Budget Busters: A Guide On How To Renovate Your Home On A Budget

Everything you need to know about renovating your home without breaking the bank

House renovations are so expensive that many people have to take out a loan or second mortgage to be able to do the work they would like to. This is something that just isn’t reasonable for most people. 

If you are looking to renovate your house on a budget then you have come to the right place. This article contains over 30 hacks to help you give your home a facelift, without having to sell a few organs to afford it. 

Cutting down costs

Cost is always the biggest obstacle

Fully renovating a house can be expensive (the average 2021 house renovation costs $55,000), there is no way to get around that. However, not every home needs a full wall-destroying, carpet-lifting, new-bathtub renovation. In fact, most homes can be ‘renovated’ with some smart thinking and a lot of paint. 

Every home is different and there may be some areas of your home that you have to spend money on and some that you don’t. So you may find yourself needing to save money in other areas. We can help you too if you are in that situation. 

No matter the scale of your renovation, you will need to do the following two things: assess your finances and set yourself a renovation budget. 

Understand your finances

Don’t spend money that you can’t afford to 

There can be a lot of pressure on homeowners, particularly first-time homeowners, to get their home Instagram worthy within days of moving in. 

This can be expensive, time-consuming, and it’s something that is not possible on every budget. But, we still feel the pressure to make our homes look like the ones that we’ve seen online. 

While there is nothing wrong with wanting to live in a beautiful home, it’s not worth putting yourself in financial trouble over. 

When renovating your home, don’t spend money that you can’t afford to – there is no point in overspending to the point where you can’t afford to keep living in your newly decorated home. 

Set up a budget and stick to it

Document how and where your money will be spent

The easiest way to prevent yourself overspending is to create a very detailed budget before you even buy the first can of paint. 

Start by working out how much money you can afford to spend on the product, and how much you want to spend. This will be your overall budget. 

Then write down a list of all the things you want to do in your home. Assign a portion of your budget to each job. If each task has its own budget, it will be harder to overspend.  

Remember: Clean up!

Clean up your home first before renovating

Once your budget is done, but before you start renovating, you need to clean your home. Not only will this make the process of renovating much easier. It will also allow you to get a better idea of what your home looks like. 

You may discover that you don’t hate your dining room, you just hate how cluttered it is. Or you may discover that you have a really nice shower under all that moldy grout.  

You may want to move your furniture around and try them out in different places. You will probably find that you like the space a little bit more. This will also show which pieces work in your space, which ones can be saved with a makeover, and which ones just need to go. 

It is so much better to learn all these lessons before you spend money on new pieces or throw anything away only to find out that you could have used it in your new look home. 

Cleaning activities to do before renovating your home: 

• Deep clean your carpets 
• Declutter your belongings 
• Wipe down your walls 
• Deep clean your bathroom 
• Deep clean your kitchen 
• Dispose of any rubbish or broken items of furniture 

As you move through your home, you may want to remove the furniture from the rooms you are working in. If you cannot remove them, don’t forget to cover them with dust sheets. 

Ready To Renovate On A Budget

An easy guide to renovation 

Here are 26 ways that you can improve your home without spending huge amounts of money:

Begin with the front door

The first part of your house people see 

The first thing you will see when entering your house is your front door. If it looks shabby and run down, it will make you look at the rest of the home with a more critical eye. 

However, if you replace your front door with something that is chique, elegant, and in keeping with the theme of the rest of the house. Well, you’ll be feeling proud of the building before you even step into it. 

If you don’t want to purchase a new door you can sand down your current one and repaint it. 

Create natural light

Natural light makes any room look bigger 

When people discover a dark room, their natural reaction is to start knocking down walls and/or installing new windows in the room. Both of which can be avoided, if you want to save money. 

How? 

With mirrors. 

Yes, that’s it. Not only can mirrors increase the amount of natural light in a room but they can also give the illusion of the room being much bigger. 

Put the mirrors in the opposite end of the room to the windows. They will help by bouncing the natural light around the room. The more mirrors you install, the more of an effect they will have. 

No need to purchase new windows

Paint them instead 

If you have double glazed windows that don’t leak then there is no need to replace them. You can very easily change how they look. 

You can repaint their frames (both inside and outside) and the window sill underneath them. You can also change your curtains and how you hang them. Hanging long curtains from a higher point on the wall can make your windows look bigger. 

