5 cost effective ways to renovate an apartment.

If you are willing to pitch in and spend some time it can be significantly cheaper to renovate an existing property than to buy something that has had work done by someone else. It is important to tackle the things that really date the house first and will make your life more comfortable. This includes old tapestry, materials and paint like old curtains, carpets, dated wall and ceiling paint and tacky aged cabinetry. These are all items that a relatively cheap and easy for novices to tackle and have a major impact on modernizing a property.  

A coat of paint can revive and brighten gloomy rooms. 

The cost of painting the internals of a unit or apartment is minimal and if quoted by a professional painter you will notice that the major cost is labour. This is a job that you can tackle yourself if you are willing to put in the effort and learn as you go. High quality paint will cost $300-500 add in a couple of hundred for rollers paint brushes and drop sheets and some sandpaper and you have all the materials needed for under $600-$800. The hardest part of the job is the prep work so bribe some friends to help or host a working bee BBQ and save yourself some time. This is the cheapest and easiest job that has the biggest payoff for any property. The difference between old yellow walls and bright white will blow you away.  

Painting kitchen cabinets or adding shelving is cheap and easy for DIY. 

The same goes for updating the kitchen or bedrooms cabinetry. Sometimes houses and apartments look outdated and verge on historic. Whilst it may seem like a huge job to update cupboards there is a trick that many overlook. Doors! Often older cupboards and cabinetry are built very well and are still serviceable but look dated. It is possible and very easy to modernize just the doors to update the look of a kitchen or bedroom.  When I moved in, I liked the layout of the kitchen but wanted to modernize the setup. I took the cabinet doors off and painted them a distinct colour and changed the handles to a modern styling. There is specific laminate paint that is designed to be hard wearing and glossy finished that looks great in the kitchen. We also added some modern floating shelves to the walls for additional storage space and installed a stainless steel rangehood. The Rangehood being the expensive part with shelves costing $20 from Bunnings each and the paint coming in around $200 including brushes.  

Window coverings can be the final piece in the Interior Design puzzle.  

When moving into a house that has been rented out there are many opportunities to update and adapt the space to make your own. In our apartment there were rusty aluminum blinds still hanging around from the 1970’s. Over time the previous landlord had fixed this issue by installing some cheap curtains to hide the problem. Prior to painting I ripped the old blinds off the walls and threw them in them in the bin. Job number two was to decide what was going to replace them. These days it is very cheap and easy to buy and install custom blinds made for your specific needs. In our apartment we had a mix of curtains and shutters, total cost for 6 Windows was $3,200. Due to the choices that we made with White shutters and colourful curtains the space looks much more modern and brighter than before.  

Lights, Ceiling fans and electrical outlets are daily usage items and worth the money! 

Another quick renovation to be looked at by homeowners is to look at the lights and electricals of the house. Because our previous house was a rental the owners had just installed the cheapest options possible. A trip to the local Lighting outlet is a must when renovating. When chosen carefully you can pick up something that will save you money on your electrical bill and compliment the rest of your design choices. I picked a modern white and faux wood ceiling fan look that complements our modern scandi furniture. For lighting I wanted to replace the fluorescent lights with something more homely and managed to pick up some refurbished light fittings from the same era of the house. These looks great with a modern energy saving light bulb in them and they also throw out more light than the old fittings. It is also worth asking the electrician, when he installs the lights and fan, to add some additional electrical wall outlets as these are essential in this modern life. 

The floor is the largest blank canvas in your house and can complement or ruin other renovations. 

If you are moving in and going to the effort of renovating it is important to consider replacing the old carpet or updating the flooring option. Old carpets can be a hotbed for dust, pollen, mites and other allergens and is essential for anyone with allergies to be replaced. It can also harbour smells that can be difficult to remove even with professional carpet cleaning. There are many options for cost effective flooring these days including both hard and waterproof or soft and cushioning options. Hybrid planks, Laminate wood look and vinyl flooring are all very cheap and easy to install. If you are feeling less confident about installing the new flooring, you can save some money by removing the old carpet and cleaning the floor surface prior to calling in the professionals. This prep work can save you lots of money as half of the labour costs for the installation is normally the removal of the old flooring. 

Renovating your own property is almost a rite of passage in Australia with such a strong culture of DIY, no doubt harboured by sausages at the hardware store. If you are lucky enough to by your own property don’t be afraid to tackle some jobs yourself!

Not only can you save some money you will gain the knowledge and ability to conduct some minor repairs in the future. It can be incredibly fun and rewarding to see the results of your hard work result in a beautiful place to live.

In the end if you mess it up you can chalk it up to life experience and call the professionals in to fix your mistakes.