Five home improvements you can make for under £100

With Google searches for DIY once again on the increase during the latest lockdown, Hitachi Personal Finance has looked at five home improvements you can make for under £100:

1. Painting a room

A fresh lick of paint can really brighten up a room and is something that can easily be done yourself. Rather than paying for a professional decorator, consider investing in some brushes and rollers.

According to research by Priceyourjob, painting all the main rooms, such as the lounge, kitchen, bedrooms, and bathroom, will cost an average of £71.

2. Kitchen spruce ups

Hitachi Personal Finance believes it can be simple and cheap to make just a couple of subtle changes to change the whole complexion of the room. 

The company highlights that adding or swapping a glass hob splashback can cost as little as £60, whilst tiling a wall could be just what you need to reinvigorate your kitchen area. The cost depends on the type of tile and size of your kitchen, but according to Checkatrade, the average kitchen tiling will set you back just £35 per square metre.

3. New curtains and blinds

Replacing old drapes with something more vibrant and colourful can really make a difference. Providing you have had them installed previously, just replacing curtains or roll-up blinds might not cost as much as you think. Home interior retailers such as Dunelm sell a range of curtains for between £50-£90 that can completely transform the feel of a room. 

4. Decluttering

A simple way to improve the feel of your entire home is organising and decluttering from top to bottom. Excess belongings are commonplace in a lot of households and can often be forgotten for long periods, leading to even the most spacious properties feeling cramped and messy.

Taking the time to go through each room, organising which items to keep and which you want to recycle or donate to charity, can free up storage space.

5. Sprucing up your front door

Don’t forget about the exterior of your home, as improvements on the outside can add value to your property.

Sanding down and re-painting your front door will help alleviate any looks of tiredness from the outside and add ‘kerb appeal’. Although this sounds like a big job, the average cost of the paint and tools required to take this project on can be attainable for around £80, based on suggestions from B&Q.

Vincent Reboul, Managing Director at Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance, commented: “The start of the year is often a time of reflection, and this applies to our homes as well as our careers and personal lives. The lockdown means even more of us will be looking to take on home improvements in the coming months. 

“Although a lot of DIY jobs can be quite large and costly projects, there are certainly tweaks and changes we can be making ourselves to have similar benefits without forking out huge sums of money.

“We hope this guide inspires homeowners looking to try their hand at a few upgrades to give their house a fresh feel for 2021.”