Install a light tube

Swap out old lampshades for something more modern 

You can also make a room look bigger by adding more artificial light. 

Fabric lampshades are no longer in fashion, nor are they necessary with modern bulbs. Instead, you might want to consider replacing them with light tubes. Light tubes come in both industrial and minimalist designs. These will suit most home aesthetics. 

These long, thin bulbs are longer-lasting, cheaper to run, and they hang closer to the ceiling – giving the illusion of a taller room. They only need to be changed every 18 months or so. 

Use LED light strips

Add depth to your room using clever lighting techniques

LED lights are a simple trick that can easily make your home feel more modern. And the best thing is you can get them online for less than $2.50 a meter. 

LED lights can be controlled using a remote through which it is possible to change their color and brightness. Once they are set, they will not need to be adjusted again until you want to change the settings. Some LED lights can be controlled using an app on your phone.  

They can add depth to your rooms by providing light from unexpected angles and locations. 

Install dimmer switches 

Better sleep and better looking rooms 

To make the most of your LED lighting strips you should consider replacing your current light switches with dimmer switches. These switchers will allow you to adjust the brightness of your light tubes. 

Recent studies have shown that dimming out lights at the end of the day can actually help us to sleep better. So, not only will this tip give you better looking rooms but it will also improve your sleep. 

Dimmer switches are very cheap, they are easy to install and involve little to no rewiring. 

Add a lick of paint

Adding a fresh coat of paint will transform the existing door

Indoor doors can be costly to replace, especially if you want to replace all the doors in your house. If this is the case for you, then you may want to consider painting your doors. 

They will look and feel new, plus doing this will help them to match the color scheme of your house more closely. 

If you want to make your hallways feel bigger then you could paint your doors white. You could paint the doors a bright color if you wanted to add some more personality to the house. 

Bonus hack – consider painting your doors and your floorboards the same color (see later tip) for a more cohesive and open-plan look. 

Repaint furniture 

Give out of date pieces new purpose in your home

When you are looking at the furniture that you already have but want to get rid of, consider how you would feel about it if it was a different color. 

Most things can be repainted (and we will talk about what you can do with fabric furniture later). Repainting wood is no problem, but there are also ways to paint metal and plastic without it looking tacky. 

If you can find ways to upcycle and reuse your furniture rather than buying a new piece, you can save yourself a lot of money. 

Floorboards

Tidy up and add some color by painting floorboards

If you have an ugly set of wooden floorboards in your house, don’t worry, they are most likely a blessing in disguise. You can completely change how a room looks by repainting your floorboards. 

We recommend you start by sanding down the floorboards. This will give you a good idea about what color they really are. Then you can think about repainting them. 

You could go for traditional wood colors, although if you go too dark then they can make the room smaller. White always makes a room look bigger. You may also want to consider a cool toned pastel color. 

Bonus hack – if you need a sander to even out your floorboards, don’t buy one – rent one. 

Reupholster couch and chairs 

You can’t paint a couch but you can reupholster it 

We have suggested this tip to many people in the past and they have all been shocked by how easy it is to get your couch reupholstered. 

It’s super cheap to do and by the end of it, you can have a couch that looks completely different. And you haven’t spent $1000+ on a new one. 

The name trick works on armchairs and dining chairs. 

Before you reupholster anything, make sure that the new fabric doesn’t clash with anything else in the room. Choose your new rugs and curtains with the new couch color in mind. 

Paint hallway

Two-tone hallways can make your home look more sophisticated 

Two-toned hallways have been in and out of fashion since long before the American Revolution. They can improve the look of a hallway in many different ways. 

You don’t even have to have molding on the wall to do it. You can just use masking tape to create crisp straight lines. 

Painting the bottom half of your wall a darker color will make the hallway look taller. If you want to add more depth to the hallway you can paint the bottom half of the wall and use patterned wallpaper on the top half. 

Paint living room

Focus on the most used rooms in your house 

If you have a limited budget and can’t afford to work on the whole house then you should focus on the rooms that you use the most – the kitchen, the bathroom, and the kitchen. There is no point wasting your resources on rooms you won’t use. 

Think about how you want your living room to make you feel. If you want a relaxing space then you should use soft furnishings, colors, and dim lights – i.e. peaches, roses, creams. If you want the room to be energizing them you should use bright and warm colors – like mustard, violet, and teal. 

