Your mountain home’s dated looks and dilapidated materials need an upgrade. Unfortunately, all too often, builders recommend ripping everything out and starting fresh, breaking budgets and causing an upgrade stalemate.
So what’s a homeowner to do? I’m here to tell you, you don’t have to do everything all at once, you can take it in parts. You can upgrade the cosmetics like furniture, paint, towel bars, cabinet knobs, window coverings, doorknobs and artwork. You can even upgrade your kitchen or bathroom cabinets with new faces on top of the existing cabinets. And later you can replace vanities, sinks, and doors without breaking the bank.
And, best of all, you can dramatically improve your home without replacing the entire kitchen, flooring, windows, cabinets and showers/tubs. Yes, those things might be on your list, but swapping out the other stuff can be done now, so you can enjoy your space sooner for far less money.
Design thinking
Before you break out your credit card, you need to first consider the overall look you want to achieve for the entire home. While you can improve the place incrementally, you need to think about the overall look that you want so it doesn’t end up looking like a hodge podge of Home Depot errands gone awry.
Sleek modern is one direction while rustic is another, and mixing them up can cause confusion for the eye, compromise a holistic aesthetic, and end up being a colossal waste of time. So it’s important to visualize a consistent look for the home first.
A modern home might use lots of paint and smooth, solid colored surfaces, while a rustic look will be full of organic materials like rough stone and wood grain. This design direction can evolve over time, but it’s very important to know what you like and have visuals to represent it.
If you don’t want to spend money on an interior designer, I recommend building a collection of looks that you like and refine it, which some people call a design board. Pinterest is an excellent resource, but so too is an inkjet printer and bulletin board. However you choose to do it, the point is to fill a space with looks you like and find a consistent theme that gets you excited. Color is important, but texture and materials are much more critical. In fact, it’s very helpful to collect physical samples from stores and manufacturers so you have a reference for the feel as well as for the look.
With a determination of how you want things to look, now you can embark on your transformation journey.
Get started
Of course, nothing is easier than buying a rug, chair or lamp and putting it in your room – enough said. But when you do, just make sure it matches your design.
With some basic DIY skills you can cosmetically improve your home with new paint, towel bars, cabinet knobs, window coverings, doorknobs and artwork. These things can dramatically improve the look of a room without breaking the bank. It’s best to upgrade an entire room at once, but you can certainly do it piecemeal – as long as you stick to your vision along the way. Some fantastic, affordable resources for this include Wayfair and Etsy.
Since faucets and light fixtures require a touch of specialized skill to install and can cost a bit more than other hardware, keep them in mind if you delay their installation to be sure you maintain a consistent look as you fill in the simple stuff.
Leveling up
The next level up in improving your home is done by hiring electricians, plumbers and handy persons to install light fixtures, light switches and receptacles, faucets, cabinet doors and drawer faces, doors, bathroom vanity countertops, sinks, and appliances.
Light switches and electrical outlets alone can instantly bring your home out of the Stone Age for minimal cost. If you do some homework (hello, YouTube), and have basic DIY skills, you can learn to do this yourself. Just be sure to turn off breakers first.
Light fixtures and sink faucets have the biggest impact as they not only improve the aesthetic but also improve functionality. If you upgrade your faucet now, just know that if you ever also replace the countertop, the holes need to match the faucet (either single hole or widespread). Unfortunately, shower faucets are beyond the scope of this post because they often require new plumbing in the wall, which means new tile. You’ll need to add a matching faucet when you redo the shower and/or tub.
Bathroom vanities are especially affordable because in some cases they can be purchased as complete units at a big-box store and installed in a day. Or, even more cost effectively, you can sometimes simply paint the cabinet and install new doors and drawer fronts for a completely new look without ripping out the cabinet. You can buy custom-sized cabinet doors and drawer fronts from The Cabinet Door Store or Fast Cabinet Doors.
Semi-custom (they come in select widths and heights) vanity cabinets and custom countertops can be purchased online and shipped to your home complete with a beautiful under mount sink. Here are a couple companies I’ve used: Country Kitchens and Keystone Granite, which are shown below.
While room doors can often be easily swapped out, the cost can be considerable (especially for exterior doors) because they should all be done at once. Similarly, appliances are relatively easily installed but can run into many thousands of dollars so this might be out of scope, especially for higher-end brands.
One step at a time
Despite what some installers and contractors may tell you, each of these improvements can be done on their own. You don’t need to rip everything out down to the studs just because you want a new bathroom vanity. You can install new towel bars and knobs one day, and install a light and faucet several months later when you’ve got the money. Then, further down the road you can get a new vanity and countertop.
So, to get begin your renovation journey, start with a design board that composes how you want things to look, including pictures and samples from stores and manufacturers. Continue by starting small with affordable items that can be easily installed, then move on to bigger stuff that might require professional installers. Before you know it, you’ll be living in the mountain home of your dreams.
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