Renovations around the home for under $5000

Renovating doesn’t have to break the bank – even those on budgets as small as $5000 can make lasting upgrades to their homes.

Here’s how you can update any room on a budget.

Bedroom

Extra care over the choice of wallpaper can allow your bedroom to pop. Source: Supplied

Adam Hobill from Adam Hobill Design and author of Nail It! said $5000 is not a lot of money for a renovation, but those cash-strapped on a budget still have a few options to make big improvements.

In the bedroom, there’s one easy way to make a big change – wallpaper.

Ignoring the 1970s style of wallpaper, many modern options have different textural qualities that make a room pop, Mr Hobill said.

“It can be fun and playful for kids’ bedrooms and luxurious for adult bedrooms,” he said.

“It can basically make a wall an artwork – it’s starting to come back into trend.”

Renovating for Profit director Cherie Barber suggests creating a feature with the wallpaper by creating a box around the master bed with skirting board, alike to a bed-head, before filling it in with a few sheets of wallpaper.

​”It’s a creative thing you can do for about $100 and it adds wow factor,” Ms Barber said.

Kitchen

Repainting and new light fittings are low-budget options for a simple kitchen facelift. Source: Renovating for Profit

The kitchen is one of the toughest places to make a splash with just $5000, yet there are still some improvements you can make.

Firstly, you need to ask yourself what you can salvage, Ms Barber said.

“Cosmetically refresh as opposed to replacing,” she said.

“Laminate paint your existing kitchen cabinetry. Tile paint your splashback and do some benchtop resurfacing with laminate paint as well. You can transform your kitchen with just a few thousand dollars’ budget,” she said.

A new appliance package could also be on the list. It is possible to purchase appliances for under $5000 and, “at a push” you should be able to pay for the labour to install them within that price, Mr Hobill said.

“These days with stainless steel appliances they are a design feature, a lot are designed to be lovely looking pieces – they are nice to look at,” he said.

For even cheaper options you could consider replacing the handles and tapware – however in some instances, adding modernised hardware to your outdated kitchen could make what is already old look even older by comparison.

For most, a budget of $10,000 is going to be a starting point in the kitchen, allowing granite veneer transformations to create a stone benchtop look and installing a new splashback.

Bathroom

The bathroom is a slightly easier room to renovate than the kitchen on a budget.

“You can spend $200 on quite a big mirror and, with a bit of creativity on how it gets used, you can add a lot of light and make the space feel much bigger,” Mr Hobill said.

“Depending on how handy you are, it’s something you can do yourself. That might include the mirror medicine cabinets that allow more light and practical storage,” he said.

However, when renovating on such a tight budget there are definitely some no-nos in the bathroom.

Anything that involves re-tiling and potentially compromising the waterproofing – installing a new bath, for instance – is going to stretch further than the budget.

He recommends focusing on tap fittings and towel rails instead to ensure costs don’t get out of control – any time you need to call in a tradesperson the costs will increase.

The hourly rate of a tradesperson is Australia is $60.87 an hour, according to ServiceSeeking, up 2.1 per cent on 2014.

Ms Barber recommended simply painting over the tiles, particularly if there are “wacky embellished tiles” in unsavoury colours, such as pastel pinks and yellows.

“You can spend $90 and in one weekend completely transform it by painting over the top [of the old tiles],” she said.

Another quick fix is replacing a coloured glass shower screen with clear glass, which instantly makes the bathroom look bigger.

Living area

A pendulum light adds character to every room. Photo: Adam Hobill

One of the most overlooked aspects of a home is the lighting, particularly with a trend towards downlights in the ceiling that do little in the way of creating a focal point.

For $5000, pendant lights could be brought in that “become pieces in their own right, like sculptures,” Mr Hobill said.

Pendant lights could be put in most rooms of the house, including as a replacement for bedroom bed-side table lamps or along the benchtop in the kitchen, but they can also add to generic living spaces that need a talking point.

“Rather than four downlights, one nice pendant light or wall light that washes some light up to the ceiling as well can be a much more cost effective,” he said.

“A nice light, well positioned, will add a lot of interest without a whole lot of extra expense.”

With $5000, he said you could add a feature light to every room in the house, as well as cover your electrician costs, though he said you’d need to do some prudent shopping.

Skylights are also a consideration, with many ranging from $500 to $3000, with fairly priced labour.

“They can be turned into really nice design features that bring warmth and light into space,” he said.

Joinery in the living area can also be a worthwhile spend, particularly when it comes to creating features or hiding less pleasant household items – most joinery is designed to either hide things or show them off.

“For example, joinery on a whole wall as a book case might create a lovely library type feel in a study, den or living room,” he said.

Others might prefer a bespoke made piece to hide a television in the living room, or to hide laptops and chargers.

One large piece of joinery will set you back the full $5000, but it adds instant character and functionality to a room. Photo: Adam HobillPainting living areas is also top of the list and should be within most people’s ability to DIY, Ms Barber said.

But also consider flooring, such as Gerflor, a stick on vinyl in floor plank style.

“There’s no trade labour and it’s a cheaper alternative to real floor boards,” she said.

And don’t forget your window coverings – those old venetian blinds should be taken down and replaced for cheap, modern alternatives that can be bought for as little as $25.

Facade

While your budget is unlikely to cover your costs for rendering the whole front, for those willing to DIY you could afford to repaint a small- to medium-sized home with roll-on texture paint, Mr Hobill said.

The thicker, textural paint allows home renovators to modernise on the cheap.

Some renovators may prefer to spend the money on replacing rotting eaves and gutters, though he said that was more of a practical, rather than aesthetic, consideration.

Yet before you paint, you should consider whether a quick clean up would do instead.

“A lot of dirt and grime can colour your house, a power washer can be hired for $200,” Ms Barber said.

After that, replacing the front door, new street numerals and a new letterbox can make a world of difference.

Gardens

In the yard, the opportunities are endless, but firstly “go on a rampage with garden clippers and lawn mowers,” Ms Barber said.

“Landscaping is one of the cheapest things you can do, particularly adding garden boundaries.”

After that, new driveways and updating existing paths using products such as Pour On and paving paint, can be completed on the cheap at costs of about $400 a drum.​

She then recommends looking at your existing fences.

“A lot of people have mismatched fences on the homes that are different colours,” she said.

“Spray-painting with one consistent colour can make a massive difference.”

A spray gun costs about $100 and all that’s left is the cost of the paint.

Many will then look at a shade structure, Mr Hobill said. Four posts, some rafters and stainless steel wire that you can grow crawling vines along will allow you to grow a fancy shade structure in your garden.

His favoured technique is laser-cut metal screening that “can be used in a lot of ways internally and externally to add an element of texture and privacy”.

A small deck could be installed for $5000, particularly for those opting for low-cost treated pine wood. However, Australian hardwoods might be out of the picture. While a shed or child’s cubby house, starting from $1000, could be an option to add extra amenity to your yard.