15 Ways to Update Your Home Without Renovating
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Hi friends! Today I’m sharing ways to update your home without renovating.
When we purchased our home in 2019, we opted to buy a space that would be livable for us without having to completely gut and start over. We did this for… many reasons. The biggest being that after putting a down payment on our home, we simply did not have the money to make a bunch of big changes.
Our home was built in the 80s and was very much a builder-grade. We knew there were changes that we’d like to make in years to come, but we also know that home takes time.
Some things we have simply lived with, worked on hiding, and others we’ve been able to update without having to spend a ton of money renovating.
Here are the ways we’ve been able to update and customize our home without having to spend a ton of money or dive into a huge renovation!
1. Paint your walls.
A fresh coat of paint can do wonders in terms of changing the feel of your space. I recommend starting here, as paint color can completely transform a home!
When we purchased, the walls of our home were all painted yellow. There’s nothing wrong with the color yellow, it just wasn’t me. And wasn’t the feel that I wanted for our home. Bright, clean, cozy, minimal is that look that I’m always striving for.
Our walls are currently painted “Simply White” by Benjamin Moore. A light and warm white that we adore.
2. Paint the kitchen cabinets.
Painting your existing cabinets is a great, budget-friendly way to update your kitchen without having to replace cabinets. After moving into our home, painting the walls and painting the kitchen cabinets were the first things we did. I would say the most transformative, as well.
Here is a tutorial on how we painted our kitchen cabinets to get a professional finish!
3. Replace light fixtures and chandeliers.
This was a huge change for us! It was also relatively simple and affordable to do. I found our lights on Wayfair sale or through Facebook marketplace. Light fixtures are the unsung heros of home interior in my opinion.
Replacing basic flush-mount lights is a subtle yet impactful change.
4. Replace kitchen hardware.
Customizing our kitchen hardware from the basic black knobs that were in our home when we purchased was a game changer for our kitchen. I am a gold gal myself, so switching these out to fit our own style and taste changed the space for me.
We also opted to change our cabinet hinges to white, as they were previously black. When we painted the cabinets they stood out like a sore thumb. This was so helpful in terms of “hiding” the hinges! These from amazon are similar to what we landed on.
5. Replace kitchen faucet.
I’m not sure why I waited so long to do this. I don’t think I realized how affordable a nice kitchen faucet can be or how impactful it would be. We replaced our faucet with this Kraus faucet from Amazon and LOVE it.
6. Paint your countertops!
This won’t be for everyone. Maybe your countertops don’t need updating. And actually, if you hire out, you can replace countertops relatively easy. HOWEVER, we had no money to upgrade our countertops. Painting them was the the best and most budget-friendly way for us to stay in budget, but still have the kitchen we wanted.
We used Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy.
Here is the full tutorial on how I painted our countertops. It’s been 2 years and they are holding up beautifully!
7. Update bathroom vanity and faucet.
Last year, we were able to give our tiny little downstairs bathroom a huge makeover by simply painting the walls and replacing the bathroom vanity and faucet. We did this in one weekend!
Here is the full post on what we purchased and how we did it.
8. Add area rugs.
This might seem silly to include here, but it’s a difference maker! Ugly floors? Add a beautiful area rug! Carpet you hate? Add an area rug! Need it to feel a little cozier? Add an area rug! This is always the answer 😉 I believe that area rugs truly bring a room together and tie everything in. They can really make a space.
Here’s a post with some of my favorite affordable rugs!
9. Paint interior doors.
Our interior doors had actually just been given a fresh coat of white paint when we purchased, so we haven’t had to paint our doors. That being said, if they hadn’t been, it would have been a fairly early project for us after moving in. Having nice interior doors makes a home feel more polished and put together.
10. Upgrade interior door knobs.
Again, these had actually all been recently replaced in our home before we purchased. They do so much for making the house feel polished.
11. Paint or whitewash brick.
This will not always be the answer. However, if you’re struggling to love brick within your home, painting might be the right answer. We knew we wanted to paint our brick fireplace white as soon as we saw the house. It was orange and red brick mixed (not the pretty kind!)
12. Build a custom mantel.
If you have a basic fireplace mantel, building a custom one might be what you need to customize the look of your fireplace.
We actually built a “box” over the existing mantel and stained it to look like weathered wood.
13. Replace old outlet covers.
We waited way too long to do this, and I have no idea why! All of our outlet covers were yellow looking with age. Upgrading them was a one day project, very affordable, and makes our house feel and look new. A VERY easy way to update your home without renovating. We used these from amazon!
14. Mount your televisions and hide cords.
Wall mounting a tv makes a world of difference in terms of having it be visually pleasing. And while this is nowhere near a renovation, it certainly upgrades a home! I also stress hiding the cords after you are done. It goes a long way in polishing off the look!
Here is an affordable wall mount kit from amazon.
15. Remember that home takes time!
Be patient with bringing your home together. I’ve seen it happen too often when people go in and completely renovate a home upon purchasing, and then have to go back and make expensive changes to fix mistakes down the road.
Live with your space and get a feel for the most important changes for yourself or your family.
There is so much reward in doing things slowly and with intention and purpose.
I hope this helps give you a few new ideas for ways to update your home without renovating 🙂
Until next time,
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