Clever Hacks To Give Your Home A Great Makeover

Thatched Cottage in the Cotswolds
Thatched Cottage in the Cotswolds / Tim Graham/GettyImages

Everybody is always looking for ways to improve their homes, but the process can be difficult with so many options that it is hard to decide what you want. What is best for your house, though, is probably something you have yet to even think of, and that is where the following creative hacks come in.

Here are four great hacks for improving your home that go beyond the obvious. Read on to learn how you can transform your home without breaking the bank, making your house the talk of the neighborhood.

Get Natural Light With Sun Tunnels

There is a reason everybody wants natural light. It looks much better than any lights you can install, and it has its own mood boosting properties. On top of that, it is dynamic, changing throughout the day and keeping you in tune with the passage of time. Skylights are a great solution…for people with plenty of money and who don’t mind a drawn out and intrusive construction procedure. For everyone else, though, there are sun tunnels. 

Sun tunnels are a great way to get light in, and they also have a way of opening up a room, making them feel larger and roomier. It’s a basic procedure putting in the ductwork, and you can have them running through a number of rooms. If you find the process of skylights to be too much of a stress builder and financial drain, sun tunnels are the solution you are looking for.

Hide Electrical Outlets With False Drawers

False drawers are often a nuisance more than anything, and you will try to open them until you finally realize that they were never meant to be opened in the first place. They make you wonder why they are there, and if they were simply a prank that the builders are playing on you in revenge for all of the work you made them do. 

Sure, it looks better than having nothing, and it’s a solution when the time, money, or space aren’t there to build a real drawer, but in practice it just gets on everyone’s nerves. There is another way, though. False drawers can be used to hide electrical outlets. Now you get the best of both worlds with aesthetics and functionality.

Embrace Dutch Doors For The Little Ones

The perfect house we have in our heads may not be the most practical one for our lifestyle. This is especially true for anybody who has little ones, be they human or animal, in the house, requiring you to put their needs above the beauty of the house. You often want to keep small kids and pets confined to certain areas for some periods of time, which is why people buy all sorts of baby gates. 

Baby gates are effective solutions, but there’s just one problem: they are ugly and make your house look like a play pen. That’s why if you are a parent or pet owner, you should embrace Dutch doors. Dutrch doors are split between top and bottom sections which can close separately, so you can just close the bottom, essentially acting as a baby gate, but a much more stylish one.

Have Drying Racks That Fold Into The Walls

Much of what we want for our homes is constrained by space. There’s only so much we can fit into our house, and even if we got a bigger house, do we really want to have to run around fetching all of the items we need? At the same time, you don’t want to feel claustrophobic, smothered by all of the things surrounding you. The best designed homes have everything you need packed efficiently into a space that is uncluttered and feels open.

One example of this is drying racks that fold into the walls. Having these next to your sink is incredibly valuable, and having them be collapsible is a great hack that keeps your counters from being jam-packed with things. You should also consider having similar setups in other areas of your house, such as the laundry room with clothing racks.