When Joe and I first started building our home, I was overwhelmed with decisions that needed to be made. While our home was not completely custom and only a few options were available from the builder, I chose upgrades based on what we could afford and what I knew we could DIY later. Check out this post to see more on how we saved money building a home. One way we really saved a lot of money on our home was doing a lot of the work ourselves. Over the years, I have a few favorite DIY projects!
At first, when we moved into the home, I was scared to make any major decisions. About five years later, we have DIYed almost every square inch and I absolutely love it. A lot of people question why anyone would want to change a brand new house. It’s a typical cookie-cutter, with three of six of our neighbors having the same house. So, I definitely wanted to make it our own!
FRONT DOOR
Our home gets a good amount of sunlight, however, in the great room, all of the windows are on the backside of the house. Before, the entryway seemed dark and cold. So, a new door with a large window was the perfect solution. I think it is one of the smartest decisions we have made for our home. Although we didn’t install it ourselves, I think it’s a DIY we could tackle in the future now that we have more confidence in our skills!
ENTRYWAY CONSOLE
One of my very first projects was our entryway console. I spent months looking for the perfect piece of furniture that would fit the space, provide enough storage, and was within our budget. When I couldn’t find anything that fit the criteria, especially the budget, I decided to make my own. A couple of years later my style changed, and I updated the console to match. This entryway has been through A LOT of changes in the past few years and you can see all the updates here!
FLOORING
The biggest change to our home was when we installed new flooring. We loved the flooring from our master bedroom so much that we decided it would look great in the rest of the house. The installation process was the same as for our bedroom and because we had done it before, it made it so much easier. Unfortunately, our flooring has been discontinued but in this post, I shared 9 other look-alikes!
PANELED WALL
Another on the list of favorite DIY projects is the paneled wall in the entryway and great room. Honestly, it is probably one of my favorite features in our home now. I struggled for years on how to decorate these angled walls without them looking too cluttered. The molding was THE perfect solution. Can you believe it only cost me $80?
BASEBOARDS AND TRIM
Once we changed the flooring, I decided to change all of the baseboards and door trim. Updating them to a more craftsman style was an easy DIY that makes a big impact. I also updated all of the window trim to match. These projects were not all completed at once. In fact, I just recently completed the last of the window and trim in our guest bedroom.
LAUNDRY ROOM
Another on the list of favorite DIY projects was our laundry room. We installed a custom barn door that was both beautiful and functional. It allowed more space for our small area and you can see more about the functionality in the before photos. It was also my first try at shiplap. I actually have some plans to update this space once again later this year!
DINING ROOM
The dining room seemed to be the space that was forever changing before it finally became this. Click here to see how it looked during the first year we lived here! My style was very different back then and as I became a “less is more” kinda gal, the room got a big makeover. It changed again when I built a custom bench and added board and batten.
These projects are just a few of my favorites and ones that made a big impact on our home. Of course, over the years we have completed way more than what I’ve shared here and I have even more projects planned for the future!
