I know all too well how boring your builder grade home can look and feel so we are talking about 4 easy ways to elevate your builder grade home today. The idea of renovating everything feels overwhelming and expensive but you want your house to feel like your HOME. The steos below will help your space feel more luxurious, fresh, and modern. Even if you have never attempted a home DIY project before, you will find these upgrades beginner friendly. Let me walk you through them!
1. Swap out your dated, standard flush mount lights in your builder grade home
It seems that people hesitate to change out their light fixtures for one of three reasons:
1- Too Expensive
2- Too Complicated
3 – They Don't Make Much of a Difference
This couldn’t be further from the truth! Light fixtures can be extremely budget friendly, straightforward to install, and make a huge impact in any space. This is especially true if you’ve got those classic, dated, cheap looking flush mount lights that came standard with most builder grade homes. If you are in a classic builder grade home, you are almost guaranteed to have a few of these kicking around.
Installing new light fixtures is also a great beginner project. As long as you take the proper safety precautions (turn off the appropriate breakers and confirm using a multi-meter) and always follow the manufacturer's instructions, upgrading your light fixtures is a breeze and well worth the minimal effort required. You can purchase an inexpensive multi-meter for under $50 like this one on Amazon (https://amzn.to/3Q7zOTW). This is a simple tool to use for testing the voltage and making sure you turned off the correct breaker before swapping your light fixture. This purchase is well worth the small investment and will come in handy during any home project that involves electrical work.
As for price, there are so many affordable options online to choose from. I would recommend avoiding the big box stores for your lighting upgrades (unless you find a great sale) and stick to online retailers like Amazon, Wayfair, Bouclair, Structube, etc. You can upgrade light fixtures for as low as $30, especially when updating the flush mount lighting throughout your home. Even larger pendant style fixtures that are focal points of entryways, kitchens, etc., can be very cost-effective.
Before & After
Here is a before and after photo of our pendant style entryway light. This area is a central point of our home and we wanted to make sure we had a modern, stylish piece here to reflect that. We purchased this light fixture from Bouclair for $140 (currently on sale!) and it took less than 30 minutes to install. I love the impact this light has already made in this space and we aren’t even done renovating it!
Here is also a before and after of our hallway. This light fixture was on sale at Canadian Tire for $100.
2. upgrade your older light switches to a more modern style to elevate your builder grade home
This one may be one you haven’t thought about, but when we moved into our home this was one of the first things I noticed that made it feel very dated. The light switches, plugs, and thermostats were dated in style, but more importantly they were turning yellow and looked worn out.
Prior to moving into this home, I had never tackled electrical work and am in no way considered an electrician. However, after watching a couple quick YouTube instructional videos paired with a few blog posts and I had it figured out. This is another project where having a multi-meter will be beneficial. Again, as with any electrical work, we want to make sure to isolate the power by turning off the appropriate breakers before changing any switches, outlets, or thermostats. Swapping out switches, plugs, and thermostats is a matter of removing a few screws, pulling off the face plate, disconnecting a few wires and installing the new pieces in reverse order. This literally takes under five minutes for each swap and completely elevates and modernizes the aesthetic of your home!
Here is a before and after photo of our upgrade. I was able to purchase all new plugs and switches for our main living space for $60 CAD.
I truly feel this is an underrated upgrade that creates a big impact in your space!
leverage texture through feature walls to add dimension to your space
Accent walls have been around for a long time and aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, and for good reason. They offer a simple way to bring character to any room and can take you from drab to FAB in so many ways. You can do so by adding color or texture and really lend the ability to infuse personality to your space. Think pop-of-color, panelling, shiplap, board and batten, whitewashing...Whatever look you are aiming for can be achieved through implementing a feature wall. Whether you’re going for dark and moody, earthy and organic, or bright and airy, you can utilize feature walls in your space to add dimension and elevate your home.
Here is a before and after photo of our living room in a classic builder grade split entry home. For this wall, we chose to add texture using wood slat panelling (Link?) and paired it with a floating shelf. All it required was an afternoon to paint the wall, cut and attach the wood slat panels. For this wall we wanted to add even more dimension, so we decided to pair it with a custom shelf that we had custom built by a local woodworker (and friend). It is hard to believe this is the same living room! This is such an easy way to elevate your builder grade home!
Some more before and afters
4. install curtains high and wide around your window with the right length for an elevated look
We’ve always been taught to hang our curtains right around or directly on the window trim. The truth is, doing this makes not only your windows look small, but shrink the feel of the entire room.
If you want to really elevate your space and give your windows a custom feel, you’ll want to install your curtain rod only a few inches from the ceiling and give roughly 6-12 inches on either side of the window. This will make everything feel bigger and can even give the illusion of higher ceilings in a standard room. Another tip is to check the length of your curtains. You want to assure they aren’t too short; you want them to at least hover just above the floor.
Here is a before and after photo of our window. We replaced the trim with a thicker and more modern style and installed the curtains high and wide.
When ordering curtains you want to measure the total width of your window and multiple it by two. That is the total width of panels you want. For our window that meant we needed 4 panels in total.
You will also want to measure the distance from the rod to the floor to confirm your curtains are the proper length.
Here is my step by step how to video for hanging curtains!
Hopefully with these easy-to-implement enhancements to your space, you can begin the journey of transforming your house into a home you love and start to elevate your builder grade home today! You can see how these simple, yet effective changes can enrich your space and give you a modern, luxurious feel.
Feel free to drop your experiences in the comments section below if you’ve already experimented with any of these update projects and let me know how it went for you! If you haven’t tried any of these yet, which one will you try first?
Check out my other post on How I Transformed My Boring Builder-Grade Hallway
