So you’ve just bought your first house. You’ve got past the moving thing, you’ve made the first mortgage payment and you’re starting to feel like a real grownup as you complain about lawn mowing and council rates with your friends.

Now that the initial buzz has worn off and the celebratory bubbles gone flat do you find yourself looking around your “cute little do-up” and wishing you could see more of the cute and less of the do-up?

I found myself in the same boat earlier in the year, so I’ve pulled together some of the little things my fiancé and I did to make our new home an inviting place to be. Anyone can make their house look better without spending lots of money. You just have to be willing to put in the hard work, but believe me, the feeling of satisfaction you get and the amazing results you can achieve make it well worth it.

Easy Makeover One: Paint
Aaaah, the wallpaper of years gone by. Some of it is so old, it’s actually cool again, but if, like us, you’re stuck with terminally uncool paper (was peach ever really in style?) then your best bet is to get it off. This wasn’t actually as hard a job as I thought it would be. Plenty of warm water slapped on the walls meant the paper peeled off like stickers. The next step requires a bit more work and patience. Contrary to what I thought, you can’t just slap paint on your walls, they need a bit of prep work if you want a nice finish. If you don’t know someone who can show you what to do, it may be worth getting in a professional to take care of any plastering and give you tips on applying undercoat and the (many) required layers of paint. Choosing a colour is probably the hardest part when you’re confronted with all those swatches. My best advice? Take your time deciding, you will have to live with it everyday. Get some test pots and make sure you’re happy with how it turns out on the wall. A friend bought a house load of paint, did one room and realised he hated it… talk about a sure fire way to waste some money!















Easy Makeover Two: Floors
Stuck with ratty, dated old carpet? If you’re lucky beautiful wooden floors may be lurking underneath. Peel back the carpet in a wardrobe to see what hides beneath, but be warned, once you get all the carpet off, you may discover that the floors need a bit of work. Ours are quite patchy and discoloured in places, so eventually we’ll get them professionally sanded back. While our house looks a million times better without the carpet, it does make it a lot colder, as we’re starting to discover, so do think about the practicalities. If you don’t have wooden floors under your carpet then you could try getting it professionally cleaned to see if that makes it look better. Otherwise look out for flooring sales, if you keep an eye out for a while you should be able to score a good deal on new carpet or you could try tiles or laminate flooring, depending on the look you’re going for.















Easy Makeover Three: Window Hangings
I was amazed out how much better our house looked when we pulled down the dated floral curtains and ratty old nets. They really served to close the rooms in and make it feel dark and dingy. Replacing them needn’t be expensive, check out places like Briscoes, Spotlight and The Warehouse for affordable blinds in neutral colours. They look a lot more streamlined, plus they’re super easy to install. If you’re a whiz with the sewing machine (or you can convince your mum to help out!) then try making your own curtains. Our lounge window was too big for blinds and none of the pre-made curtains came big enough. Luckily I found the perfect coloured material at Spotlight and it was on sale for only $10 a metre. Mum whipped up a set of curtains that work perfectly for our room and they only ended up costing $180 all up.















Easy Makeover Four: Make Some Changes
There are small things that are easy and cheap to do, which will really update your house. If you have an older home go through and replace all the light switches and power sockets with new modern shaped ones for an instant refresh. Old fashioned doorknobs can be replaced as can the knobs on cupboards. You can get nice light fittings for really reasonable prices from places like Lighting Direct and it’s amazing how much better they make a room look. In the bathroom add a new shower curtain, change the toilet seat if it’s looking a bit old and get some nice coloured towels. Kitchens are expensive to do up, so we're leaving ours till we have more money! At the moment, to modernise it we painted it a really strong colour, which draws attention away from the dated cabinetry. Depending on the type of cupboards you have, you may be able to paint the doors for a fresh look or change the door handles. Changing just the bench top to freshen things up is another option.















Easy Makeover Five: The Little Things
The things that really make a house feel like home are the little touches of personality you add. Pretty vases, interesting candles or co-ordinated couch cushions will catch people’s eye, taking away focus from the less than ideal bits of your home. You needn’t spend a lot of money on these things. Fill an unusually shaped glass vase with little stones, take postcard size prints and frame them to create a montage for a bare wall or take a long narrow platter and place pretty coloured shells on it. Places like The Warehouse and your local dollar store are a treasure trove of interesting bits and pieces that when arranged the right way, can look like upmarket décor. Remember when displaying items, odd numbers tend to look better. Group objects by themes, whether it’s colour, style or shape to create interesting displays.















Gemma