Home Improvements
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Home Improvements: Tips & Tricks for 2022

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Disclosure - #AD. In the interest of disclosure and transparency, the syndication of this article has been provided and paid for by FBD Insurance.

No matter where you live, your home is your sanctuary. It can be tricky to manage our spaces well, though, especially nowadays when many of us are relaxing, studying and working at home. As things slowly get back to normal, we have a great opportunity to spruce up our spaces with some basic home improvements. These four simple steps from FBD Insurance will help you make the most of your house, turning it into the warm and inviting home you and your family deserve.

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1. Take Back Your Space
Some homeowners and renters are lucky enough to have walk-in wardrobes, floored attics and adjoining garages. For the rest of us, storage is an ongoing challenge, with overflowing drawers, piles of papers and boxes of toys dotted around the house.

Installing built-in wardrobes and smart storage solutions is one way to deal with this problem, but there are simple, less expensive options too. IKEA has a large range of bookcases, shelving units, cabinets and cupboards, along with smart tips, display ideas and detailed instructions for those of us who aren’t handy with a screwdriver (www.ikea.com). Their Circular Hub has lots of ex-display products, discontinued furniture and preloved items – helping to reduce your shopping bills and waste too!

2. Upgrade Your Garden
We’re spending more time in the fresh air than we’ve ever done before, so why not make it a comfortable experience? There are lots of home improvements we can do to make our garden suitable for all weather that don’t require a big budget or major renovation skills.

 One simple solution is to add colour with trees, plants, flowers or a carefully-managed lawn. Speak to the experts at your local garden centre if you’re unsure what will grow well in your area. If you have a small space, try planting vertically, with wall trellises or hanging flower pots. Wooden pallets, old ladders or even forgotten furniture like dressing tables offer a cool and quirky way to upcycle rather than buy. Add extra comfort with outdoor rugs, cushions and blankets and build or buy a waterproof chest to store them in.

3. Bring The Great Outdoors Inside
If you don’t have exterior space, there are still lots of ways to bring the outdoors inside. Introducing natural products and textiles to our homes can be a great way to borrow a little of the sense of calm and relaxation that we get from being immersed in the natural environment.

You could start simply, with a couple of indoor plants or a vase of seasonal flowers. If you don’t fancy a regular watering and tending routine, there are great quality fake versions available nowadays that offer colour and cheer without any need for maintenance.

Sheepskin cushions, seagrass rugs or leather seats all remind us of nature, adding interest as well as comfort. Reclaimed timbers and distressed materials lend character to furniture, particularly when used in centrepiece coffee or dining room tables. If you feel like getting creative, keep an eye out for interesting pieces of driftwood at the beach or a curiously-shaped fallen branch in your local forest – these are great ways to add unique style to your home.

4. Freshen Up Your Kitchen
The kitchen is the heart of most homes: there’s always plenty of warmth, comfort and craic to be had there. As a result, they’re often busy places, filled with food, servingware and family flotsam and jetsam. One great way to clear some space is to add hooks to the ceiling or cabinet undersides, using them to hang herbs and store the bigger pots and pans that mightn’t get used every day.

Pouring cereal, rice and pasta into clear glass jars adds a sense of sophistication to the space, while changing out the hardware (knobs, handles and taps) is a simple and often inexpensive way to freshen up your design, adding a splash of colour or a sleek new look.

 Whether you’re a homeowner or renter, a first-time buyer or an apartment-dweller, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got the right home insurance for you. Find a great value quote from FBD Insurance now to get peace of mind that comes with knowing your home is protected.

Michelle
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My Home Improvements Wishlist | AD

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Disclosure - This is a paid collaboration with Three Counties. The idea for this post, thoughts, opinions and photographs are our own. 

photograph of a kitchen
A few years ago we finally had a much needed makeover of our house. It was something that we know we needed however we always seemed to spend our money on holidays or other things and the house just got pushed further and further down the 'to do' list. For a long time I fell out of love with our home, I really didn't like it. There was paint chipped off the walls but we never repainted over it. The kitchen cupboards were old and not very nice to look at but we never changed them. I think we lost all respect for the house and it was a place I didn't really want to spend a lot of time in. Making the decision to spend so much money giving our whole house a makeover was hard but it was definitely worth it. I love our home again and it's a place that I feel comfortable and happy in.

photograph of a kitchen
When I'm working from home I sit in the kitchen / dining area and love looking out in to the garden. This is something I would have never done before the makeover. Our kitchen is so much brighter now than it was before. In our old kitchen we only had a small window and a door to the garden. The colour scheme combined with the lack of daylight peering in through the window made the kitchen a dark space, a space I never wanted to spend time in. When we were upgrading our kitchen to a new colour scheme our builder actually spoke to us about the possibility of combining the door and small window with one large window. At the time I thought it seemed like a lot of hard work for very little in return however I was wrong. Having one large window and moving the door to the garden over to the far side of the kitchen has created so much light. It has completely changed the kitchen and the amount of light we get now is amazing. It's such a nice feeling seeing the sun shine in while you are making breakfast.

Once we had finished I thought we were done but I have already started to make a home improvement wish list for the future. I would love to have an extension or conservatory on the back of our home. It would be nice to have another room to choose from downstairs especially now that big J is a teenager. He likes to invite friends round and sometimes his bedroom isn't suitable for the amount of people he has over. I did worry that putting an extension on the back may reduce the amount of light that we have in the kitchen however choosing an aluminium lantern roof would create so much light in to any dark space.

I would also like to convert our loft in to a room. I've seen it done on t.v and it's amazing how much space is up there. Our loft doesn't have boards down so it's basically just beams up there so we would have to get the whole loft boarded first then look in to whether it could be converted or not. I don't think I would like to sleep up there but it would be nice to have a 'chill room' that the boys could go up to with their friends.

They are my main two home improvement plans for the future but it's nice to think that we can keep improving our home rather than moving as I love our home now and would never want to leave.

Michelle
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AD | A Bathroom For All The Family

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Disclosure - This is a paid post in collaboration with Premier Care Bathrooms

It's been just over a year now since our home had a full makeover and we are starting to get ready for the big Spring clean as the lighter nights and brighter days start to come through. Thinking about what needs to be done It got me thinking that the bathroom we have now is probably three times bigger than the one we started with when we first moved into our home.
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AD | I Love My Kitchen

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Disclosure - This is a paid post in collaboration with Fishpools 

We have had our new kitchen now for over 12 months but I still love it as much as I did the first time I saw it. Our previous  kitchen was somewhere I used to cook in, do the dishes and not much else. I didn't like it at all. It was old, out of date and I would try and spend as little time in there as possible. When it was time to have a kitchen makeover I wanted to create a space that I would enjoy spending time in. Somewhere that was bright, fresh and modern. I am so happy to say that after 16 years of living in our home I finally love my kitchen.
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The Beginning Of Our Home Improvements

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Over the next few months we are having a makeover on our house. It's something we have wanted to do for a long time but it never seemed the right time to start. Money is a huge factor when it comes to totally revamping your house and it's taken us quite a few years to save mainly because we still like our holidays and weekends away. The main jobs are our bedroom, the bathroom and the front and back gardens however it's been a good few years since our kitchen was last changed, and the tell tale signs of wear have been starting to show recently.
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