Your home is your haven, your own slice of nice that you can pass onto your children, that you share some of the most important memories in and somewhere you can put your own quirky or minimalist stamp on. Therefore, you owe it to yourself to make sure that each and every room should be somewhere you love to be. Since our home is one of our biggest financial investments in life, it makes sense to utilize all of the space available and if possible, to add value in the shape of newer technologies such as solar panels and triple glazed windows. If you’re running out of space, there are plenty of ways to increase this and here are some clever things to consider.
Your Space At Home
Do you have a huge loft space that has the potential to become a cool attic room? Perhaps you’re lucky enough to have a basement, but it’s only being used to store old Christmas decorations and junk. Your unused space might be in the form of a spare bedroom, a large unused cupboard under the stairs, a pantry area in the kitchen or even a large garden giving you scope for an extension. Even the garden shed can be transformed into a hobby room or a zen room with a little imagination and effort. Take a look around your home, considering the areas that aren’t being used to their best potential, and where you could squeeze in an extra room, study, bathroom or whatever else you need. Extra space could be found by decluttering the items you haven’t used in a while. Consider your CD or DVD collection gathering dust on that big cabinet in the living room? Time to go digital perhaps and liberate the corner of your house you haven’t seen in a few decades?
Prepping The Room
This will depend on the space that you’ve decided to renovate and what needs to be done. For simple rooms like spare bedrooms, ripping out old carpets and replacing the flooring, skimming the walls with plaster and perhaps fitting new lighting might be all you need to do. If it’s a more difficult room like a garage or basement, you might need to damp proof, insulate the walls and fit all new flooring- these concrete projects will give you some ideas. If you’re going to be installing a bathroom, this could involve moving electrics, adding plumbing and having the area tiled. If you’re turning a big kitchen boiler cupboard into a pantry, it would involve fitting lots of shelves- perhaps even creating your own bespoke shelving. When you’re planning your project, consider all the steps that will be involved and be sure to call in the professionals for anything you can’t really do yourself. Emptying the room or space you want to work on, thoroughly cleaning it and removing things like mold, dust and old flooring gives you a blank canvas and you can see exactly what you’re working with
Decorating The Space
Finally, the fun part! Decorating the space is what helps to give the newly defined room purpose. For example, if you’ve transformed a room into a guest bedroom then you’d want to give it a sleek, hotel-style look. Blackout blinds and curtains so your guests can have a good night’s sleep, a good quality bed and nice bedding will all be on your shopping list. If it’s a hobby room you’ll probably need a desk, the right lighting,and shelving for your equipment, maybe a hardwood floor if you are crafting and it gets messy. For a zen room think of a beautiful reclining chair where you could sit and meditate or perhaps read, bookshelves to put your inspirational books on and an ornamental water feature and scented candles. Not only does making the space in your home more usable benefit you, but it can also make it more valuable too. If you come to sell later down the line, chances are you’ll get your costs back on the sale and your property might sell more quickly too.
Making small changes to your house and decluttering that junk not only in the attic or basement but in the usual spots around the house is a great way to find that little bit of extra space you might need. If its a bigger project, consider all the options and you might just add thousands to your property, not only adding an extra bathroom or dining room for example, but increasing the investment you can one day leave to your kids.
