Let’s face it: almost anything you to improve your home will probably increase the value of your property. Well, maybe painting a room in neon green isn’t going to add value (yes – that was exactly what my home office looked like before we decorated!) but most makeovers will add value.
When I say value, I don’t only mean the added value to future selling price of your property. I also mean in terms of enjoying your home, or how adding extra space can make a difference to the way you live in it. However, with house prices forecasted to fall by as much as 10%, anything you can do to add that value back on is handy.
Things like adding extensions and building loft conversions are obviously going to add extra monetary value to your home, as they create new rooms. But even wall DIY jobs like painting/wallpapering, new flooring/carpeting, and remodelling kitchens can make a difference too. If you want to work out how much a project will cost versus the monetary value it’ll add to your home, I have found that HomeHow can provide useful guidance when pricing up various home improvement jobs. Here are three things I’ve done that have added value in more ways than one…
REMODELLING THE BATHROOM
When we bought our house the bathroom was disgusting. Not only was the layout weird (with the sink partially hanging over the bath) the plumbing was in a bad state. The toilet waste pipe wasn’t even properly connected – eww. So I knew we needed to tackle this room before any others. In fact, we didn’t move into the house before the bathroom was ready. I mean, there’s never a good time to be living in a house without a toilet, is there?
So we bought a new bathroom suite for just £300 in the January sales and prepared to have it installed when we got the keys. Yes, that’s right – I bought the bathroom before we actually exchanged on the house. Risky business, right? But the savings were such that it made sense to order in the sales AND the delivery time was 6 weeks, so it didn’t seem such a risk at the time.
Anyway, it meant that our lovely freestanding bath and all the plumbing supplies were ready to go so it was the first room we tackled. A new false wall needed to be built to house the pipework for the new shower and the whole room was tiled. The suite was fitted, all the plumbing updated and finally we had a useable bathroom.
Not only did this definitely add value to the property, it added massive value to our lives. It meant we could finally move into the house and we’ve been enjoying having deep baths in that spacious tub ever since. I’d go so far as to say it’s one of my favourite rooms in the house now.
HOME OFFICE MAKEOVER
The makeover of our box room was the one that provided the most value to me. While it’s technically just a decorating project, it has probably added some monetary value to our home too, as it’s got lovely new flooring, a new radiator and new electrical points. And it’s LOADS nicer now that the neon green paint work has gone!
Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of work required to get it to this point; we had to scrape off layers and layers of woodchip wallpaper (removing it probably added value too!) and repaint/papered the whole room. But in order to make it perfect for me, we also fitted a wall-to-wall desk and added shelving into the alcove. Considering that research by ONS shows that nearly half of people are doing work from home, this remodelling project could be something that many people would find value in.
The box room was transformed into my home office over the course of about a week, and it has added SO much value to my own life. I can now work from home in comfort and it’s enabled me to run my own business – so its value is my whole income! Plus, I can enjoy using the space for craft, sewing, DIY projects – it’s the dream office space for me and I really appreciate having it.
A CALM BEDROOM
Although we haven’t physically extended the space in our house by converting the loft or adding a sunroom (that’s next on my list!), we have made the rooms we have so much more appealing. The bedroom was one of the first we tackled and simply removing the peach floral wallpaper and making it a blank canvas with fresh white paint made a huge difference.
The bedroom hold a lot of value to me becasue it’s the calmest space in the house. It’s entirely white with a peaceful seascape photo mural on the wall. It has almost no furniture and everything is stored away so there’s no clutter on show. With a recent survey by Barefoot showing that over half of us find joy in everyday ‘little wins’ like having a lie-in, fresh bedding or waking up in a sunny room, the bedroom is an important place for many of us. I find myself gravitating to the bedroom whenever I need to feel calm and relaxed. Having that kind of restful space is priceless to me.
Property-value-wise we’ve probably added a bit of value with the floor-to-ceiling fitted wardrobes from Jali that provide all our storage. The wardrobes were a DIY effort – even though they were designed specifically for the space, the company delivered the custom pieces flat-packed so that we could construct the wardrobes ourselves. This makes the wardrobes the perfect in-between option; not flat-packed and store-bought but also not as expensive as fitted wardrobes – but with the same fitted finish.
Plus the bedroom has new heating, new flooring and fitted blinds; all of which will add value to the property overall. Plus, it’s technically a blank canvas so future owners can easily put their stamp on the place if they wanted to. Not that we’re considering selling our home – I think this one is for keeps!
So, although we haven’t added value in the traditional sense of extending or adding anything, remodelling these three rooms has certainly improved the overall value of the property. AND they have added so much value to my life while I’m living in the house. I’ll say it again – these improvements are priceless to me.
What plans do you have to remodel or renovation your own home? In what ways will your DIY projects boost the value of the property to you? Let me know in the comments below 🙂
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