Improving Your Home with Simple and Fun Projects

Many homeowners underappreciate their own home improvement capabilities. They are sometimes afraid to try because they believe the projects are too time consuming and complicated. Rather than hand off these tasks to home improvement contractors, you can make your home look better and take pride in your craftsmanship by taking on these simple and fun DIY ways of improving your home.

Laying Tile or Carpeting

One of the simplest ways of improving your home that homeowners readily hire contractors for involves laying new flooring. Putting down new flooring in your home is not that difficult and can be done successfully if you pay attention to some basic precautions.

The first step involves preparing your floor for the new materials. After you have pulled up the old flooring, you should scrape off the remaining glue and then sweep or wipe off the subflooring to ensure it is smooth and ready to be primed. You should then prime it with the recommended adhesive for the material that you are laying.

Many home improvement stores and big box retailers sell flooring that comes with its own adhesive backing. Before you lay the material, however, you should determine a starting point so that you will be able to refer to it when laying out the rest of the pattern. It may suit you to start from the center of the floor and work your way out toward the wall so the finished project looks uniform.

Textured Painting

Another fun DIY project involves adding textured paint to your walls or cabinetry. To add texture to your paint project, you should use sponges, brushes, or paper that has its own unique texture and surface.

You should then paint the walls, cabinets, or other surfaces as normal with your favorite colors. Allow the paint to semi-dry before blotching the surface with the sponge, brush, or other textured item that you chose for this project.

The texture will imprint itself in the sticky, semi-dry paint and remain in place after the paint dries completely. It is important that you avoid rubbing off entire sections of paint with the sponge or other item that you are using to texture the surface.

Hanging Border or Wallpaper

If you do not want to paint your walls, you may instead decide to hang wallpaper or border. This project is simple because most wallpapers and borders come with their own adhesive backing today. You no longer have to mix paste with which to hang it.

However, you do have to pay attention to the pattern of the paper or border so that you create a seamless look. If you fail to match the pattern of the wallpaper or border with the section that you already hung on the wall, you will end up with a project that looks jumbled and tacky.

Before you hang the paper or border, you should lay out each section on the floor or a large table. This step allows you to match up patterns so that you will not notice seams once the project is finished.

Improving your home by yourself is fun and less expensive than hiring contractors. You get to personalize your home and utilize your own styles and creativity. These DIY projects may inspire you to have confidence in your own capabilities.