Budgeting for Home Renovation: 4 Clever Ideas to Refresh Your Home and Save Money

Think home renovation is impossible without a huge price tag? Think again. Today on the Show & Live Well blog, we’re sharing four refreshing and affordable ideas to make the most of your home renovation budget, no matter how small it may be. And with so many of us still hunkered down in our houses, casting critical new eyes on interior spaces we’re tired of seeing and wishing we could refresh, now is the perfect time to make big changes – for less change than you might imagine. Read on to see what we mean!

1. Paint your kitchen cabinets

Custom kitchen cabinets can cost many tens of thousands of dollars. You can save big – and avoid the majority of that home renovation cost altogether – by painting the cabinets you already have. This can easily be done by an experienced professional, whose know-how can really transform your kitchen. These before-and-after photos prove the point: dark, heavily grained wood cabinets were painted white to create a light, bright kitchen – and to free up room in the budget for new countertops, flooring, light fixtures and a custom island, painted to match.

2. Rethink what you already own

This goes beyond reducing, reusing, and recycling. It’s more about reimagining new possibilities for items you use every day. In this vintage home, a pair of entry doors were taken off their hinges, refinished and repainted, and then put to new use as cabinet doors. Moves like this build so much character into a home, even one with an already-rich history. Also, note the way the Morgante Wilson team mimicked the doors’ panel design inside the cased opening alongside.

3. Rethink your walls

Sure, wallpaper is pretty. But sometimes, simplifying is the way to go for truly breathtaking impact. Here, a sitting room gets a whole new look and feel thanks to deeply moody paint that makes this space cozy and dramatic, all at the same time. As a bonus, it feels much more “now” than “then.”

4. Lighten Up

Oh, the lessons this space can teach! Let’s start with the walls, where dated mustard wallcovering was traded for a more tailored look in the palest blue. And then there are the light and airy new sconces. Last, look closely at the vanity! Careful observers will note the “after” photo features the same marble top and base as the “before” photo. We gave it a glamorous upgrade by removing its doors and dressing it in a silvery finish. Even the mirror is the same as before, but it takes on a completely different look against our updated wallpaper choice.

These are just a few ways you can stretch your home remodeling budget. Visit our website – or follow us on Facebook and Instagram! – for many more.

Morgante Wilson Architects provides architectural and interior design services in Chicago, Deerfield, Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Kenilworth, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Northfield, Ravinia, Wilmette and Winnetka – along with Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin and the U.S. Virgin Islands.