It might not feel like it is almost the holiday season, but the holidays will be here much sooner than you think! If you are planning on hosting any gatherings in your home for the holidays, taking the time to get through some home improvement project ideas can be a good idea first, and it will give you some good conversation pieces. Finding the right DIY ideas for upgrading your living room can be a great idea. In this article, we have some DIY ideas for upgrading your living room before the holidays.
Update Window Treatments
If you want to give your windows a new look, you can update the curtains or blinds to let in more sunlight. You do not have to completely replace your curtains to transform your window treatments. A quick and easy curtain upgrade is to add a pompom trim or get new cords to tie back the curtains. You can even try adding paint or fabric dye to part or all of the curtains to change up your lighting.
Install New Flooring
If your floors have seen better days, it might be a good idea to install new flooring before your guests start arriving for the holidays. The cooler weather and drier air this time of year means it is a good time to install new hardwood floors. This is because the wood can become damaged if it is subjected to too much moisture. You also want to make sure that your thermostat is kept at a comfortable but balanced temperature. If the interior temperature is too high, the hardwood can start to dry out, leading to cracks and potential shrinkage.
If the flooring itself looks fine, but you want to add some new design elements to your floor, you can get a new area rug or two. This gives you a fresh splash of color and adds some depth and texture to your living room floor without the expensive and time-consuming task of installing all-new flooring. It is also a good alternative if you just want to cover up some parts of your living room floor that have seen better days, but the rest of the floor still looks great.
Paint the Walls
One of the easiest DIY ideas for upgrading your living room before your family arrives is to repaint the room. Nothing is easier to make a room feel fresh and clean than applying a new coat of paint, even if you do not change the color.
While you might be thinking that painting the living room is better to do in the spring or summer, fall, and winter is actually a great time for it. You can still open your windows to let the paint fumes out, even if it is a colder time of year. What makes this time of year perfect for paint, though, is that the interior of your home is warmer right now, which will help the paint dry faster than it would if you had your air conditioner running in the middle of summer.
Refresh the Fireplace
The fireplace is often the centerpiece of the living room, but if yours has seen better days, it might be a good idea to update it before the holidays arrive. Removing the original brick from the surround and having new brick or stone installed in its place by a mason is not an easy or affordable project. However, installing faux stone or brick over the top of your existing fireplace brick is an easy DIY project you can complete in a few hours. It can look close enough to the real thing to impress your guests, and it can completely change the look of your living room. You want any photos of your family gathering around the fireplace during the holidays to look great; you do not want to cringe at photos because your fireplace is looking a little too shabby.
If your home does not have a fireplace, but you dream of having one in your holiday photos this year, you can try an electric heater that looks like a fireplace, mounted to the wall and surrounded by faux stone to give it an authentic look and feel.
Update Your Light Fixtures
How old are the light fixtures in your living room? If you have yet to update them since you moved into your current home, it might be time to update them. It can be amazing the change that new light fixtures or lamps can make to your home interior. You can replace your lightbulbs with LED lights or even get some smart lightbulbs that you can change the brightness and colors of. These blubs are typically energy efficient, too, so you can save on your energy costs at the same time.
Take Care of Problem Areas
Is there something in your living room that just bothers you every time you look at it? You might have an area rug that is just too small, the couch might be a little torn up, or your coffee table is wobbly. Once you decide what things are in the room that you just cannot stand, prioritize them as things to resolve before the holidays arrive. If any of these problem areas have been pointed out by guests in the past, resolving them before the holidays this year will impress them.
Declutter
Stuff tends to accumulate in the living room that does not necessarily need to be there. Taking the time to go through your entire living room and find a designated place for everything may not seem like an idea to upgrade your home, but it can feel like a big undertaking. You can even invest in some new organizers to help you store things better. Since the holidays tend to bring more clutter with them, getting rid of your existing clutter before the holidays is a good idea so you will not have more to get rid of when the holidays are over.
About the Author
Auz Burger is a freelance writer and an expert in faux stone and brick veneer and home DIY projects. She has a BA from Washington State University and has been writing and editing professionally for over a decade.