For many people, colder weather seems like the perfect time to hibernate. Why not wait until it gets warmer to tackle all of those to-dos around the house, right? Not exactly. Although summertime remains a popular time to engage in major renovations, many families can benefit from diving into winter home projects, too.
Not surprisingly, most winter home projects naturally will focus on the inside of your home. After all, it’s tough to get a roof renovated during the winter because most shingles need time to cure. It’s also unusual for people to have their siding removed and replaced during the coldest months of the year unless they have no other choice.
So which indoor winter home projects should you make part of your home revitalization checklist during and after the year-end holiday season? Below are six of them to consider. But first, think about the clear benefits of embarking on winter home projects with the other members of your household.
Benefits of Winter Home Projects
The first advantage of taking on winter home projects is that you have something to do with the other members of your family. Never underestimate the power of teamwork to bring everyone together. Maybe you’ve been looking for something that you can do alongside your younger kids and teens. Winter home projects could be the perfect solution.
Secondly, winter home projects can help you increase the value of your house, depending on the scope and location of the project. Obviously, something small won’t bump the needle on how much you can ask for your home if you put it on the market soon. However, a larger type of project could add thousands of dollars to your home’s market valuation.
Third, focusing on winter home projects can make the winter seem shorter. If you create a calendar checklist of items to do before spring, you’ll feel like spring’s approaching much faster. This is especially helpful if you’re the type of person who just doesn’t like cold weather and can’t wait until it’s warm again.
Finally, winter home projects allow you to love your house a little more. Have you ever had the feeling that your home just didn’t feel cozy or homey anymore? Perhaps you’ve just outgrown certain elements of it. By devoting time to winter home projects, you can fall back in love with your property, which will help you feel more comfortable and relaxed this winter.
Now that you’ve explored the upsides of winter home projects, let’s talk about six of the biggies to try this year.
Winter Home Projects Suggestion 1: Decorate Your New Home
Did you recently purchase your home? Maybe you got married. After saving to buy an engagement ring, you found a place that fit your budget. You probably received new house financing and hopefully scored a good deal. With the money you were able to put aside, you could spend the winter at least decorating several rooms of your home.
This doesn’t mean you have to go it alone. Maybe you’re not the interior designer type, or you have some ideas but aren’t sure how to bring them to life. That’s not a problem: Plenty of interior design professionals will be eager to work with you. In fact, the interior design field is expected to continue to rise in popularity for the next 10 years. Since winter can be a slow season for interior designers, you may be able to negotiate a good deal on design services.
After either working with a design pro or figuring out how you want to upgrade your home yourself, you can get to work. Remember that decorating your new house doesn’t necessitate ripping up walls or even putting in new carpeting. An easy, fast way to add liveliness and modernity to a space is with a coat of paint. The paint won’t take long to dry, and you’ll get instant results.
Other simple, yet effective, home decorating strategies can be to switch up the artwork on the walls, put up different window treatments, and lay down area rugs. Don’t forget that buying new cushions for the sofa and blankets for the loveseat can make a dated room seem contemporary and fresh. Plus, new lamps or lampshades can bring together your vision, leaving you feeling like you’re living in luxury.
Winter Home Projects Suggestion 2: Restyle Your Kitchen
First of all, note that this recommendation uses the word “restyle” rather than the word “renovate.” It’s not required that you bump out walls or move your plumbing fixtures around in order to give your kitchen a stellar appearance. With that being said, if you have the budget to make at least one large change, why not focus on the countertops?
Many homeowners will replace an old, scratched, or stained countertop with a quartz countertop or countertop made of another tough material. Be cautious about buying marble countertops. They’re absolutely lovely, but they require some TLC or they can get spotted and chipped. A quartz countertop may be a better investment, especially if you have lots of kids and you don’t want to spend a lot of time hovering over your countertops.
What are some other ways to revitalize your kitchen space without spending a fortune? Again, paint can come into the picture. You could paint the ceiling, the walls, and perhaps the cabinets. Don’t think that you have to stick to all neutral tones, either. Some homeowners love to add a fun pop of color to the kitchen. While you might not want an all-orange or all-red kitchen, having hints of bright hues here and there can really make the space unique.
Another way to give your kitchen a bit of energy is to upgrade tired, dirty appliances. Even just buying a new stove that’s gleaming can change the way your kitchen looks. The same holds true for your coffee maker you inherited a decade ago that’s been on its last legs for a while.
As a quick side note, kitchen updos tend to increase the interior “curb appeal” of a house. Consequently, if you’re planning to sell in the spring, concentrating on the kitchen could be a wise investment of time and resources.
