1) Painting (of course!)
The most predominant features in your house are the walls and flooring. They have the most significant impact on the overall aesthetics of the house, so it makes sense to consider updating them.

Look at the overall colour scheme of your home and decide on the colour and tone of paint you are going to use. Some colours have warm tones while other colours have cool tones. If you’ve got all cool tones in your house, it won’t complement the colour scheme to choose a warm cream colour as the primary paint scheme and vice versa.

Even white has warm and cool tones; just compare different whites on a colour chart and you will be able to see the variety of tones. It’s easy enough to paint the walls yourself, but make sure you prep the area well first. 

2) Floors

Your flooring choice will depend in part on the type of foot traffic through the house, the climate and your budget. You also need to give some thought to the colour scheme in the house; going too dark or light can have a significant impact on the overall look. 

If you want some information on different flooring types and costs, this article will help.

3) Kitchen

The next area I would look at updating is the kitchen. If you want to keep costs down, you might be able to refresh the kitchen by just replacing the splashback, benchtops and taps. If you want or need to do more than that, you could buy a good quality flat pack and install it yourself or have a tradie install it for you. Then all you need to do is co-ordinate trades like plumbers and tilers as needed.

Of course, you can go the whole way and have a specialist kitchen company design and install the entire kitchen, but you will be paying a lot more for this.

4) Bathrooms
The bathrooms are next on the list. They're usually one of the more expensive areas to renovate, but you can get away with updating a few things rather than doing an entire renovation. The first thing you should get rid of is old style shower screens; they really date a bathroom. Install frameless or semi-frameless screens to give a clear, seamless look.

Replacing the vanity is another way to update the look. Timber vanities add softness and warmth to cold, sterile bathrooms so consider this as an option over the usual white vanity.

Hanging a beautiful pendant light or installing downlights over the vanity can often add the perfect finishing touch.

Don’t forget about the vanity mirror too; a replacement here can go a long way towards modernising the look of the entire bathroom.

5) Lighting
Last, but not least is lighting. Depending on what you already have in the house, ensure all lights have the same type of globes (cool or warm tones), then look for places to add feature lights. Underneath overhead cupboards, over kitchen island benches, over stairwells and in hallways are some places that may work well.

The one thing to keep in mind throughout your makeover is that doing more is not necessarily better. You’re better off seeking to do a few things really well, rather than aiming to do a lot but doing them badly.