Yahoo Finance Five home improvements you can make for under £100
For anyone thinking of sprucing up their home decor, one of the most common considerations is if it will add value to the property.
Research by financial services company Hitachi Personal Finance found five effective home improvements that cost less than £100 ($136).
1. Paint a room (£71)
Nothing brightens up a room more than a fresh lick of paint and this is something that can easily be done yourself.
To cover the cost of a main room, such as a lounge, kitchen or bathroom, paint will cost around £71.
By monitoring decor trends and choosing the right colour at the right time, you could even add more than £1,400 to the value of your home, the research found.
2. ‘Spruce up’ the kitchen (£60)
A full-scale kitchen refurb is not always necessary, and can prove very costly, Hitachi's experts advised.
Instead, it can be easy and cheap to make just a couple of subtle changes to change the whole complexion of the room.
Adding or swapping a glass hob splashback can cost as little as £603.
The cost depends on the type of tile and size of your kitchen, but the average kitchen tiling will set you back just £35 per square metre, according to the research.
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3. Replace curtains and blinds (£50 to £90)
Old drapes in your window frames can make a room “feel stale and dull”, the expert said.
Replacing them with something more vibrant and colourful can really make a difference.
Providing you have had them installed previously, just replacing curtains or roll up blinds won’t cost as much as you think.
Home interior retailers sell a range of good quality curtains for between £50 and £90.
4. Declutter (free)
A really simple way to improve the feel of your entire home is organising and decluttering from top to bottom.
“Excess belongings are commonplace in a lot of households and can often be forgotten for long periods, leading to even the most spacious properties feeling cramped and messy,” Hitachi said.
“Taking the time to go through each room, organising items to keep and collecting ones you want to recycle or donate to charity, will free up storage space that you can then make good use of.”
This will cost you virtually nothing – and if donating unused items to charity it will help others and the environment too.
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5. ‘Spruce up”’ the front door (£80)
Don't forget about the exterior of your home, as improvements on the outside can really add value to your property, the experts advised.
Sanding down and repainting your front door can help alleviate any looks of tiredness from the outside.
The average cost of the paint and tools required to take this project on are very attainable at just £80.
“The lockdown means even more of us will be looking to take on home improvements in the coming months,” said Vincent Reboul, managing director at Hitachi.
“Although a lot of DIY jobs can be quite large and costly projects, there are certainly tweaks and changes we can be making ourselves to have similar benefits without forking out huge sums of money.
“We hope this guide inspires homeowners looking to try their hand at a few upgrades to give their house a fresh feel for 2021.”
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