Having a home to call your own is a blessing. Especially in this day and age when downpayments and mortgages are through the roof. However, once you have your home, even if it’s older and mustier, you don’t have to break the bank to make it look good and feel great.The r/HomeImprovement online communityshared someof their favorite tips on how people can upgrade their homes for $100 or less. We’ve collected some of their top pieces of advice to share with you. Make sure you’ve got a notepad ready, you might want to ‘borrow’ some of these ideas as you scroll down.This post may includeaffiliate links.
Having a home to call your own is a blessing. Especially in this day and age when downpayments and mortgages are through the roof. However, once you have your home, even if it’s older and mustier, you don’t have to break the bank to make it look good and feel great.
The r/HomeImprovement online communityshared someof their favorite tips on how people can upgrade their homes for $100 or less. We’ve collected some of their top pieces of advice to share with you. Make sure you’ve got a notepad ready, you might want to ‘borrow’ some of these ideas as you scroll down.
This post may includeaffiliate links.
I LOVE my soft-close toilet seats. The only problem is that now when I visit people who don’t have them, I end up slamming a lot of toilet seats…but I wouldn’t trade it for the world!
Convert any shelf in the kitchen that’s lower than your chest to a drawer. You’ll want good ones, so you probably can’t do more than one or two for $100. Start with the ones you use the most. I did that for my parents and it made such a big difference. My new kitchen won’t have any shelves under the counter, only drawers.
Weather stripping around poorly insulated doors.
CNN reportsthat home affordability is in a pretty bad situation. The income of a typical American homebuyer rose from $88k in July 2022 to $107k in July 2023. Considering that the median income of someone living in the US is around $75k, this puts homeownership out of reach for many families. Especially those with kids.
This was a fun one - before and after: https://imgur.com/a/9VbpnCC Whole project cost around $80…the shelves were I think 2x10s, cut to fit. Gave em a good sanding and stain/poly. Pretty cheap, standard brackets. Also did a light white wash on the bricks (wet the bricks, paint on a 50/50 mixture of white paint/water, then lightly blot).
Well, I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for, but investing in a powerwasher made such a difference with our exteriors. Cleaning up stones, walls, siding etc. has a huge impact on optics!
I just installed a slide-out trash can and recycling bin. My wife and I were debating it for a year and we finally got one. It’s so nice to have the garbage and recycling hidden away, and as a bonus, now we can just pull out the bin and sweep crumbs directly into it from the counter!
The issue isn’t just big downpayments and mind-melting mortgages, however. There’s also a problem with home supply. The average age of a first-time home buyer in 2023 in the US is 35. That’s down from 36 a year ago, but higher than before. Meanwhile, average repeat home buyers this year are around 58 years of age.According to CNN, families with young children are having a tougher time affording property. 70% of recent buyers didn’t have kids who were under 18 years old in the home. Compare that to way back in 1985 when only 42% of home buyers didn’t have kids under that age in the home.Another trend that we’re seeing is that remote workers are more willing to move to find affordable properties.
The issue isn’t just big downpayments and mind-melting mortgages, however. There’s also a problem with home supply. The average age of a first-time home buyer in 2023 in the US is 35. That’s down from 36 a year ago, but higher than before. Meanwhile, average repeat home buyers this year are around 58 years of age.
According to CNN, families with young children are having a tougher time affording property. 70% of recent buyers didn’t have kids who were under 18 years old in the home. Compare that to way back in 1985 when only 42% of home buyers didn’t have kids under that age in the home.
Another trend that we’re seeing is that remote workers are more willing to move to find affordable properties.
LED shop lights for my garage. ~$20 a piece to replace the failing fluorescent fixtures. They were so cheap and easy to install, I doubled up on the number of light fixtures. Now you can see my garage from the ISS.
A cat door to move the litter box to the basement
When it comes to upgrading your home, learning some basic DIY skills is your best bet. There are plenty of free tutorials on the internet and on YouTube for whatever small project you have in mind.
