For many of us, summer is a time with a little extra time—a chance to take a break on the porch with a glass of lemonade, finish that novel we’ve been reading all year, and maybe take on a project or two around the house. In this piece, we’ll highlight some great Summer home improvement ideas that you can consider. Let’s go!
Summer Home Improvement Ideas
If you are looking to take on a new home improvement project in the warm summer months, there are a thousand places to start. With just a little bit of “oomph” and organizing, you can make your home more beautiful and valuable.
1. Add Curb Appeal
Adding curb appeal is one of the simplest ways to improve the appearance of your home, and also one of the most adaptable categories of ideas. No matter what your personal style or overall appearance of your home is, sprucing up the outside of your home can improve its appearance and add to the style of the house.
One of the easiest and most comprehensive ways to do this is to install new exterior siding. While many curb appeal fixes are easy DIYs, siding is not one of those. This is particularly true if you choose a more finicky siding material. You will want to make sure you seek out a fully qualified cedar or Hardie siding contractor if you choose to go this route.
2. Get a Green Thumb
One of the easiest summer home improvement ideas is to take on your home’s landscaping. Unless you are getting pretty advanced, you won’t require any construction skills and it is a relatively low-risk option.
If you have no idea where to start, try opting for garden plants lining the walkway. You can select these plants and flowers can be selected in any shape, size, and color in order to match the rest of your exterior appearance. You can also add a nice edging around the walkway, or invest in a set of porch furniture.
3. Update the Bathroom
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a plumber or a contractor in order to take on a bathroom makeover. You can do a whole lot of things all by yourself.
The first steps are often the walls and fixtures. Take out your old, outdated lights and switch plates and purchase new ones. Repair the wall as needed, filling in holes and painting over marks. Install the new fixtures according to the instructions provided, and voila!
If you are feeling ambitious, try replacing or refinishing the vanity and countertop. Before you know it, you have a whole new bathroom! If all goes well, this project shouldn’t take more than three or four days at the most.
4. Upgrade Your Lighting
One of the easiest whole-house improvements available is an investment in new lighting. Installing new light fixtures tends to be relatively straightforward and inexpensive, and is certainly easy to do by yourself, even with a limited home improvement experience.
Scope out the options at your local hardware or lighting store and pick out some fixtures that appeal to you. Make sure that they match the overall theme of the house, then go room by room and install them, bringing warmth and style to every room.
5. Freshen Up Your Paint and Trim
Pretty much every home interior could use a fresh coat of paint. Like every home, yours is sure to have skid marks, chips, and scratches on the walls.
You can clean up the overall appearance of your rooms and brighten every space with a new coat of paint. If you want to update the colors, head to your local paint store and ask for their recommendations—it’s their job to know what is new, trending, and classic.
Make sure that you don’t neglect the trim. White trim is typical in most homes, but don’t be afraid to mix it up. With just a few gallons of pigment and a few hours on the weekend, you can have your home looking beautiful and colorful in no time.
6. Build an Outdoor Oasis
During the summer months, more and more of us are spending time outdoors. Few people have truly taken the time to build a pleasant outdoor space for themselves and for their families. With warm weather and rowdy kids that are out of school for the season, an outdoor oasis has incredible appeal.
Maybe you’d like to add a pool? Depending on your location it can be a solid investment that also affords some tremendous outdoor opportunities. Contact a couple of recommended pool builders and get some estimates. You won’t know the costs until you get this part done.
Green space to play is very important for kids and can be installed with relatively little trouble. You will also want to invest in some seating for the adults, who are often outside with a book or work that they need to get done. It is also a great idea to invest in some gear for outdoor dining. A barbecue and a picnic table can work wonders in a small space, creating a sense of access to the outdoors.
7. Spruce Up the Kitchen
Many kitchen updates aren’t as intimidating as they sound. Most kitchens don’t need a new floorplan and an entirely different aesthetic, they just need a facelift.
Some smaller items to start with include refacing the cabinets and swapping out decorations. The next step after that is flooring, fixtures, and appliances. A new stove top, a new sink, and durable flooring and countertops can work wonders in a kitchen space.
8. Add a Deck, Patio, or Porch
Summer is a time for sitting on the porch, and if you don’t have a porch, maybe summer is the time to build one. You can add a medium-sized deck for a fairly reasonable price, adding aesthetic appeal with planters and flowers, nice lighting, and some comfortable outdoor furniture. Make sure the railings are looking trim, clean, and freshly painted, and cover air conditioning units with wooden boxes or a trellis.
9. Fix Up the Basement
If you have a basement in your house, odds are you aren’t making the most of it. Typically, basements are used as extra storage, not as the warm and inviting space they could be. You can flesh out the room with a bar and couches for entertaining, or make an extra bedroom from a smaller space. If you have the room, you could even turn it into a basement apartment for renting out.
10. Replace the Windows
It is very common in older buildings to have cracked or leaking windows fogging up the view. If this is a problem for you, or even if your windows are just looking old or outdated, you will want to seriously consider replacing them.
This particular home improvement tends to offer a great return on investment, particularly in big cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New York City. Replacing your windows can also increase energy efficiency if you live in a particularly hot or warm climate.
Switch the Pillows
One of the simplest fixes you can possibly take on is getting new linens. Throw up some new curtains, replace the pillows on the couch and bed, and pick up a throw blanket for the corner of the sofa and you’re well on your way. A few new swaths of fabric and your entire look gets updated.
Hope these summer home improvement ideas have sparked your creative mind.
