chandelier for over the kitchen table.  I think these lights really define my decorating style – they are beautiful but casual which helps create a comfortable and inviting space.  Now that the lights are all replaced and 2016 is in the books, I look forward to the exciting projects we will tackle in 2017.

Happy New Year!