Paint your bathroom 

Again, focus on the most used rooms in your house 

Carry the same concept on into your bathroom. This will be one of the rooms in your house that you spend the most time in. So make it somewhere that you enjoy being in. 

There is a lot of research being done on how colors can affect our mood. Use this theory to help you create a serene bathroom to retreat to at the end of the day. 

Upgrade your faucets 

Small changes to save money 

Renovating your bathroom is one of the most expensive things you can do to your house. It costs Americans $10,000+ on average. Here are a few tricks to save you some money in this room. 

If you think that your sink or bathtub is the wrong color, you can change the color of everything else to make them look better. It will cost you less to paint the floorboards and walls than it will to rip out and replace the tub. 

Putting modern faucets on old bathtubs and sinks is a great way to completely change their look. When they have clean and sleek faucets, you won’t be looking at the china (or plastic in the case of most bathtubs). 

Install a stair runner

Make your stairs safer and prettier 

If you don’t like the wood on your stairs, don’t rip them up. That is an expensive and time-consuming job. 

Instead, install a stair runner (a strip of carpet). If you pick the right color you can make the shade of the stairs look a lot more pleasant, maybe even good. 

Your stairs will also be a lot safer to go up and down after a glass of wine on a Friday night. 

Restore original tile floors

Discover your home’s hidden gems 

If your house has horrible laminate flooring or tacky carpets, have a look underneath them. You might be surprised by what you find. 

There may be a nice set of tiles under there or even some gorgeous hardwood floors. 

If you have a set of tiles in your kitchen that are looking a bit worse for wear, you should try and restore them, instead of tearing them up. You’ll be surprised how easy only replacing the broken tiles is. And how much better the whole floor looks after it has some TLC. 

Use tile paint if restoration isn’t possible  

Tile paint will be your wallet’s best friend 

If your problem is with the color of the tiles rather than the state they are in, then you might want to consider painting over them. 

There is an amazing type of paint called Tile Paint. This will allow you to paint over your existing tiles with a new color. You can upgrade your whole room for less than the price of 10 tiles. 

Tile paint is waterproof, chip resistant, and lasts for years. Many people treat it like a short term solution, but it lasts so well that it could be a permanent one if you wanted it to be. 

Make the most of every inch with bespoke shelving

No need to change the shape of the room

The next three tips are all about how to make the most of strangely shaped rooms without paying to have a wall knocked down. 

Let’s start with the most obvious option, creating custom shelving to fit into an odd alcove or corner. 

There are two ways to approach this. You can have someone build the shelving for you. Which can be costly, but isn’t going to cost you more than knocking down a wall would. Or, if you really want to save money, you can build the shelving yourself. 

There are plenty of online tutorials that will help you do this. 

Turn an awkward corner a workspace shelves

An awkward space becomes a WHF haven 

Many of us have been asked to work from home over the last few years. The problem is that setting up a home office can take up a lot of our much needed space. So, why not flip the problem on its head, and use some dead space in your home for your office. 

Most awkward alcoves and corners can be improved by fitting at a custom desktop or a fold away desk. The unused space on the corner of the room can finally become something useful. 

Make the whole area even more practical but getting a chair that can fold away and be kept under the desk. 

Or even an entertainment unit e.g. your TV

Say goodbye to bulky entertainment units 

By building a custom entertainment until to slot into an alcove or corner you can save space in your living room. By making a custom unit, you can design it to perfectly fit your needs. Do you need drawers for your DVD collection? Or somewhere to keep all your remotes? Whatever you need, you can solve that problem with a custom entertainment unit. 

One of the things that really makes us love entertainment units like this is that they can be used to hide ugly wires and provide us with extra storage too.  

Update living room rugs

Rugs are cost-effective and can be purchased in most stores

If you are looking for a way to cut down on carpet costs – consider buying a set of rugs instead. 

Rugs can be used to add much more depth to a room than a carpet ever could. They can be used to match the decor of the room, as they are easy to move around or swap out if you change how the room looks. A nice rug will look good in any room. 

When you are picking out rugs, think about how easy they will be to clean. As cool as faux-fur rugs look, they are a nightmare, especially if you have pets. 