Invest in a curved shower rod, especially if your shower is narrow. It’s so nice not to have the shower curtain sticking to you when you’re showering, and it really makes a difference in the overall amount of space you have to move around!
a bidet. I feel like I’m in the stone ages anywhere else.
I paid $100 to repaint my kitchen cabinets, and it was the best decision ever. It’s simple, too — all you have to do is clean them, scuff them up with sandpaper, prime them, and paint with two coats
Stationary vacuum! I got a Eye-Vac for a Christmas gift. It’s stupid how much I love it.Hard floors throughout the house with two dogs, two cats and a toddler. I hated sweeping but love having swept floors… now I get so much joy from seeing that huge pile of gross get whooshed up into a nice little box that I only have to empty once a month. No more dustpans! It’s silly what a big difference it makes.
$20 showerhead to replace the dumb expensive rainfall one that was there. Best $20 I spent this decade.
I spent $7 on a wooden threshold, for a spot where my living room hardwood floor joins the sunroom parquet floor. Previously there was a big gap there and chippy parquet edges. It made such a big difference, that little strip of wood!
Refinished my ugly brass ceiling fans.(https://imgur.com/a/QgT35Ux). Took them all apart, got rid of the weird little points on the end of the blades, painted the metal with oil-rubbed bronze rustoleum, finished the blades with gel stain. Looks pretty good for under $20 (I already had the gel stain), and it changes the feel of the room.
Timer switch for the bathroom fan. Before we’d either not run the fan long enough or keep it on all day. Now it shuts itself off.
Some USB outlets
Have done so many little upgrades, but the ones I see every day that bring me joy are so trivial. I replaced the super cheap beige outlet and light switch covers in our kitchen with ceramic/stone ones that almost perfectly match the backsplash. Made such a huge difference. Still blows my mind the people who built our house used some many builder grade and base price products.
Replace your regular lightbulbs with warm LEDs. I’ve had a lot of luck with both IKEA and Amazon Basic brand LEDs — just make sure you’re checking their Kelvin value (which indicates color temperature). 2700K is generally considered a ‘warm white,’ and anything higher than that will make the room feel cold and unpleasant
Curtains, changed the look of the room in an instant.
I put one way mirror window film on a front west facing window for privacy and to keep reduce the amount of light entering in the afternoon. Totally worth it.
Motion sensor light switch in the powder room. Never do that reach around in the dark again.
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If you don’t include the $70 spray gun I had to buy then I paid ~$100 in material to repaint my kitchen cabinet.Edit: Wow went to bed and this blew up. Here are the steps that I did just in case you want to do the same1. Clean/degrease all surfaces with TSP (SimpleGreen is also good)2. Wood filler for anything you want to patch3. Sand all surfaces with 120 grit to rough them up. Don’t need to go crazy here, as long as the surface is scuff up, you’re good.4. Wipe all down with tack cloth to remove all particles, wet rag is acceptable here too5. Prime 1 side of door, let them dry, prime the other side6. Sand lightly with 220 grit where there’s any imperfection or uneveness. Also more wood filler wherever I missed the first time7. Tack cloth everything again8. Paint 2 coats
By FAR my favorite home improvement projects in the past few years have been in the super cheap kitchen upgrades I did in 2017. For context, I live in a shanty, and pretty much everything in the house could be legitimately improved with duct tape and/or a blow torch.* I installed corner brackets under my upper cabinets (to give them more of a folk Swedish look), and painted them a creamy gray color. The brackets cost $10 each (I used 4), and the paint was a custom mix from what I had around the house.* I used automotive detail tape to put up a faux subway tile backsplash on the wall behind my stove. This involved painting the wall first with a wash of mottled gray paint (this would later only be visible as the grout), taping off the tile, and then painting the tile color (semi-gloss white) over the tape. Peel SLOWLY when it all dries. Voila, you have convincing basic subway tile with a narrow 1/8" dark gray grout line for $28. (Cost of tape and estimated cost of paint usage I already had on hand.)* Hardware upgrade on the cabinets. I didn’t know how much I would care about my drawer pulls until I installed some that I really loved. It’s been two years, and I still feel happy every time I see them. The total investment in new pulls and handles for everything in the kitchen was about $100.* This isn’t just the kitchen, but applies to the whole house. PAINT. F*****g hell, paint. It can do so much to help an otherwise underwhelming space. Color is your friend.* This requires shopping at HFH, or architectural salvage places, but antique or vintage doors can really add a lot of charm to a basic home. Almost every interior door in my home is an antique, and most have cool old windows, interesting molding detail, or remarkable hardware. None cost more than $20, and several were free to carry away from demolished structures.
