Today for Home Week I wanted to share four smaller expenses that make a big impact!
1 // The first one is SO cheap and a no-brainer. Hopefully your door stoppers are in a lot better shape than ours were upon moving in. Our home was built in the '90s so these old door stoppers were yellowed, dusty, and crumbling apart. I bought a pack of 50 on Amazon HERE and went around the house replacing them all. Look at the before and after below. So gross!
From ew to better!
2 // Secondly, we had such an assortment of outdated and cheap register covers around the house. Some were rusting brown or white metal, some were cheap clunky plastic. I had eleven to replace. I bought these wicker design register covers on Amazon HERE and wow, what a difference it makes to have consistency through the house. And I love the geometric design!
3 // Light fixtures make for a drastic improvement. Here's the light that was in the breakfast area (in fact, a better version of what was there - it had these stick-on grapes all around it). I took the grapes off and then snapped this photo. We had our wonderful handyman replace it with this amazing Moroccan light (from Overstock HERE) which is less than $150.
We also had a huge brass foyer light that needed to go.
The French-inspired chandelier that hangs there now was not cheap ($450) BUT what a difference it makes! I found it locally at a store called Blacklion. Yes, I'm lumping it into this "small expenses" blog topic because while it was a lot of money, I felt like the price was pretty competitive for a fixture this size.
4 // Our master bathroom shower head was pitiful. It unevenly spit water out and had such low flow that it was nearly impossible to wash shampoo bubbles out of my hair. Not a great way to start off the day!
A plumber was at our home for some leakage issues and I asked him about how to increase the water flow. He told me just to get a new shower head with lots of small nodules! Our fixtures are brass currently so I found this awesome larger head with lots of high ratings HERE on Amazon. Y'all, what a difference! We now have the best pressure and a spa-like shower. Ian was really skeptical that our shower issues could be reversed just by changing out the shower head, but he was thrilled to be w-r-o-n-g! This one looks prettier and I actually really like the brass.
Okay, now on to your advice. We have this bay window in our dining room. It's the last room in the house that has small metal blinds. We are itching to replace them. The window grids are broken so I took them out of the windows. What would you do here, plantation shutters (knowing that it's going to be super expensive, like $900, wahhhhhh) or would you buy new window grids, buy a bay window curtain rod, and have drapes made? It is hard to really see with this quick iPhone snap, but once I get prettier window treatments, I'll shoot prettier pictures. :) I'd love to hear your advice!
For that window, if this is your forever home, get what you will love! If that's plantation shutters, yes they may be pricey, but why get something that you're only ambivalent about now only to want to replace them later?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely plantation shutters! They are very clean and chic looking.
ReplyDeleteGotta say I love the plantation shutters too. I think bay window drapes just always look overly fussy for some reason -- like being inside a castle turret or something.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a helpful post. We are in the middle of updating a 90s house and doing a lot of these same updates. Love the shower head! Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteJulie @ http://www.bormandco.com
I would spend the $900 on shutters.
ReplyDeleteEnjoying these house posts! Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the bay windows, I would ask myself: 1. How much light do they bring in? How much light do we want there? 2. Do you need/ want the privacy there? and of course, 3. Budget? Do plantation windows work right now? In 6 months? In 1 year?
One compromise thought, is nice, fitted wood or white faux fitted blinds from Lowes. They size & cut them for you there, easy to install, have a beautiful, clean, modern, classic look, and are reasonably priced. They are also great at letting in a lot of light!
We installed them in our smaller bedroom where we need something but weren't committed to the big plantation shutters yet. (It was on the side of the house.) They have maintained excellently for 5 years, easy to clean and have had no problem. Win- win!
Happy home-making :)
I agree with the fitted wood or white faux blinds. The first thing we did in our current home was start replacing blinds and we put wood ones in our dining room. We aren't going to stay here forever so we didn't want to spend a fortune but wanted the space to look better. We loved them and ended up doing the same in our family room and kitchen. I will probably do it at our next house too :)
DeleteBookmarking for EVERY SINGLE TIP HERE. Love this post!
ReplyDeleteI love the shutters, although they are SO expensive. I would probably just go for it if you can, but if not do the drapes in the meantime?
ReplyDeleteI'm loving your house posts this week! You've inspired me to share a bit tomorrow about what we've picked for our home that is still being built.
Another vote for plantation shutters. We did them, and while they are expensive, they are soooooo worth it!
ReplyDeleteLove this series!
Love this! We have a 90s house that we have slowly been updating too. I changed all of our door handles last year and it made a huge difference. Our handles were silver on one side of the door and a tarnished gold on the other side. I guess this look was popular at some point?!?!? I changed them all to a polished nickel color and still they make me so happy with how much better they look.
ReplyDeletewe recently changed out our dining room light fixture and it has changed out entire house! Can't wait to change out our entry way light fixture.
ReplyDeleteChels @ Red Velvet Rooster
Love the first tip; we need to do this! I also agree with you about the light fixtures!
ReplyDeleteI need to change out the fixtures in our master bath some
ReplyDeleteKind of bad!! Does that bay window face the front or back yard? We have one in our kitchen that looks out into the back yard. I have the window grids in place and then had faux roman shades made. I love the look and love being able to look out my back yard!!
Love these ideas! Do you mind sharing your handyman's info? I've been looking to replace our foyer fixture....or at a minimum get our existing fixture cleaned and bulbs changed)....but it's waaay out of our reach!
ReplyDeleteThat Moroccan light is gorgeous!The shower head is super cool too.
ReplyDeleteThat Moroccan light is gorgeous!The shower head is super cool too.
ReplyDeleteI need to replace our grates too - every single one is different color or design and it's driving me crazy! I love the ones you got and will definitely replace with those. Thanks! As for the bay window, add drapes only if you need some softness and color because those won't be super cheap either. I say forget the cost and go with your gut so you don't regret the purchase!
ReplyDeleteOur grates are terrible. Just old (90's build over here!) and need some TLC. I love the ones you picked out! I also vote for plantation shutters. They would be gorgeous! Make the splurge!
ReplyDeleteWe had a professional child-proofer come to our home, and his first tip was to remove all of the rubber door-stoppers because they are a choking hazard. They are at eye level for crawling babies and easy enough for them to get off. We've been living without them for a few years and haven't had any wall damage.
ReplyDeleteI love your showerhead tip, though, and ours might be replaced soon!
I just love your blog and this week's series of posts has been fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThe light fixtures make SUCH a difference! We had these pumpkin looking lights in our hallways and even though we went for a cheap, quick fix, it made such a huge difference.
ReplyDeleteThat chandelier gives me ALL the heart eyes!!
ReplyDelete