Refinishing takes about a day and $200 to DIY, and once you sand down the floors, you can refinish them with a brighter stain to lighten up the room. Sand and refinish hardwood floors with a lighter stain. Place recessed lighting 12 – 18 inches away from the object you want to illuminate. Install track light between 20 – 40 inches away from the walls of a room.
- Similar to cool-toned walls, a lighter-colored floor can make a room feel bigger by better reflecting natural light.
- Buyers have certain expectations, and that includes getting a house that has been well maintained and is safe and livable.
- Give your dated brick fireplace a cozy cottage makeover with a paint and glaze application that mimics the look of the classic German schmear seen here.
- Look for windows labeled low-emissivity (low-E) or spectrally selective—they have a coating that reduces thermal heat transfer.
Since sitcoms rarely spend time going through each character’s respective garbages and opening mail every week would be boring, fans are left with the fridge. Add natural light in a dark room or hallway with a skylight.Velux Sun Tunnels funnel a diffused glow into any space; it’s a day job for a pro. Sharpen up.If you don’t love your everyday knife, get one you do — stat!
Software for Contractors and Design Pros
“A lot more people are focusing on their family, their homes, you know, the stuff in our immediate vicinity. People’s bubbles have shrunk.” He started building a fence but put the project on hold when he found it impossible to source new fence posts. Stacked neatly in his backyard is a minivan-size pile of gray lumber, all stuff Buhr salvaged from dumpsters and a fence demolition project. “Demand for outdoor living products is surging,” says Nancy Musselwhite, a building materials industry analyst for Principia Consulting.
You can hang a mirror just about anywhere, but it’ll be most effective facing opposite a window to reflect the outdoors and sunlight. When you’re hanging a heavy mirror, be careful to use anchors, cleats, or picture wires to ensure it’s properly installed in the wall. Laminate flooring comes in a variety of shades, and costs between $3 – $8 per square foot. You can pay, on average, $2,352 for a professional installation, or measure precisely and DIY it on your own. Beautifully highlight a coffered ceiling with colorful paint, and keep the trim white for a bold visual effect.
The most effective system is a vent pipe placed in the sump pit or a hole made under your concrete floor slab. The vent runs up through the house and out the roof, or out the side of the house and up to the eaves. A special in-line fan for radon is placed in the attic or outside the house to suck air through the vent.
Watch The House That Norm Built
Choose a fringe-style curtain for a boho look, go bold with large, moody florals or opt for a soft, modern ombre like designer Kerra Michele Huerta did here. We also love how she upped the drama by installing a shower curtain on each side of the tub. Make a small bedroom look larger by adding mirrors to plain closet doors or the back of a bedroom door. Simply pick up a couple of cheap, framed floor-length mirrors for less than $10 at your local big-box store, then paint the frame to match your space. Attach to your closet door with construction adhesive for a permanent look or use removable picture-hanging strips if you’re renting.
Get expert advice on your home, design tips, how much to pay for pros and hiring experts, delivered to you daily. Replacing your carpet means tossing out all of the old floor covering. Save several scraps of carpet, whatever kind, for use on the top of sawhorses, as a creeper mat for working on the car, to pad your knees while fixing your plumbing or use as drop cloths.
How to Make Kitchen Cabinet Doors
If you have a window that faces frigid winter winds, replace it with a high-efficiency unit. If your home has single-pane windows, they could be wasting up to 25% of your energy costs. Improve your home’s energy efficiency by replacing single-pane windows with high-performance double-pane Energy Star-rated windows. Look for windows labeled low-emissivity (low-E) or spectrally selective—they have a coating that reduces thermal heat transfer. Set the perfect outdoor ambiance with string lights.
They are relatively easy to install; all it takes is assembling and mounting the hardware and door to a doorway. With just a stud finder and a drill, you can install a medicine cabinet in less than an hour. A flush-mounted cabinet will probably be shallower than a recessed cabinet and will protrude into the bathroom space. For good looks, paper the back of the cabinet with adhesive shelf liner. Perhaps fitting a new kitchen or bathroom, or creating extra living space? For most of us, renovation means modernising our home, adding more “functionality” to it or increasing its value.