Small Home Design Projects for Big Impact

by

Home & Garden

The story below is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you! 

Embrace the season with easy, budget-friendly upgrades that enhance both function and style.

Spring is notorious for arriving with companions: the rain, the flowers and the itch to clean house. It makes sense! After months spent in dark hibernation, the longer days and warmer air invite us to throw open our windows and let the light in — which can sometimes, unfortunately, spotlight every single little thing that needs a good scrub. 

Then there’s the awkward weather. When a forecast shows a day that goes from frosty to balmy with the promise of scattered storms, we might be reluctant to pack up our winter gear, even as we stuff umbrellas and windbreakers into the mix. For some people, especially those with kids and pets, all that clutter might start to require a little bit of creative attention. And if you’re anything like me (or a certain literary rodent offered a certain sweet treat), one thing just leads to another. What starts with an idea for more attractive shoe storage somehow snowballs into a full-scale home design overhaul worthy of its own HGTV special. 

But if being featured on a reality TV show with your own team of designers isn’t on your 2025 bingo card, don’t despair! There are more accessible ways to scratch the upgrade itch that don’t require a major renovation. Here are some no-cost to moderately-higher cost improvement ideas with a huge visual and/or functional impact on your home — that are more than worth what time, effort and money they cost.

NO SPEND IMPROVEMENTS

Spring cleaning is a thing for a reason: Now that you can open all the windows, it’s time to give them a good wipe down as well. Deep cleaning isn’t your regular dusting and vacuuming; this is about the details. Leave no surface unwiped, be it baseboards, radiator screens, or every lip and groove of whatever woodwork and trim you can find in your home, from the furniture to the walls. Take a duster to your blinds and your ceiling fan blades. Scrub an old toothbrush along the back of your guest sink faucet. Take your rugs out back and whack ‘em with a broom; then mop your floors and shampoo your carpets. Wash any cushion or furniture cover that can be washed. Use cleaners in scents you love, and turn up your favorite music while you give your home the spa treatment of its dreams. 

Do a five-minute declutter, one space at a time. Start with the outerwear section, and use a timer. Bring a trash bag for junk mail, receipts and any other trash that’s accumulated in your pockets, bags and mail baskets; use a basket or box to gather all the items that belong in other rooms. Repeat in every room, focusing on the sections that tend to attract the most strays and piles (kitchen junk drawers, bathroom counters, wherever you keep your tupperware…).

Reorganize storage with high visibility. Think: bookshelves, media consoles, or whatever is the first thing you see when you walk into the house. If it’s a shelf or a closet, take everything out and clean out the dust bunnies. Group things by color or size for visual cohesion. Clear off tabletops. If there are desks or surfaces that can’t be cleared, create clear, orderly piles. Stack papers, put caps on all your pens, then put all the pens in the same cup. Put paperclips and rubber bands in their own separate spots. It might be tempting to purchase a bunch of containers for this, and if you have the budget for it, go for it! But don’t overlook the tools in your recycling bin: Small cardboard boxes and even toilet paper rolls make excellent drawer dividers. 

Rearrange your rooms. Sometimes, all you need to breathe new life into your home is to simply shake things up. This can be as small as switching around your end tables with your bedside tables, or bringing an old lamp out of the basement into your kitchen. Or it can be as big as flipping the dining room with the living room. Just be careful to solve problems, not create them: Don’t remove a storage unit from the foyer, for example, without replacing it with something for all those bags, shoes and coats. Instead, look at places where rearranging might make the area function better — is there a small table that isn’t getting a lot of use somewhere that might be a perfect station for a key bowl and letter tray by the front door? What about the bench in the guest room that might be a better fit at the breakfast table, instead of the chairs the kids are always shoving into the wall or leaving pulled out in the middle of the kitchen? Try things out  — you can always put them back!

Style your spaces with what you’ve got. Take everything you love to look at — framed photos, favorite books, beautiful hats, tchotchkes and souvenirs — and put them all in a staging area. (Be sure to check anywhere you might be storing stuff!) Start with your walls, hanging up art and framed photos. If you have a bunch of photos not yet framed, consider an old school collage on a corkboard (a quick Pinterest search can show you how to make this look elevated and not middle school). Stack your most beautiful books on the coffee table, and pull your candlesticks out of the cabinets so you remember to light them. Display anything you love, grouped in ways that look nice to you — and make sense for the space you put it in. There isn’t a wrong way to create a tableau, just inadvisable places; if you have a very happy labrador, maybe don’t lay out your collection of sand dollars on the coffee table in tail-wagging range. A successful styling arrangement is one that looks great to you, while meshing well with your lifestyle. 

LOW-TO-MODERATE COST IMPROVEMENTS

Upgrade your lighting. This is the fastest way to create a fast visual impact in any space. From adding table lamps to putting your overhead lights on dimmers, giving attention to the way you light each room is possibly the most powerful way you can change the entire atmosphere the easiest. Consider statement lamps, standing lamps, overhead fixtures, sconces, pendants and even track lighting. Some spaces might even benefit from twinkle lights (they don’t have to be relegated to December only!). Go for warm lights and play with placement as well as the number of light sources in each room until it feels right to you.