Make use of decorations

Simple and tasteful decorations can make your home look more expensive than it really is 

You can accentuate the themes and features of your home with tasteful decorations. The good news for bargain lovers is that when it comes to decorations, less really is more. 

A well chosen print in a nice frame can draw the eye and make a room instantly seem more interesting. Candles and rolls of towels can give a bathroom a more spa-like feel. A rustic throw on a sofa can make the room feel more homely. 

Tile the kitchen

Choose your favorite and find a low-cost alternative 

Adding a splashback or wall of tiles to your kitchen can be a great way to give it a makeover without breaking the bank. In combination with our next tip, it will make your kitchen feel like a different room. 

Many people are reluctant to put up tiles, as the nice ones can be really expensive. However, if you’re prepared to shop around then you can get the look you want for a bargain. 

Start by picking out your tiles of choice, then jump online and start hunting for somewhere that is selling them at a better price. You could even go straight to the manufacturer. 

 Re-paint your kitchen cabinets 

Did you know that replacing your kitchen cabinets costs an average of $3600 in America? Don’t worry, we’re going to talk you through how to make your kitchen cabinets look brand new for under $300. 

Empty your kitchen cabinets and start by sanding them down until the wood is smooth. Then you want to deeply clean all your cabinets. 

After this take the wood paint of your choice and paint your cabinets. Leave them to dry for a day or two and you’re done. 

A kitchen that looks completely new, and the only real expense was renting the sander. 

Install a new dishwasher

An older dishwasher can increase water/electric bills

Is replacing white goods one of the worst parts of renovating your home? Probably. 

Replacing an old appliance when you’re on a budget can seem like a wild misuse of funds, but in the long run, it will be much better for your wallet. You will notice the difference when your bills arrive next month. 

If you have any ‘white goods’ appliances that are over 10 years old then you should seriously consider replacing them. The older these machines get, the less efficient they become. 

Soon they will be more of a burden on your wallet. The worst part is if they break down you won’t be able to replace them because they don’t make the spare parts anymore. 

Bathroom storage

Stylish storage – keep your bathroom organized and looking good 

We have already talked about spending the most time on your most-used rooms. And how the bathroom definitely falls into this category. 

A simple way to make your bathroom look better is to get the storage situation right in there. 

Step ladder shelves and mirrored cabinets are becoming more popular features in bathrooms.

If you don’t have the capacity to increase the amount of storage in your bathroom then you will need to think outside the box… Well, outside the room to be more exact. 

Are there any other areas of your house that you can store non-everyday bathroom items in – for example, your airing cupboard?  

Useful Tips

Before we leave you, we want to round this article off with a few more tips that will save you time and money when you are renovating your home. 

There are some items that you can save on, and others you should splurge on. For example, if you spend the money on a good base coat of paint, then you will be able to get away with using a cheaper color on top of it. 

Little tricks like this can make all the difference. 

Change the look of the room without remodeling

If you want to change the way a room looks without doing any remodeling at all, then you should try changing the rugs and the curtains in the room. You will be shocked by what a difference this makes. 

You can have the same effect on your bedroom by changing the bedding in there as well. If you want to make the room look bigger then you should use light colored betting with little to no patterns on it. You could also swap out solid curtains for mesh ones. 

Change the towels and bathmats in your bathroom too. 

Don’t buy what you don’t need

This tip ties in with our advice to plan out most of your purchases in advance when putting together your budget. 

It can be really tempting to buy things when you see them on a good deal, even if you don’t know whether you will need them. Without an advance plan, it can be all too easy to pick up unnecessary items that you never use.  

You want to avoid wasting money on things you don’t need. They’re still a waste of money even if you got them on sale. 

Choose second hand

We don’t have to buy everything new. In fact, we shouldn’t because it’s awful for the planet. It’s also awful for our wallets. 

If you’re looking for an easy way to save money go hunting for the things you need in second hand shops and online. Check out sites like FreeCycle or Craigslist List too. You will often find many people giving away perfectly good items for free. We got a couch on there last summer. 

There may be some items you want to spend the money on and buy new. But, for other items why not consider getting them second hand. 

Summary

Renovating your home can be an expensive endeavor – but it doesn’t have to be. 

By reading this article, you will understand that by thinking a little differently and rolling up your sleeves you can completely change your home with a very, very sensible budget.