Owning a home is a great responsibility, but far too many Americans don’t take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities that go along with being a property owner. From giving your family a terrific place to live to crafting a little relaxation area on the porch, you should always be looking for ways to improve your home — even if you might not be there for too long.
If you’re one of the 43 million Americans who plan on relocating at some point this year, or if you think you could move some time down the line, you should do your best to increase your property’s overall value and aesthetic appearance.
There are plenty small changes you can make inside your home that will actually significantly increase its visual appearance and its worth. Similarly, there are a few major projects that you can do inside your home to achieve the same positive results — same with your exterior property. Certain landscaping projects can even boost a home’s resale value by as much as 14%.
Here are a few interior design tips and projects to consider:
- Develop an interior color scheme — Creating a color palette can give your home a fresh and creative new look. First, come up with a basic color scheme for your entire house, then visualize how each room will differ. You can have your color scheme play out in various ways in different rooms, all while sticking to the same palette. Doing this will revitalize your love of your home and will increase its value as well. According to HouseBeautiful, the 50/150 color rule is great for new paint jobs: mix one batch of paint 50% lighter than the base and another that is 150% darker to provide a striking visual.
- Attempt your own panel art piece — Three panel art pieces have become incredibly popular in interior design circles. Unfortunately, they can cost a tremendous amount of money. If you have some time and a lot of creative energy to get out, consider making your own three panel art piece and watch any room in your home come together.
- Consult with a professional interior decorator — Though there are plenty of ways you can improve your property’s appearance and worth yourself, you might want to at least speak with a professional interior designer and see if they have any great advice to offer. Across the U.S., the interior design industry generates roughly $10 billion in annual revenue, so there are plenty of experienced decorators that can advise you on everything from a new home layout to furniture placement.
Here are a few exterior tips and projects to consider:
- Group your plantings — Mowing is perhaps the most important aspect of keeping your landscape looking fresh and clean. If you have piles of mulch and plants spread out across your lawn, not only will it look overcrowded, it will be much more difficult for you to effectively mow. Grouping your plantings into beds and islands will give you larger areas of mulch that can be avoided while you mow and trim — saving you time and improving your landscape’s appearance.
- Use a large tarp for effective cleanup — If your lawn is regularly a mess, your property value will undoubtedly suffer. You head out to the backyard and pick up all the individual sticks and pieces of debris you want, but it will still look cluttered from afar. You’re much better off getting a large tarp to move all kinds of bulky debris because it helps keep your lawn so much cleaner.
- Consult with a professional landscape designer — Again, it’s just as important to seek professional advice when it comes to your outdoor property as it is for your home’s interior.”People have a fear of getting ripped off,” says Michael Miller, president of Walden Backyards. “But a designer can sit down with you and help you think about activities and goals and pull together a realistic budget. It’s a shame when folks do a small area and later think, ‘Oops, I put that in the wrong place.’ They really need to think through all the pieces they might want, even if they won’t put it in for years.”
Keep in mind, however, you should always be paying close attention to the housing market as a whole whether you’re planning on selling in the near future or not. Currently, as of March 2018, the median price for a home in the U.S. is $250,400.