Winter Home Projects Suggestion 3: Organize Your Bathroom
Another home space that can offer a renovation return on investment is the bathroom. Whether you’re talking about the master bathroom, the kids’ bathroom, the guest bathroom, or a half-bath powder room on the first floor, you should think about ways to improve the overall organization.
Bathrooms become cluttered very quickly. Just one visit to a professional, such as a makeup counter professional or a hair loss specialist, and all of a sudden you have different products scattered all around. What you’ll want to do is organize those items and give them a place to call home.
What if your bathroom is fairly small or narrow? You may have to get creative when it comes to organizing. For instance, would it be possible to install shelves up toward the ceiling? If so, you could store things like towels and products you don’t use all the time in the shelving. Also, you might be able to hang a storage rack over the door. The rack could hold everything from hair curling irons to bottles of deodorant.
As you’re considering storage, be aware that some stuff currently in your bathroom might not belong there. For instance, do you really need it to store all of your cleaning items? Or could you keep them in a separate location where you could grab them when you want to clean the bathrooms? Be thoughtful in what you keep and what you put elsewhere. You might discover that your bathroom has far more space than you imagined!
One last tip when it comes to bathrooms: Remind yourself that you’re allowed to decorate the bathroom with wall art like framed posters or other decor. Just make sure whatever you choose to put on the wall can handle being in a moisture-heavy environment.
Winter Home Projects Suggestion 4: Out With the Old and In With the New
Are you getting into the groove of things and buckling down with your winter home projects? If everyone’s loving this adventure, feel free to take it a step further and start decluttering. Start in one area of the house and work your way from room to room.
A great location to begin is a climate-controlled garage. Go through all the items you’re storing there and see if you might be able to give anything to charity. You’ll no doubt find a lot of junk that needs to be put out as garbage, too. The more you can get out of your house, the more space you’ll have.
Alongside your decluttering project, start to think about what you could bring into your home to put in place of whatever you take out. Would you love to have fresh posies all winter long in your newly uncluttered kitchen or dining room area? Visit the best flower shop website you can find online and order a bouquet. Then, continue buying bouquets every couple of weeks. You’ll bring a veritable garden atmosphere into your household.
Just one quick warning: You don’t want to replace everything you toss with something else. It’s better to clean up your home and then be very selective about what comes in the door. Otherwise, you’ll end up in the same place you were before.
Winter Home Projects Suggestion 5: DIY Holiday Projects Your Kids Can Help You With
Chances are fairly strong that if you start your winter home projects early enough, you’ll be bumping into at least a couple of holidays. That’s not a problem, because holiday decorating can be entertaining and rewarding for everyone in the family.
What are some winter home projects to embark on with the kiddos? You can turn a room into a school of arts paradise and set up everything from a gingerbread house making area to a place to create holiday cards with custom craft stamps. That way, you and your children can turn out beautiful and quirky items to decorate the house, tree, windows, and other places.
Remember that your holiday projects don’t have to last more than this year. Even little kids can draw and color pictures for you to hang up. The point isn’t to necessarily create something that’s going to stick around forever. It’s to make items that you can use and display right away.
Don’t forget that anything you make can also be shared with other people. Holiday decorations like homemade ornaments and greetings can make excellent gifts.
Winter Home Projects Suggestion 6: Deep Clean Your Appliances
By this point, your home probably feels like a whole new paradise. However, you probably could still go a bit further by deep cleaning your appliances and some hardware and equipment.
For example, when was the last time you scoured your refrigerator or performed a thorough cleaning in your oven? Unless you’re on top of those duties, you may have put them off for months or even years. Make the winter the time to give your appliances the once-over. You can even concentrate on the back of the appliances, such as pulling the refrigerator out from the wall so you can vacuum behind it and keep the floor clean.
If you get into the cleaning rhythm, you can always move on to work on all the toilets, sinks, bathtubs, and showers in your home. You might even want to clean out your fireplace, even if you don’t use it. However, before getting in too deep, you should know that you might have to hire experts like brick masonry services providers to help you restore brickwork that’s been damaged. Don’t try to undertake too much or go too far outside of your wheelhouse.
Start Spring With the Cleaning Pretty Much Done
Over time, you’ll start to incorporate winter home projects into your everyday routines. By the time spring rolls around, you may just find that you barely need to engage in any type of spring cleaning at all. That means you can kick back instead of worrying that you’ve let your house go all winter. What a refreshing, exciting way to kick off those months with extended daylight hours and warm temperatures!