Easy Ways to Make Your Home Feel Like New

Updating your home can be a massive undertaking if you plan to completely redo every room. However, you don’t have to spend six months tearing out and replacing every floor, appliance, and fixture to make your home feel fresh and revived.

Tackling the most trafficked rooms with a few targeted updates can make your home feel like new without the stress and commitment of a full renovation. Plus, you’ll still be able to live comfortably in your home throughout all of our proposed upgrades.

Home Automation

If your home feels dated, bring it into the future with home automation. Smart homes are all the rage right now. The convenience of “setting and forgetting” features like temperature, humidity, and light schedules drives many homeowners to smarten up their houses.

You can certainly go to your local hardware store and pick up a few home automation gadgets, but deciding which to prioritize and which will work well with your existing appliances can get overwhelming. Before choosing a thermostat regulator or motion sensor, contact a professional to make sure they’ll work well in your home.

You might also like to consult with a professional about how to operate different smart home devices. Some use Wi-Fi, while others use radio frequencies to communicate. Each device usually has an app to operate it, but some cell phones come with a built-in program to manage all of your various devices. It can get overwhelming quick, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Smart Light Bulbs

Smart lights are a great place to start with home automation because they’re one of the simplest smart upgrades you can make to your home. You can install smart bulbs in virtually any light socket and after spending just a few minutes setting up their hub, you’re ready to go.

You can use a cellphone app to control the color and brightness of your bulbs, and you can schedule times for them to turn on and off. You can even set your lights to slowly brighten to help you wake up, or to dim on schedule to help you unwind.

One of the challenges with smart bulbs is making them fit with your existing lighting layers and the color scheme of your décor. A professional can help you decide which locations in the room would work well with smart bulbs and can help you come up with a color temperature and brightness setting that will keep your room looking its best. Don’t let that stop you from playing with color for fun though!

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Smart Switches and Outlets

An alternative to smart bulbs is smart light switches. The switches work with your existing light fixtures and you control them with a remote rather than an app. They usually work without internet access, which is convenient if you live in an area with weak or spotty service.

Like smart bulbs, switches give you the convenience of turning the lights on and off from anywhere, either manually or by setting a schedule. They can also dim your lights, all without changing the color temperature of the bulbs and altering the feel of a room.

The primary consideration when choosing smart switches over smart bulbs is that bulbs can be added or taken away in seconds, whereas smart switches are wired into your existing electrical system by an electrician and are a more permanent upgrade.

Recessed Lighting

If you have old light fixtures that are dating your room, you could replace them with clean, modern recessed lights.

When you consult with a professional before installation, he or she can advise you as to how many lights each room should have and where you should place them. Often, increasing the light in a room can make it feel more spacious.

Recessed LED strip lights are an excellent way to highlight new features if you’ve changed your cabinets or added a textured accent wall. They add a subtle, ambient glow above cabinets and create intriguing shadows on textured walls.

Colors and Light Bulb Temperature

Painting a room is a simple way to make it feel fresh and new. If you decide to paint, you’ll also probably refresh the furniture to match the new wall color. When you change the color and tone of a room, you should reassess the light bulbs you use in the room to make sure that they’re bringing out the best of the new colors.

Light bulbs come in different temperature, or Kelvin, measurements based on the warmth or coolness of the light. A cool bulb will have a higher Kelvin and is better suited to whites, blues, greens, and grays. A warm bulb will have a lower Kelvin and works best in a room with rich earth tones like reds and browns.

If your room has a unique mix of tones, a professional can help you determine which bulbs will work best in your space.

Adding or Replacing Your Windows

Replacing windows is a great way to bring more light into a room, which makes the space feel larger. If you want to do a really impactful, but still speedy, renovation, add more windows to your room. Whichever route you go, make sure you replace thick, old window dressings with sheer, breezy drapes to show off the new windows and let in more natural light.

When you increase the natural light in a room, you may decide that you need to modify your interior lighting. You could add dimmer switches or put each light on its own switch if they aren’t already. Consult with a professional to determine what changes, if any, you should make.

Upgrading Can Be Easy AND Impactful

Even if you only have a few days to spend on renovations, you can still make huge upgrades to your home. A fresh coat of paint can work wonders on a room, especially paired with some new furniture.

If you have all of your color and décor elements in place but something’s still missing, schedule a visit with us. We’ll talk about home automation and ways we can improve your lighting to finish off the space.