Replace your ‘boob lights’ with something better. I just replaced our ninth boob light to complete our whole downstairs! Man, did it make my ’90s house feel so much more updated — it’s ridiculous how transformative it can be
We had these dingy old light switches and covers from the ’50s all over our house. New materials would’ve cost a total of $600 — and I was not about to spend $600 on light switches. So, I opted to paint them all. I ended up spending one day and $30 on the materials, and they look so much better now!
WiFi Thermostat… just a couple minutes ago my better half was cold. Take a guess who didn’t have to get up to get everyone cozy again!
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I’m currently renting a home. Built back in the 1980’s, it looks like the windows are original and poorly sealed.$12 to purchase a window sealing kit, the ones with the plastic sheeting.I sealed all the windows and the house now stays draft free and the heat now runs less.
I’m going to add something that’s not a specific thing, but in general, watch the specials and thrift stores like Habitat’s ReStore. Sometimes a thing you’ve been thinking about will go on sale or suddenly show up and then you have to jump on it. But, you can get several hundred dollar upgrades for very little if you have the patience and ability to do this.
I had to replace the closer on my screen door. Instead of the usual kind, I installed a Ryobi Doorman. We liked it so much that I put one on the back door too. Holds the door closed, closes it gently, holds the door open if you open past 100 degrees or so, it’s just so convenient.
- WiFi plugs that work with Alexa. Being able to turn on lights with a timer or my voice is neat.2. Curtains. You can get some really nice velvet curtains from ikea that looks great.3. Brown glass bottles with nozzles instead of the plastic bottles that soap and shampoo comes in. It just looks fancier.
Painting paneling. What a transformation!
- WeMo outlet so I can control outlets with my phone or set timers (great for Christmas lights, night lights, and lamps that come on at dusk).2. Painting my front door3. Adding peel & stick tiles around my fireplace surround to update the look3. Adding beadboard in my mud room
I spent just about $100 to get a keyless lock that works with my home automation, and it’s amazing. I pull into the parking spot in my condo, and bam, the doors unlock before I even get upstairs! Even when I end up using the keypad, it’s easy to use and so worth never having to fumble with keys. It gives me so much peace of mind to know I can just lock it when I’m not home, too
Custom blinds. Look like a million bucks. Though it’s under $100 per window :)
WiFi light switch for my porch lights. I never have to deal with it and they’re on from dusk to dawn whether I’m home or not. Love it!
Dusk to dawn led light bulb for the front porch.
Furnace humidifier. Sorry it’s like $150.
Paint
Panasonic vent fan instead of the garbage Broan ones from the big box stores. Sooooo much quieter.A new, fashionable/fun doormat for the front door.Replaced the terrible and cheap light over the sink with a nicer mini pendant.Put the bathroom vanity on post legs rather than it’s platform-style base. Not like we removed the base and put in legs: we bought a new vanity, and found out the plinth base was optional, and we decided we wanted the vanity to look more like a piece of furniture, so we spent around $100 for legs we found online, stained them with the touch-up stain that came with the vanity. https://i.imgur.com/yImoC4F.jpg
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