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These days everyone’s on a budget, so we’ve come up with some inexpensive ideas on how you can remodel your kitchen, bath, or living room for under $1000.

Bathroom

If you do the work yourself, remodeling your bathroom doesn’t have to be that expensive. Some projects, like painting, are not difficult to tackle while others, such as tiling a floor, require more expertise.

Here are some of the most common bathroom upgrades with approximate DIY prices:

  • Paint walls and trim ($75)
  • Replace bathroom accessories ($100)
  • Install new sink faucet ($100)
  • Replace sink and vanity ($400)
  • Tile floor ($225)

When tiling a floor, be sure to buy 10-15% extra for waste so you’ll have plenty of tile to finish the job.

Living Room

Most renovation efforts in living rooms, family rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms involve painting, window treatments, ceiling light fixtures, and replacing the flooring, all of which can make great DIY projects.

For those on a budget, the least expensive flooring to install is either carpet or laminate flooring at about $2 per square foot. Though more expensive than carpet, laminate flooring makes a great do-it-yourself project while installing carpet often requires professional installation. Replacing the light fixture in the ceiling with either a new model or a ceiling fan is the perfect way to finish out the room.

Here’s approximately what it will cost to remodel your living room:

  • Paint ($150)
  • Window treatment ($50)
  • Ceiling fan or light fixture ($100)
  • Carpet or laminate flooring ($700)

Kitchen

A minor kitchen remodel is another great homeowner project that has a high rate of return on your investment should you decide to sell your house.

Start with a fresh coat of paint on the walls and cabinets. The kitchen receives a lot of traffic, so a kitchen and bath enamel is the best choice, since it holds up to repeated cleanings. The key to painting in the kitchen is to thoroughly clean the surfaces of any grease or grime before painting. You should also lightly sand or apply a liquid deglosser to cabinets before painting to improve adhesion.

Next, consider updating the knobs, handles, and hinges on your kitchen cabinets with new ones. Take your old hardware with you to home improvement center so you can match the size and holes to the new hardware.

A kitchen floor also takes a lot of abuse, so replacing it may be high on your priority list. Ceramic tile is the obvious choice, with prices between $1 to $2 per square foot for materials if you do the work yourself.

If you have any money left over, consider replacing your countertops. There are a number of inexpensive choices available including plastic laminate and solid surface.

Here are the approximate costs to remodel the kitchen in your house:

  • Paint walls and cabinets ($300)
  • Hardware for cabinets ($100)
  • Tile floor ($340)
  • Replace countertops ($400-$800)

If you budget carefully and do the work yourself, you can make big improvements to every room in your house without spending a fortune.

Other Tips from This Episode

Painting Around Toilets

Simple Solutions with Joe Truini:
Painting Around Toilets

When painting a bathroom, it’s easy to get paint on the toilet tank. To prevent this from happening, wrap the tank with an adhesive backed food wrap, like Glad Press’n Seal, to keep drips and splatters off. After the paint is dry, peel the plastic off for a toilet tank and dispose of it.

Hunter Perfect Balance Ceiling Fans

Best New Products with Jodi Marks:
Hunter Perfect Balance Ceiling Fans

Hunter’s Perfect Balance self-adjusting blade balancing system puts an end to blade wobble. A shifting disk inside the motor automatically balances the fan every time it rotates. Hunter Perfect Balance fans are guaranteed wobble free for the life of the fan, available at The Home Depot.

Water Saving Toilets

Thinking Green with Danny Lipford:
Water Saving Toilets

Toilets can waste more water than anything else in the house. Replacing water guzzling toilets made before 1992 (check the date stamped inside lid to see how old yours are), with newer models that use 1.6 gallons or less per flush, can cut the water used in half. For even more savings, install a duel-flush toilet which uses less than a gallon of water per flush.

Editorial Contributors
avatar for Danny Lipford

Danny Lipford

Founder

Danny Lipford is a home improvement expert and television personality who started his remodeling business, Lipford Construction, at the age of 21 in Mobile, Alabama. He gained national recognition as the host of the nationally syndicated television show, Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford, which started as a small cable show in Mobile. Danny's expertise in home improvement has also led him to be a contributor to popular magazines and websites and the go-to source for advice on everything related to the home. He has made over 200 national television appearances and served as the home improvement expert for CBS's The Early Show and The Weather Channel for over a decade. Danny is also the founder of 3 Echoes Content Studio, TodaysHomeowner.com, and Checking In With Chelsea, a décor and lifestyle blog.

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