Home Improvements

Whilst I often dream about winning the lottery and being able to buy or build from scratch the perfect house for us, the reality is that until the day that my numbers come in (I live in hope) we are stuck with our lot and have to make do with the home that we have.

There are many reasons why I love our house. It is in a great location for us, is a great size, has character with rustic slanted beams in the bedrooms and quaint farmhouse style doors with beautiful latches.

However there are a few things that I don't love about our house. The issues I have with our house are for the most part cosmetic and have not really bothered me too much since we have lived here as I am grateful that we have a roof over our head and the benefits and other lovely things about the house outweigh the bad. Whilst they do not make me hate the house or make daily life difficult, I would love to change a few things about our house.

The home improvements and changes I would love to make to revamp our house, turning it from a house we enjoy to a home we love are -

Re-style the living room

Since we moved in to our house we have not done much to our living room. Whilst we had good intentions of redecorating it when we moved in life and other home improvements got in the way and it has remained the same boring magnolia colour as the day we moved in. To inject a touch of colour to the walls and space we have used paintings, ornaments and the kids' artwork but not a lot else.

Of late the lack luster walls have been annoying me and I think a change is well overdue! I want to have create a feature wall with a eye-catching paint or beautiful wallpaper that would bring the space to life and complement the dark wood features of the fireplace and shelving along with the rustic bricks that I adore. Another change I have been longing to do is replace the ugly electric fire so that is top of my list when revamping this room.

Along with redecorating the living room this home improvement project will give me the perfect excuse to re-style the room with complimentary ornamentation and a new sofa as our one has been so well loved that is it is looking worse for wear and I hate the style and colour of it.

Revamp the bathroom

One of the things I loved about our house during the first viewing was the bath, a lovely big and deep corner bath screaming out for long, sumptuous soaks. Whilst I love the bath (the only way it could be better is if it was a spa bath) and the rest of the bathroom is perfectly serviceable with all the right facilities one thing I would love to change is tiles an d flooring.

The current tiles and flooring are old and dated. As the décor is unstylish I would love to revamp the bathroom by re-tiling it with shiny new tiles of my taste and fitting some nicer flooring to give the lovely bath a more lovely and appealing surrounding to make soaks in the heavenly tub that little bit nicer.

Fit a new kitchen

Having grown up in a home where the kitchen was the heart of the home, with family and friends congregating in the kitchen for chats and meals, and spending hours helping my mum cook meals and bake cakes I naturally now still spend a great deal of time in the kitchen and am reliving memories of baking as a child with my mum now in the role of the parent with my kids. As I love the kitchen and it plays a big part in our daily life I would love to make it space that is welcoming, practical and to my style and taste.

Whilst the kitchen in our home is adequate for our needs and has also the facilities and room needed, cosmetically it has seen better days. To be honest I hate the style and look of the kitchen, with it being one of the things on my 'cons' list when considering this house. The kitchen is very dated, and the farmhouse style of the cupboards and fruit themed tiles that have not been changed in years – think 80's style – are tired and are far from nice looking, in fact in my opinion pretty awful.

Having grown up in a traditional farmhouse living on a farm with a very traditional kitchen complete with oak cupboards, a hearty AGA and welcoming rustic table perfect for family meals I want to gut our ugly kitchen and fit a new traditional kitchen.

Top choice for our kitchen improvement is the truly beautiful Stamford kitchen from Norwood Interiors. The classic kitchen with warm oak finish would give me the perfect traditional kitchen I am yearning for along with the facilities needed for making daily life that little bit easier.

Now all we need to do is put our plans into action and get Lee doing some DIY and get the professional in to get me that new kitchen!

What home improvements have you done to improve your home?