Thanks to the affordability and accessibility of remodeling and building materials, no homeowner ever needs to feel like they are “stuck” with the architectural features, design and décor of an older home. From low-cost DIY projects to full-on renovations, your ability to refresh your older home inside and out is limitless.
Update your Old Home with 6 Remodeling Projects
1. Update your kitchen backsplash.
Nothing makes a home feel out-of-style as dated wallpaper, wallpaper borders, accent tile and other stale kitchen backsplashes. Though we acknowledge it is a significant project, updating your kitchen backsplash can bring your older home decades forward in style!
If you are gong to update your kitchen backsplash, go all-in. Opt for on-trend new materials like our glazed Slimbrick® and accent tiles with either a neutral (disappearing) or statement grout color. With materials that range from traditional to modern, industrial and chic, you can now infuse the style you love into the tile work that sets the stage for the most-used space in your home!
2. Update bathroom tile
Renovating your bathroom adds value to your home. Whether you are working toward selling your home in the foreseeable future or you plan to enjoy it yourself for many years to come, updating the tile in your bathroom makes a big impact since the spaces are small. What’s more, this can be a unifying project if you incorporate the same Slimbrick you used in your kitchen update into your bathroom design.
3. Add a feature wall.
Feature walls are on-trend! Using brick, stone and other natural materials often featured on the exterior of homes in interior feature walls is a great way to infuse color and texture into indoor spaces. Adding an interior feature wall is an exceptional way to update an older home and make it feel much more modern and inviting. In addition, it can be an effective way to remediate a problem wall, by sealing and then covering a wall that is showing wear and tear to plaster or has been damaged by layers of wallpaper. And like tile, there are so many choices available to you that you can easily translate your traditional, industrial, modern or bohemian style into your choice of materials for an interior feature wall.
4. Extend your living space into the outdoors.
Many older homes lack the outdoor living space that is now commonly included in new home construction throughout the Pacific Northwest region. Whether you need to build a deck or lay out a patio space from scratch or want to expand your older home’s outdoor living space, this is another remodeling project that can pay big dividends when you sell your home or simply in enhancing your lifestyle. Use our online paver estimator to find out how many pavers, edge pieces, base rock and joint sand you will need to build the patio of your dreams!
Today’s outdoor paving and patio materials give you the ability to fully define the space you want for your patio or extend your current outdoor space with materials like brick, stone pavers and concrete slabs. You can make these spaces even more interesting by adding low profile retaining wall to separate patio from yard or garden and using the same materials to build planters and grow boxes. You can also use simple, natural items to ‘grout’ your patio area such as sand or gravel. All these options can turn what might otherwise seem like a huge undertaking into a DIY home remodeling project that you can complete in a few Saturdays and within a limited budget.
5. Heat up your outdoor living spaces.
If you want to enjoy your outdoor living spaces year-round, adding a fireplace or fire pit is a must. You can use retaining wall and natural stone to build outstanding fireplaces and fire pits in your backyard that turn your backyard space into a true gathering space and even facilitate outdoor cooking and entertaining.
6. Define your outdoor spaces with paths and walkways.
Adding walkways and paths to your backyard makes it much more usable. Instead of a vast expanse of lawn (which is often wet, especially in winter months here in the Pacific Northwest) you can create interesting features that dress up your backyard and give you more ways to use it.
For instance, while you might have a fireplace on your patio for warmth you might also want a wood burning firepit away from your home where you can cook s’mores and sit out during summer months. You can connect those spaces (patio and firepit) with a paver or stone pathway. Likewise, you can use walkways to connect your home with gardening and growing spaces that turn your backyard into a natural retreat.
Paths and walkways are essential for outdoor spaces in older homes in particular. You will often see them used in traditional English garden settings and sometimes even in lieu of walkways connecting driveway and detached garages from older homes.
Paths and walkways can be used to accentuate the history and heritage of your property, especially when they are used to border established flower gardens and shrubbery. Like patios, the materials available to homeowners with older houses make adding walkways an affordable way to update your outdoor space in projects that can be accomplished in as little as a few hours.
Your home might be old but that doesn’t mean it can’t have standout style and flair. Tackle one project at a time or hire a local contractor to help you renovate your older home inside and out.