10 Small Design Changes That Make a Big Difference
Breathe new life into your living space with these simple, inexpensive solutions.
While most of our design work centers on larger scale renovations, from time to time clients ask us for ways they can easily revamp their homes without any major impact to their lives — or more importantly — their wallets. While they’re not necessarily ready to take on a big project, they would like to add a bit more character or personality throughout their space. Maybe even test the waters for larger design changes they can implement later on.
If that situation sounds similar to yours, give one (or a few) of these low-lift, high-impact favorites a try!
1. Have Fun with Paint + Wallcoverings
Walls take up the most visual real estate in any room, but are often neglected for more frequent updates to furniture and décor. If you’ve historically played it safe with neutral colors, try a bold new paint for a low cost, high impact change in any room. Feeling overwhelmed by the endless options? Look into designer brands like Farrow & Ball, Backdrop, or Clare which offer more limited, but expertly curated collections of colors.
Wallpaper is another fun design tool to explore (and something we often use in our designs), and is available in a huge variety of styles and price points. Unless you’re willing to pay a little more for a professional install, we recommend saving it for spaces with limited window or door openings. And if traditional pasted wallpaper feels like too great of a commitment for you, look into the fantastic peel-and-stick options from brands like Chasing Paper, Tempaper & Co., or Walls Need Love. We also love the customizable options from Love vs. Design, which allows you to create your own one-of-a-kind palette from over 200 color options which can be applied to any of their fun patterns.
If you’re feeling especially bold, look into adding crown molding or some other decorative trim or paneling detail to your walls such as wainscotting or beadboard. This will allow you to try fun combinations of paint and wallpaper in the same space.
2. Restore or Deep Clean Your Floors
After walls, floors are another often neglected part of a room where simple changes can have a major impact. If you’re not in love with the floors you inherited when you moved into your space, you don’t necessarily have to invest a lot of money to have them replaced. In some instances, having them deep cleaned or restored might be a great alternative!
If you don’t like the color of your wood floors, but they’re in otherwise good condition, you can often times save a lot of money by simply having they sanded and re-stained in a finish that’s more aligned with your tastes ands style. On the other hand if you like the color, but find them to be dull, scratched, or in slight disrepair from sun or water damage, you may be able to hire a flooring restoration company to bring them back to their former glory.
Similarly, vintage tile floors can be deep cleaned, and regrouted to freshen up their appearance. And while your options may be limited in ways to improve the aesthetics of dated wall-to-wall carpeting, a thorough and professional deep cleaning can do a lot to make you feel better about walking on them in the short term!
(P.S. The next item on our list can help you with lackluster carpeting as well!)
3. Add Area Rugs + Runners
While area rugs are available in a wide variety of price points and can be quite expensive at times (especially larger antique or vintage rugs), we often find that they offer the biggest bang for your buck when trying to update the look and feel of a room.
When we’re creating a design scheme for a new room, rugs are often our starting point since they provide us with so much design data that can inform the rest space. From colors and patterns, to style, texture, and shape, there are endless “threads” we can pull to set the tone and stitch the room together.
Area rugs are also a clever way to unify two adjacent spaces in aesthetic, or to help define a large open space into more bitesize, functional zones.
When thinking about rugs for your home, don’t forget about your narrow spaces like hallways, or other high traffic areas like kitchen or bathrooms, and stairs! Runners are another easy way to have a big impact in a small space. As an added benefit, they help make the spaces safer and more comfortable, all while protecting the floors underneath.
4. Upgrade Your Outlets, Switches + Lightbulbs
One of the more recent iterations of “form meeting function” is the emergence of smart technology for the residential consumer. Swapping out your outlets, light switches, and lightbulbs with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth enabled, or even voice controlled options can not only improve your quality of life day-to-day, but bring added security and energy efficiency benefits.
Beyond the ability to just control your lights and appliances from anywhere you and your phone are, you can optimize your surroundings for how you best like to live. For example, you can program a schedule set to control the amount and even color temperature of light in each room of your home based on the time of day.
Similarly, smart thermostats can learn your temperature preferences throughout the day, and year in order to anticipate the desired settings season to season. These small changes can add up to a lot of saved energy costs and more money in your pocket over time.
5. Include Some Interesting Plants
If you’re looking to breathe new life into your space, there’s no better way than by adding actual living things! Including plants and fresh flowers in any room instantly makes it feel more high end. And since they come in such a variety of types, sizes, and colors, they can easily be incorporated into any space. As an added benefit, houseplants help improve the air quality in your home.
If you’re short on floorspace (or are hoping to deter curious pets and children), opt for hanging plants, or try tucking a few small potted plants amongst the items on your shelves. Just be realistic about the amount of effort you want to put into maintaining your plants.
If you’re not keen on a complicated care schedule, opt for one or two larger mature plants, versus many small ones which will require more of your attention. You can also try to stick with the same type or variety throughout your home to keep things simple. Succulents for example can do well with more infrequent watering. Low light, water loving plants like ferns make a great addition to bathrooms as they can pull the moisture from the air during steamy showers.
Worst case scenario — there have been some great strides in the faux plant world in recent years!
