Our first (town) home in Utah we bought while it was being built so we were able to pick the interior features – floors, carpet, colors, cabinets, counter tops, tile, etc. We loved that home, however we love to travel and see new places and wanted a home just a little bigger with a backyard for our kids and dog.
Our home here is Austin was built in the 90s and has a few updates like the floors, kitchen and master bathroom. Moving is fun but also usually more expensive than you anticipate. For example, the previous owners had cat door on the door between the garage and the interior of the home, which isn’t a big deal for us but the inspection said it’s actually a fire hazard so one more thing to update! Here are a few things we’ve found to update an older home on a very small budget:
- paint – a fresh coat of paint can go a LONG way! We re-painted almost every room in the house and the garage (which was yellow and blue, looked like IKEA ha, ha). We used the Behr brand paint from Home Depot.
- cabinet hardware – we added drawer pulls
from Amazon that weren’t too expensive (other good options were from Home Depot and Anthropologie)
- new window treatments – I love natural light so we just replaced the brown curtains with white ones (from Target)
- update outlet and light switch plate covers
– we like these white ones
from Amazon to replace the previous brown and/or metal ones
– we like Updates we want to do in the future:
- replace older light fixtures
- new exterior doors
- matching doorknobs – why did the previous owner have so many mismatching doorknobs?! We’ll never know ha, ha…
- epoxy the garage – we have this epoxy kit
from Amazon but have to finish clearing out the garage before using it.
Other ideas for updating an older home:
- new light fixtures
- add a large mirror – the reflective light can often brighten a space or make it appear larger
- update faucets
- re-paint cabinets
- replace floors or old carpet (I love wood, laminate and tile that looks like wood)
- update counter tops (I love granite and marble)
Our home has been a labor of love, but we appreciate it and the new city we live in!
Jen Holtkamp 