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Improving the value of your home on your own has several benefits.
For starters, the increased value from your DIY home improvement projects will pay you back in dividends when you sell your home or property.
In addition, you get to enjoy all of the benefits from the improvements until that day.
5 DIY Home Improvement Projects You Must Try
Many projects can cost a lot of money and require an expert or contractor to perform.
We’ve identified five simple DIY home improvement projects that are easy to do yourself while adding value to your house.
1. Add Shutters to Exterior Windows
One of the easiest and quickest ways to improve the value of a home is to improve its curb appeal. Curb appeal is defined as “the attractiveness of a property and its surroundings when viewed from the street.”
While it might sound surprising, people really do judge a book by its cover. And, in the case of your home, a good-looking cover leads to a higher value.
Beyond gardening and keeping your yard up, adding shutters to exterior windows is cheap and easy to do. At one point in time, shutters played an important role in homes – now they are purely decorative.
There are many different styles to choose from, ranging from louvered, paneled, and board and batten. You can also choose from several materials, such as wood, vinyl, or composite, to match the style of your home.
If you want to build shutters yourself, this is a relatively easy DIY project to tackle. Opt for a simple design out of wood, such as a shaker front. Make sure to either paint or use a clear finisher to protect the wood.
For relatively cheap, you’ll have a set of DIY exterior window shutters for your home. DIY home improvement projects like this can be done in an afternoon or two, all from the convenience of your own home.
2. Install Baseboard Trim
Baseboard adds a wonderful finished look to any room its added to. In addition, there are a lot of varieties to choose from. Larger baseboards add serious style and can increase the value of your home.
Many homes don’t have baseboards. Others still have the trim installed, but the boards are made from noticeably cheap material. Finally, some have trim installed but could benefit from a size upgrade.
No matter which situation you find yourself in, perhaps the best part about installing baseboard trim is that it is both cheap and easy. If you’re looking for a project to tackle yourself, adding DIY baseboard might be the easiest one you’ll find.
With nothing more than a well-reviewed miter saw that makes precise cuts and measuring tape, you can systematically go through your house and add trim boards.
Opt for a higher trim option, such as baseboards between 3 inches to 4.5 inches. This larger trim adds elegance and sophistication.
For each trim piece, you’ll want to use glue along the wall to install, and then finish off with pin nails. Paint over the baseboards to give them a bright pop, along with protecting them.
3. Spruce up a Room With Wainscoting
Wainscoting might sound like a big, confusing word, but chances are you’ve heard of this elegant patterned finish for a room. In essence, wainscoting speaks to paneled or designed wood trim patterns. They are typically added to part of a room’s walls, most often the lower half.
This classic and timeless style addition helps to give a great first impression when people walk into the room. Add wainscoting to just one wall or wrap it around all the walls in a room.
When you are looking at how to install wainscoting over drywall, first ensure you’ve removed the baseboard so you’re working with a flat surface. Measure carefully, and then attach the cut wainscoting to size.
Similar to installing baseboard, first glue it to the drywall, then finish with small pin nails. Last, add the top cap rail and reinstall the baseboard.
This patterned finish is typically used as decorative, but you can also get creative with how you implement it. If you have any damaged walls in your home, a quick win is to install this patterned style over the damage. You end up getting two bangs for your buck.
4. Create an Accent Wall
Paint has a big impact on the overall look and feels of your home, both inside and out. It’s easy to see how a poorly painted home or a series of dirty walls can lower home values. Likewise, it can sometimes be equally as hard to see how paint can improve a home’s worth.
But, make no mistake about it, paint and even the color of paint can improve the value of your house.
There are a number of different ways you can tackle this. A simple way to freshen up the color of a room is by adding a DIY accent wall on your own. Often, a single wall of color will pop and create a stylistic and attractive look.
Or, go a step further and opt for a DIY shiplap accent wall. This trendy wall is made of simple boards, either painted or finished to provide a strong, rustic look. And, as a DIY home project, you’ll have a lot of fun with all the options that are available.
No matter what, these simple actions can bring a dramatically fresh look to an otherwise dated or drab room.
5. Add Lattice and Climbing Plants to a Fence
Fences are an oft-forgotten aspect of a home. Treated generally as nothing more than a physical characteristic of the home with no charm or style. However, there are a number of different ways to create value from what is otherwise a boundary line and barricade.
For starters, you can add lattice to the top of your fence line. This naturally extends the protection that the fence provides, while adding some nice contrast. Doing this simple task in the afternoon will give you a great lattice fence for privacy for minimal time and cost.
Once done with lattice, consider one of the best climbing plants for wooden fences such as Jasmine. These plants love to grow up and around the lattice, and provide a brilliant burst of color and contrast on your fence.
In addition, this is a great backyard project as you get the luxury of expanding the plants in your yard at the same time.
Final Thoughts on DIY Home Improvement Projects
There are a lot of ways to increase the value of your home, but many will cost you an initial investment to do so.
Doing these five DIY home improvement projects on your own can be highly rewarding. Additionally, it will save you a lot of money, and increase your ROI for each of these projects.
An added benefit of improving your house is that you get to live in and enjoy your handiwork. Not only are you adding value, but you are improving your quality of life.
In the end, these DIY projects will improve value while also improving the time you spend at the house.
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