If you are anything like me maybe you have been looking for a place to house your 3 humans and 3 dogs at one point in time.. and maybe not ready to buy! In which case, finding a rental house with yard access from someone who doesn't run for the hills when you say you have dogs and a baby... under 2000 is HARD! So you might have settled for some dull honey hardwood and some pink or floral counter tops. Even more so for those buying.. the upfront costs add up and sometimes a renovation gets put on the backburner so you can do it right!
Your surroundings play a huge role in how you feel and act, beyond the "clean house clean mind" motto. Before you binge on accessories - consider that a small investment can give you a fresh clean slate and change how you feel when you're recharging in your home. Here are a couple products and tips to give your home a quick facelift to have it feeling new and fresh without a big investment.
1. White Paint (And lots of it)
If you need to make chalkpaint to paint cabinets or furniture you can make your own by mixing 1 teaspoon of plaster of paris for every cup of paint. If you don't like white just mix your own shade!
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| Cabinets Before |
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| Preview of the Cabinets after |
If you are repainting the walls you can quadruple a can of paint in size by going a couple shades up and adding some of the white. I love hunting the 'mistint' sections in hardware stores and mixing them into new colors at home. I recently painted an entire 3 bedroom house using some left over tan colored paint and a seriously oversized bucket of white.
Also, cleaning and painting all of the trim in a house always makes a huge difference.
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Window Trim Before
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| Window trim after |
2. Mr. Clean Eraser
I've read lots of articles about these being dangerous to have around children but I'll tell you one thing - It's the only thing that gets hair dye off bathroom counters and old paint off floors and hardware so if your going to take on some projects, they are good to have on hand (Just don't feed them to your baby). Search them on pinterest for so many more uses.
3. Caulking
You must. If it hasn't been done since the last resident has left, you must.
4.Stone Paint
Not only were the counter tops floral, the previous tenant covered them in contact paper.
Here is a previous blog post on my process of painting them. Essentially I used a textured stone paint, sanded it down and finished it.
Rustoleum has a couple products for this. I used the spray paint version and taped off everything in the room.
This is another product I considered using that would have had similar results. Probably would have been an easier job to apply it with a roller too.
5. Rejuventate Professional Floor Refinish
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| Before |
This was the picture that sent me looking for a solution. I took it after freshly washing the floors and they looked so gross and dingy still!
I used Rejuventate Floor refinish Kit and the following picture was taken 24 hours after doing 50% of the floors. I had just put the furniture back on the right side of the room so I could proceed to the other and couldn't help but take a progress picture because the improvement was wowzas!!!
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| Right side of the room Done |
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| After |
Above is the after picture of the floors. About 6 months after - the two day job was well worth it because they look better, they clean better, it held up great and I feel a lot better about my mini human crawling around!
Note without judgement the new countertops and decisions on a backsplash in the background. I found enough tile to finish my kitchen for $30 which leads me into my next and most valuable home hack.
6. Habitat for Humanity Restore
Yes, the building itself is a hack. It has everything any home DIYer could ever need for prices that make DIYing worth while and all of the proceeds go back to the charity. They even have the Stone Paint I just referenced (#4) or a portion of the price and double the size.
and Cabinets!
and Lighting!
Lots and lots of paint and stain!
and floors and sinks and furniture and hardware and doors and countertops and mosaic tile. This place has saved my budget!
7. Bulls Eye 123
This stuff is a stone cold killer.
It will kill any mildew, dirt or strange smells that cleaning can't do in kitchen cabinets or closets. If you are painting a wood like pine (like bare window frames or doors) it will NOT absorb white paint unless you prime it first (painted a whole frame twice to find that one out). Your third reason to buy primer is for the walls. If the walls haven't been painted in a long time there is a chance it's an oil based paint. In this case painting over it without priming will cause it to peel, so prime first!
Anyway, It's a new weekend and I'm cleaning our house around mild construction. I was inspired to share some of the products that helped me not lose my marbles. Last thanksgiving weekend we celebrated having a home that meets all of our needs and these are simple things that helped us really feel satisfied with building our family here.
Hope I didn't bore you too much! This isn't the fun part of nesting, but it's damn satisfying.
