If your family has lived in the same home for several generations, or if you struck a good deal by buying an old house, it probably bears proof of passing of the time. Your house is full of charm and memories so let’s see how we can keep that but at the same time give your home a fresh start.
A Fresh View
Offer your house a fresh view of the world by replacing drafty doors and windows. This will improve the energy efficiency of the house and essentially, it will look better from both inside, and outside. If you find this to be too costly, you can sand, reglaze and repaint the windows. Also, you can repaint the doors between the rooms and probably replace only the front door for safety reasons and aesthetics of your porch. If you are keeping your old windows, you can use heavy curtains and drapes to prevent the heat leaving the house and hide the windows if you are not too happy with their form.
Replace the Switches and add Light
As said above, replace all the power switches and sockets with new ones. They will look nicer as they will be new, modern and clean. Use this opportunity to add sockets where you need them. At the time when your house was initially built, people did not have as many appliances and thus not that many sockets. Nowadays, you can never have too many. The same goes for lights. If you find any area of your house dark, add light to it.
Redo walls and Ceilings
Your walls have probably been patched up dozens of times before you went ahead and damaged them further in order to replace doors, windows, and sockets. Now patch everything up again and replaster the entire house. Professional strata painters know what it is like to have to unify a building while at the same time keep features of individuality. Be sure not to damage the trim while replastering. If your trim is well kept, use contrasting colors to accentuate them. If the trim or any other element in the house is damaged, paint it the same color as the walls so they blend in. The same goes for your ceiling.
Refinish the Floors
Sand and refinish the hard-wooden floors. If you have wall-to-wall carpets, have them deep cleaned or even better replaced as years of dust tend to stick to the fibers no matter how hard you scrub. I am not a fan of carpets. Personally, I would suggest removing the carpeting entirely and placing the floorboards everywhere. They are easier to clean and nicer to look at. If you are worried about them being cooler than carpets, lay rugs in sitting areas.
Redo the Kitchen and the bathroom
You can rebuild your bathroom but as that is bound to cost a lot if your tiles are not damaged, you can keep them and replace only the bathroom fixtures which are, by now, probably damaged by corrosion and lime scale. Get new ones, but vintage in style. You can keep your old sink, toilet, and the bathtub if they are still in a good state, if not I suggest you replace them as well. Unlike the bathroom, your kitchen is easier to work on. You probably have wooden cupboards which you can repaint and replace the handles. A mixture of modern and vintage is very popular so you can buy decorative items and stickers which will help you support the new style of your kitchen.
Decorate
As mentioned above, old vs new is very fashionable. Buy simple pieces of modern furniture to refurnish your house but keep some of the old elements in as well. You can decoupage your old furniture to give it a unique look. Make a garden bucket into a flower pot and feel free to keep it in. Work on the details to blend the periods your house has witnessed.
Having to fix things evokes creativity. It is easy to fill empty space with new stuff but having to work around obstacles cannot be found in a store catalog, it has to be all you.