Pic: DIY Shutters
All those months of conveyancing are over and you’ve finally done it. You’re all moved in to your new home! If your interior design is channelling the previous homeowner’s tastes rather than your own, read our 10 easily achieved DIY home decor ideas that will help you transform your new place in an instant.
Ready to get your DIY on?
1. Colour your walls
You’ll likely have inherited a blank canvas moving in to your new home, with walls looking tired, dated, or the colours not to your taste. Whatever the case there is no greater solution to transforming a room than to give it a fresh lick of paint. Colour choices are endless and paint is an affordable, easy DIY tool for all rooms in your house.
Our advice? Don’t feel hemmed in by neutral colours, painting everything white just because it’s easy. Explore colour schemes that speak to you to bring personality to your home.
Top DIY tip: For best results do all painting before you unpack and arrange furniture to prevent any accidents and to maneuver a step ladder around the room easier.
2. Install window dressings
This isn’t new advice by any means, but it bears repeating as it’s a DIY must for any new homeowner. Installing practical, a stylish window dressing is the key to making a room feel homely and provides the privacy you need from passersby.
Hanging a curtain rail is easy, but sourcing the right fabric you want can get costly, especially if you’re covering a large window. DIY window shutters are just as easy to fit as a curtain rail is and bring a timeless finish to a room. They offer privacy, light control and are easier to keep clean than fabric window dressings.
Top DIY tip: Are your windows bare and you’re in a rush for privacy? Temporary paper blinds will do the trick while you’re deciding on a permanent window dressing or waiting for orders. They’re a quick, no-nail, affordable solution that can be bought from sites like Amazon or Ikea.
3. Change your kitchen hardware
It’s common to move in to a home that doesn’t offer your dream kitchen in the first instance but with small DIY tweaks you can make the most of the kitchen you’ve inherited. A simple DIY hack to update tired kitchen cupboards is to change door and drawer pulls to bring a more contemporary look.
Top DIY tip: Do the new handles you want require different pilot holes to your old ones? Use wood filler to fill the old holes on your units, sand the filler back when dry, then paint over. You can colour match paint exactly to your unit colours at any B&Q store with a Valspar UK counter.
4. Create a statement with shelving
Not just a practical storage solution, shelving also offers you space to lean artwork, mirrors, photographs and memorabilia to make a room feel really unique to you.
Pre-cut, off the shelf shelving packs are widely available and the easiest solution for DIY. Picture ledge shelving is proving popular in homes, easy to fit with wall plugs and two screws and great for a gallery wall effect without having to drill too many holes into plaster.
For a more bespoke look you can pick up reclaimed wood or scaffold boards, route the edges with a router and fix with brackets.
Pic credit: www.oursweetstory.com
5. Build an alternative headboard
At DIY Shutters we love sharing alternative DIY ideas that make a quick impact and are easy for even DIY novices to recreate at home. It’s common knowledge that our shutters are easy to install to almost any window, but if you’re after something a little edgier why not try installing them as a headboard? We’ve seen many other DIY headboard ideas and tutorials on Pinterest, so instead of settling for a standard headboard and frame, bring some character to your bedroom.
Pic: DIY Shutters
6. Reinstate traditional panelling or dado rails
If you’re the proud new owner of a period property that’s been stripped of all its character, or if you’re looking for ways to bring character to a new build home, installing DIY panels and picture rails are something to consider. Commonly seen in hallways and bathrooms, panelling can reinstate a period look with designs from shaker to tongue and groove available depending on the era of your home. Pre-made panels can be bought from DIY stores and assembled at home.
Reinstating a dado or picture rail in bedrooms, living rooms or offices is a more straightforward DIY technique and a quick way to add period detail to a property once more.
Pic: DIY Shutters
7. Rehang internal doors
This suggestion is a much more practical DIY method but not to be overlooked if you’re keen to streamline the ‘flow’ in your home.
Internal doors in period properties were often hung keeping privacy in mind, blocking the view of the room when you walk in. Simply swapping the way doors are hung so that they open in the direction that exposes the room ensures light will flow better through your property. If you’re not familiar with rehanging doors, ask someone who has done it before to assist you.
If you do rehang doors, pay attention to the hinges. Many older properties had internal doors installed with rising hinges making doors close automatically when not in use. You’ll know if your home has them if you’re getting fed up of doors swinging closed behind you and always reaching for the doorstop to keep the door open. A simple workaround is to rehang internal doors with standard butt hinges which can be picked up from hardware stores in a variety of sizes and polishes.
Pic: DIY Shutters
8. Paint your tiles
If your bathroom or kitchen tiles aren’t to your taste, there are some easy-fix ways to change them. Tile paint has become popular in recent years, simply paint over your existing tiles with the specially formulated paint solution and change the entire look of your kitchen or bathroom.
Tile transfers are also a simple way to temporarily update your existing tiles. They have peel and stick backing and come in a variety of colours and patterns to update your look.
9. Change your shower head
If the water from your shower is weaker than you’d like and it’s not down to your water pressure, an easy home decor hack is to fit a new shower head and see if this improves it. The majority of shower heads are screw-on screw-off, so even the novice DIYer can replace their old limescale-filled shower head for a larger, waterfall style design that transforms their bathroom (and their showers).
Pic: DIY Shutters
10. Repaint or stain a wooden staircase
It’s a bigger job than it seems from the outset, but repainting or staining your staircase is a great way to transform your home and freshen up your hallway/landing. For the banisters and spindles, an interior wood paint or stain will be needed, having made sure loose or flakey paint has been sanded back to ensure a smooth finish. For treads and risers consider the best paint removal and sanding solutions depending on what condition your existing stairs are in, then use paint, stain and/or varnish that’s specifically formulated for floors and high traffic areas to ensure a long lasting finish.