Your home is perhaps the most expensive investment you’ll make in your life next to your children. Even if you’re currently renting a home, you most likely have plans to buy a home in the future for the sake of your children or to have a place to retire comfortably in. To accommodate your plans, you’re going to need to invest in your home and make the most out of it.
Everything from changing the decor to adding new furniture will all be down to you. Sure you could hire an interior designer that will assist in planning your arrangements, but you’ll need some inspiration in order to obtain your dream home. While you’re probably thinking of big projects like bedroom furnishing, a new kitchen or a living room renovation, there are other parts of your house that need a bit of love as well.
Initial Considerations
First of all, there are a couple of things to mention before we dive into these underutilised ideas.
First, inspiration. Below are going to be a handful of ideas that you can add to your home, but they’re not the only improvements you can make. For starters, take a look at websites such as Pinterest to get some inspiration for your next home improvements. You should also think about practicality when looking up ideas. If you see a fantastic basement renovation and want to pull it off, then take a look at your own basement and judge if it’s large enough to get the work done.
Next, you should think about who to contact to get the work done. If you have local contractors, then it’s recommended you get to know them and ask them to help you with your renovations. Since a home is a costly investment, it pays to make friends with local contractors in order to get great deals and quality service over a long period of time. Alternatively, if you’re DIY savvy and have friends or family members capable of giving you a hand, then that’s also a good option. However, keep in mind that hollowing out a basement, renovating a kitchen and other large projects can be costly and time-consuming, so it’s recommended you leave those to the professionals.
So without further ado, here are a couple of home improvements for the lesser utilised parts of your house.
Basement
Your basement should be thought of as an extension of your home. Don’t use it as a storage dump where you keep large boxes, random bits of garbage and old things you don’t use anymore. Declutter your house well enough and you’ll find that you don’t actually need much storage space. Clean it up, give it a nice coat of paint, and consider hiding any exposed piping and wiring with walls. That way you can make your basement a little more sturdy and section it off into smaller rooms, or if your basement is already quite small then you can turn it into an extra room.
If your basement is too small for any meaningful renovations, then you could consider extending it. This will require planning permission and help from contractors, but it’s a fantastic way to get lots of extra space to build a games room, hobby room, additional bedrooms, or even a home cinema setup. If you’re really fancy and want the ultimate in luxury, then a basement pool is another option if you have a fairly large home.
A simple renovation that most people can afford and have the time for is to just cover up the basement look. For instance, hide the piping and any exposed wires, paint the walls the same colour as the rest of your home, and add proper flooring or even carpet. The idea is to make the basement look like the rest of your home instead of making it stand out. With a blank room to furnish, you could essentially do whatever you want with the finished project.
Take a look at these fantastic basement renovation ideas for a couple more ideas on what you can do with that extra space. Just remember that every square inch of your home should be used up, and your basement is no exception. Don’t treat it like the ugly tail end of your house, give it some love like the rest of your home.
Garage
Most garages are abandoned due to the convenience and speed of simply storing your car outside of the garage in the driveway instead. In fact, the garage doors are probably caked in dirt, grime or just dust and refuse to move now. Get rid of those ugly shutters and instead, replace it with new roller doors. The better quality your garage doors, the more safety you’ll have if you’re worried about your car being stolen and the more likely you’ll actually use the garage itself.
However, it’s understandable that most people use the garage as an extra storage area due to the amount of space it offers. Much like the basement, however, you could simply declutter the house and sell off any unwanted belongings you have in order to make room (and money) for some much-needed home improvements.
For starters, you could convert your garage into a productive and feature-rich car shop. Get a tool board to hang all of your workshop tools, get things such as a car lift and use the storage space for spare tires, engine parts and so on. This is a fantastic renovation for anyone that loves their cars, but it’s understandable that this isn’t for everyone.
Another fantastic use of your garage is to turn it into another usable room, such as an extra kitchen, bedroom or hobby room. This is only doable if you don’t plan to use your garage to actually store a car, but if the room is large enough then you could potentially renovate it into a multi-use room that can store cars in addition to housing entertainment or hobby equipment.
Laundry Room
A laundry room is something that is usually forgotten about despite how much we use it. Old homes typically don’t have a laundry room and it’s not uncommon to see the washing machine and dryer mixed into the kitchen in some cases. However, for those of us lucky enough to get extra space to dedicate to laundry, here are a couple of ideas to give it a little more love.
First of all, don’t treat your laundry room like a dump. It’s an essential part of your home that serves a very important function, so treat it much like you treat your kitchen. Clean it up on a regular basis, make sure the exhaust is free of dirt and dust, and have plenty of storage space for things such as extra linen and washing items.
Secondly, add a couple of unique additions to your laundry room to make it even more useful. For starters, if you have pets and your laundry room leads to your garden or a side entrance, then you could install a pet washing station. The reason we keep these in the laundry room is so that we can clean our pets, be the dogs or cats, as soon as they enter the home so they don’t get their dirty paws all over the furniture. The pet washing station can also be used to blast dirt and grime off things such as shoes and boots before they’re stored away inside the home.
A great way to think about your laundry room is to stop calling it a laundry room. Instead, refer to it was a utility room, a place to do more than just washing and drying. You could store an ironing board in your utility room, or perhaps build a sliding one that is convenient to use and store away. You could even set up a sewing machine to give you a convenient location to repair all of your damaged clothes, sew on buttons that came off in the washing machine, or even build a shelf to store your shoe collection.
Storage Closet
Most storage closets are large enough to house a small bed, a desk or even an extra toilet. These renovations aren’t common due to the amount of storage space people need, but that can be fixed with a bit of decluttering. As mentioned before, by getting rid of some of your possessions, you could make extra money to put towards your renovations and clear up rooms that were exclusively being used for storage.
People typically don’t treat their storage with much respect either. For example, you might find yourself stashing boxes in a storage room and leaving them inside to gather dust, you might throw stuff in just so you can forget about it, or you might just dump clothes inside and neglect to fold or even hang them properly. If you have some useless storage closets, then you might want to consider clearing it out, giving it a good clean and then installing something else inside.
It could be a miniature study room, a little hobby area, or even an extra bedroom. It might be a little claustrophobic, but if all you’re doing is sleeping inside or doing a bit of extra work, then you don’t exactly need all that much space. If all else fails, you could always knock it down to give your other rooms some additional space.