If you’re a homeowner, it’s important that you have some DIY skills to help you maintain and improve your property, without having to fork over your hard-earned cash to a handyman every time you want do improve the look of your home.
While some jobs like plumbing and wiring are best left to the professionals, there are plenty of home improvement jobs that you can do yourself, even if you’re a DIY novice, but as long as you have some tools on hand, can swing a hammer and turn a screwdriver, there’s plenty you can accomplish by yourself.
If you’re ready to roll your sleeves up and jump headfirst into the world of home improvement, have a look at the projects we mention below and start your DIY journey!
Re-Paint A Room (Or Feature Wall)
When it comes to home improvement jobs, repainting a room is one of the easier projects you can tackle as a DIY novice, but it’s still a job that will yield an excellent result. Or if painting a whole room is still too much of a task, you can just paint a single wall to create a feature wall.
All you’ll need to paint a room or wall, is: some interior paint in a colour of your choosing, paint brushes or paint rollers, and a dust sheet to lay on the floor to stop paint from dripping on your floor. Just clear the room, lay down your dust sheet and paint away, by the end of this task you’ll have a beautiful room with a fresh, new look!
Install Some New Window Blinds
While installing blinds may seem like a hard DIY job, it’s actually rather simple to get and install a new set of made to measure blinds. You’ll just need to measure your window to get your size, provide your sizes to a blinds retailer and they’ll make a blind to the size of your window. Once you have your blind, just follow the retailer’s instructions, in most cases you’ll just need to drill a couple of holes and then screw the brackets into place.
All you’ll need to measure and install your new window blind is: a tape measure, a power-drill, a screwdriver, and some screws. The retailer will provide you with instructions for installation, so follow those instructions and you should have your new window blinds hanging up in no time. Retailer’s usually make their blinds incredibly easy to install, so this should be an easy job for anyone, that will leave your room with a nice new look.
Hang Up Some New Shelves
Hanging up some new shelves is a great entry-level DIY project to get yourself started with, even for the most in-experienced DIY-ers hanging up a new shelf is a job that can be done in around 10 minutes. Realistically, as long as you know how to use a power drill and a screwdriver, this job is as easy as it gets.
To hang a new shelf up in your home, you’ll need: a shelf, some screws, a power drill, a screwdriver, a spirit level, and a pencil. Firstly, you should hold your new shelf up to the wall, using the spirit level to ensure that it’s straight and use your pencil to mark where you’ll need to drill holes. Once you’ve marked your drill holes, drill into them, then secure your shelf by screwing it into place in the holes. Then, just like that, you have a new shelf proudly hanging on your wall.
Re-Finish Old Wooden Furniture
If you have some old wooden furniture in your home, like an old coffee table, TV unit or bookshelf, that’s looking a bit worse for wear, then you can easily give it a new lease of life by re-finishing it. Don’t be scared away by the term ‘re-finish’ though, it’s essentially just painting your wooden furniture, just with a wood stain or varnish, rather than with paint (although, you could paint your wooden furniture if you want a more colourful look.
To re-finish your dull, old wooden furniture, you’ll need: a tin or wood stain or varnish, a paintbrush, some sandpaper and a dust sheet. First off, you should empty anything from inside your piece of furniture and place it onto your dust sheet to avoid dripping wood varnish on your floor. Then, gently sand the furniture to remove any debris, then apply a coat or two of your varnish or stain to the wooden furniture and leave it to dry. In just a few hours, you’ll have your wooden furniture looking brand new.
Create An Arty Gallery Wall
If you’re more of the artsy type, then this may be the DIY project for you, allowing you to show off your arty side and gain more confidence in your DIY skills at the same time, by adding a gallery wall to your home. A gallery wall is a wall covered in pictures, whether they’re art prints, family photos or even your own art, this creates a lovely look and acts as a focal point for your home’s décor.
All you’ll need to make your own gallery wall, is: some framed pictures in various sizes, a hammer, some picture nails, some blank paper in the sizes of your frames, a pencil and some blue tack. Firstly, you’ll want to blue tack your paper to the wall, to get a feel of where you want your pictures to be placed, once you’re happy with the placement, mark down their locations with your pencil and remove the paper. Once the paper is removed, use your hammer and get your picture nails in the wall, then simply hang your art and you have a new gallery wall in your home.