Touch up all the scuffs, chips and holes around your house with paint. This is the sort of project that can be done piecemeal, bit by bit over many weekends — you may not even need a dropcloth! It might be a bit fiddly and time-intensive, but you’ll be surprised how big a difference the finished look makes, especially on all the areas that you look at every day. Just be sure you’re using the correct paint color and finish, so you won’t end up needing to touch up your touch-up. 

For a slightly bigger project that is still not quite as intensive as painting entire walls, repaint just the trim in a room, or only interior doors. This is a great opportunity to try something bold, like a high gloss, statement black in a room of grieges, or a playful mix of blues along a hallway of bedroom doors. Why not? 

This one is most likely going to be more of an investment of your time than money, but is hugely impactful on reducing visual clutter: Organize your charging cords. Wherever you’ve let the black and white electric vines accumulate — your media console, family room, office, kitchen — review the situation and take the time to optimize, streamline and, if necessary, hide the cords from view. Nothing makes a room look disorganized and unfinished like a big bowl of electric spaghetti noodles tangled around a power strip! Whether you need to upgrade to more outlets or get a flat cover extension cord to reduce the awkward gap that shows off your crowded strip in the first place, take the time to do it. It’ll be more than worth it!

While you’re looking into your power strip options, take a look at your switch and outlet covers too. This is a fun, inexpensive detail that offers you a chance to play with styles and personality. Whether you want to swap out the old, cracked beige plate for a cherry red zigzag style or swap the whole thing out for a vintage, European style porcelain switch on a wood base, the possibilities are endless! 

For a quick and low-effort way to update a set of cabinets or drawers, swap out the hardware. You can also change out the door knobs around the house, or focus on a key appliance like your faucets or showerhead. If it’s the one project you budget for, you can spend a little more to get a really high quality version that will not only look beautiful but will also work well and last a long time. 

Got radiators? How about a cover that is functional and cute? There’s no need to lose a whole wall to the hissing eyesore of death; radiator covers come in tons of styles that can also be used as shelves and tabletops, giving you more opportunities for styling and displaying all the things that make you happy. You can DIY a simple cover with some plywood and caning, or buy something sturdier and more elaborate to suit your needs.

Add plants. Hear me out! There are tons of great house plants that are basically pet rocks, needing almost no attention at all to thrive. Not only are plants a great way to add color and texture to a home (easily fitting into every style out there!), but some plants even improve air quality. If you’ve got any spots that just look like they need a little … something, consider a potted plant. And if you are feeling bold, group a bunch of mid-sized plants together — they benefit from the humidity they can create together, and it helps them thrive (along with looking lush and gorgeous!). Take a photo of your space and bring it to the greenhouse to have someone help you pick out the plants that are right for you. 

MODERATE-TO-HIGHER COST IMPROVEMENT IDEAS

Upgrade your area rugs; don’t forget a rug pad! You can change absolutely nothing else about a room but the area rug, and it will have the visual impact of transplanting your room into a new environment. Most online retailers now allow you to virtually see the rug in your space too, so when you do pull the trigger on this higher-cost investment, you can be sure it’s the right fit. 

Give a focal point a facelift. Maybe it’s wherever you have your TV, or the mantle in your living room — if you’re going to spend the money on one highly focused area, make it this one. When you think about how often you’re sitting and staring at the space, it seems pretty important that everything about it is working for you! Consider the function as well as the look — if you have a gas fireplace, consider swapping out the insert. Maybe your sound system could be better situated on a custom-built-in media center — that includes a creative fold-out gallery wall that hides the TV when you aren’t watching it. Fancy! 

Update your window treatments.

Redo your countertops or backsplash. The bathroom and kitchen are the most-used spaces in the house, so it’s likely that these spaces could use the love. This can be as low-key as picking up a counter DIY kit from the hardware store or as labor-intensive (and ultimately satisfying!) as hand-tiling the wall yourself. 

Consider a peel-and-stick DIY: both wallpaper and vinyl tiling for floors or walls have come a long way on the market, with tons of mid- to higher-end options out there that are not only easy to install (and remove!) but also truly stunning. Accent walls or small spaces like powder rooms and closets are a great place to experiment with these items, as well as using them to line a shelf with high visibility and a lot of empty space.  

If you have the budget for some upgrades but you’re not keen on the idea of any kind of work featuring paint and power tools, go all-in on replacing your most mundane, daily-use items with high quality versions. Think: dish towels, door handles, cutting boards, showerheads. Get pantry storage containers that match, and some new tablecloths and cloth napkins. Buy containers for your dish and hand soaps. Get dishwashing brushes or sponges that work well and look good, and also find some way to store them that you like to look at. How do you keep your paper towels? There might be a more attractive version out there. I’m thinking of mostly kitchen items to expound on here, but I recommend just thinking through your day and noticing what you look at, touch and use the most. Upgrading these items will make your most run-of-the-mill routines feel suddenly a little more special, and when you think about it, there isn’t much that’s higher impact than that.

The story above is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!