6. Make Simple Kitchen Improvements
While kitchen renovations are notoriously expensive, there are low cost upgrades you can make to improve the space right away. Start small with accessories like new dish towels, pot holders, upgraded countertop appliances, or a nice cushioned runner. You can also pick up some high quality, classic items that fuse well with any décor style — think a marble paper towel holder, sturdy butcher block cutting board, or stoneware utensil crock. While these items may seem small in the grand scheme, they’re items that you’ll likely use on a daily basis, sparking joy each time you see them.
A few more design-focused upgrades that can improve both the aesthetics and functionality in your kitchen include items like a brass pot rail, soft close hinges, new cabinet hardware, or a roman shade over your sink. These items are still solidly within the “DIY” realm, and won’t cost too much to tackle on your own in one weekend.
If you’re willing to invest a little bit more into your kitchen, and want to enlist the help of a professional, look into your options for cabinet refinishing, updating your backsplash tile, or adding new countertops. You may also want to overhaul the lighting in your space, including adding some under-cabinet task lighting. If you’re not adjusting the configuration of your kitchen, purchasing new large appliances, or making any major changes to the plumbing and electrical, these upgrades might actually be more affordable than you realize.
7. Refresh Your Art, Textiles + Décor
One of the simplest and most affordable things you can do to update your space is to refresh your art, textiles, and décor. The beauty of this is that you’re free to work on whatever timeline and budget makes sense for you, with almost zero interruption to your day-to-day life. Your refresh could be as simple as restyling a single table top or bookshelf, or span multiple rooms throughout your home.
To add more character without breaking the bank, try incorporating a single vintage piece into the room, such as a unique side table or fun lamp. If you consider yourself to be a handy person, you could try refinishing an existing furniture piece of yours, or something inexpensive you find at a thrift shop. Simple changes such as adding a new coat of paint to a console table or bookshelf, or some new fabric to a set of dining chairs can go a long way.
Planning regular seasonal updates to your soft textiles like blankets, throw pillows, and drapes can also help you give your room an entirely new look a few times each year (not to mention giving you something fun to look forward to). Don’t forget to show your walls some love, too! Periodically swapping out your artwork with some new pieces, updated frames, or even adding a fun mirror can keep things feeling fresh.
8. Boost Your Home’s Curb Appeal
When considering small changes that can have a big impact to the overall design of your home, don’t forget to assess your home’s exterior! While it might seem like focusing any of your attention here is more for the benefit of your neighbors than yourself, keep in mind how nice it will feel to be greeted by good design as you come and go each day.
For a few hundred dollars and some sweat equity, you can do a lot to boost your home’s curb appeal. Some simple landscaping like adding new shrubs, flowers, or a small ornamental tree along with some fresh mulch will do wonders to soften the hard edges of your exterior. If you’re limited on yard space (or not so inclined for outdoor labor), try adding a few potted plants to your front steps, or some planter boxes to your windows and railings.
If you’re lucky enough to have a porch or patio, invest in a new outdoor area rug and colorful bistro set. Consider updating your address numbers or mailbox to something more contemporary or with more character. A pathway of stone pavers is an affordable and charming way to access the different parts of your backyard, and helps to protect your lawn.
For something a bit larger in scale, explore a new paint color for your front door, or trim. Finally, updated exterior lighting can dramatically improve the look of your home, while also providing better security.
9. Try a New Furniture Arrangement
If things are starting to feel a bit stale around your house, shake things up with a different furniture arrangement! Consider if there are different layouts that might work for your space — try your sofa on a different wall in your living room, or change the orientation of your furniture to focus more on conversation than TV watching. Rotate your bed, or try it in front of the windows for a dramatic and romantic effect.
If you’re in the habit of pushing all of your furniture up against the walls, particularly in living spaces, get creative and try floating your furniture more in the center of the room. This will not only help break your rooms up into newly defined zones, but create new traffic patterns through the space to help reduce wear and tear on your rugs or floors.
Another thing you might want to explore after you’ve spent some time in your home is swapping entire rooms based on how you prefer to live. Maybe there’s better morning light on the opposite side of your house from your current primary bedroom? Perhaps a seldom used formal dining room becomes a second, more causal TV room for your family? Could an underutilized corner of your finished basement become a luxe built-in home office space? Just because a room was set up with a certain function or layout when you first moved in doesn’t mean you have to run with that!
10. Add Affordable Luxury to Your Bathroom
Like kitchens, bathrooms are also notorious for being expensive to renovate — but there are plenty of tiny interventions you can make right away to help your bathroom feel more like a luxurious hotel.
For a more pleasant potty experience, try adding a soft-close toilet seat and install a bidet. A curved shower curtain rod will also help to prevent your shower liner from sticking to you. Shampoo, conditioner, and body wash each look more sophisticated when transferred to refillable amber glass bottles. And don’t forget to include those house plants we mentioned earlier! Oversized tropical varieties look especially great in bathrooms.
If you’re a bath person, get a teak or bamboo tub tray and keep a relaxing scented candle along with bath oils on it for you to use. A vintage wooden chair or stool placed near the tub is a great place to rest a book, or your glass of wine. Last but not least, a few new sets of fluffy towels, a heated towel rack, and nice high-pile cushioned bath mat will all add to your experience.
Ready to Get Started?
We’d love to help with your next home design project! Schedule a call with the Rockledge team today to learn more.