So, are you looking to renovate your house and improve its interior design? Maybe you want to put it on the market and want it to sell decently, or perhaps you just moved into a new house and find the interior too dull and drab? Whatever the reason, there are a lot of options for making improvements to your living room that will liven things up and make you feel positive and energetic.
Your living is probably where you or your family spend most of their time together. As such, this room should be the focus of your attention when making improvements around the house.
Here are some home improvement ideas that will add value to your living room.
1. Add a feature wall
A feature wall is made by picking any wall in the room and painting it a different color or decorating it with various materials. Patterns or textures are painted onto the wall to add interest to it. Some people also apply wallpaper, or add additional materials such as wood, pressed metal, phenolic panels, bricks and more. For the artistic minded, options such as canvas prints on Brisbane are extremely popular.
Feature walls are an excellent addition to any room, livening up the environment at a low cost. However, they only work if done right. They are designed to highlight a particular side of the room and draw attention to it, so there are certain dos and don’ts that you need to be mindful of. Firstly, feature walls work best with large room, so tiny rooms or over-crowded rooms do not agree very well with them. Secondly, walls with doors and large windows should not be turned into feature walls, since these things draw your focus away.
2. Windowless sunlight through fiber optics
This is a great option for living rooms that get very little to no natural light. If there is no window to bring in sunlight, no worries! Fiber optics have made it possible to redirect sunlight even in dark, underground rooms. A panel is fitted in the ceiling of a room, and another panel is fitted on the roof. The two panels are connected together through fiber optics. When sunlight hits the panel on the roof, it transfers the light through those fiber optic cables all the way to the panel in your room, which will shine bright as if you have an actual window on your roof.
The great thing about this technology is, it only has a one-time installation cost, and can light up dark rooms during the day at no cost. It can be turned on or off as well. And no matter where your room is with respect to the building’s roof, you can run the fiber optic wires through anywhere.
3. Update furnishings
In most cases, when you shift to a new house, you take your furnishings along with you. Unless you are temporarily moving into a fully furnished apartment, chances are that the furnishings you buy yourself will stick with you for a long time. This, however, does not mean that the quality of your furnishings can’t add value to your home.
When changing houses, you’re also changing a lifestyle. Perhaps you lived in a small house previously, and so had relatively smaller furnishings to go in it. Now that you might be moving to a bigger house, it might be time for a change. The ideal paint, decorations and furnishings in a house all depend on a lot of factors including the size of the rooms, their dimensions, the placement of doors and windows, the amount of natural light coming in and so on. Think about the furnishings and change them according to your house, your taste and the latest trends.
4. Sunroom extension
If your house is out in the suburbs with a lot of spare land around (perhaps a garden that is too large for your use), you can have a sunroom extension built to your living room. Sunroom extensions can add an average of around $35,000 to the value of your house, not to mention the considerable difference it will make in the way you use your living room. The glass walls of the extension are cost effective, and can provide some extra indoor sun-lighting without the need to step outside. The extension will also make your living area lighter and airier.
5. Deck extension
If your living room has an opening to the outdoor and there’s some space in the backyard available, consider adding a deck extension. Decks can increase the value of your overall home significantly, and will attract a lot of perspective buyers since a lot of people like to stay home for outdoor vacation. According to HGTV, a home design and remodeling firm, home owners recoup 65-90% of their investment by adding a deck. Decks can be expensive, but they don’t have to be. You can get a basic deck up; and running for as low as $1,200, and the prices go up to $10,000 and even more depending on the size and features of the deck.
6. Adding a fixed focal point
Fixed focal points are objects that you can put in your living room to draw attention to a particular side. A fireplace is a good example of a traditional focal point. But you can add fitted focal points as well if your living room does not have a fireplace. This could be something as simple as a wall of bricks, or something fancy such as an indoor fountain. These days, fitted focal points are very easy to install and some don’t even require the services of a contractor.
What other great ideas do you have? Some of these ideas should help not only increase the overall monetary value of your house, but also the quality of living and the general aesthetics. It’s your house after all, you can go as crazy as your dare, and make your house an interesting place to be!
