by Christine Lyon
If you want to update your living space without hiring a contractor, there are plenty of simple do-it-yourself projects that can make a world of difference.
“Paint is always a good option because you can brighten stuff up with paint,” said James Price, owner of Ladner Village Hardware.
With a seemingly infinite number of colours to choose from, and a variety of unique application techniques, painting is something that DIY beginners can embrace. And paint isn’t just limited to the walls.
Price says his customers will sometimes opt to paint their concrete floors instead of putting down linoleum or carpet.
“You can use masking tape and you can make patterns,” he said. “You could paint (the floor) to look like there’s tile.”
Price said the market is trending away from oil paints towards latex or “waterborne” varieties.
Replacing door knobs, cabinet hardware and light switches is another way to update the home. Price says many of his customers are updating their brown or ivory “toggle” light switches with sleek, white “rocker” style switches.
And when it comes to the floors, Price says a lot of homeowners are moving away from carpeting in favour of hard-surface flooring.
Those who aren’t confident in their floor-laying skills might buy decorative area rugs. These colourful accents easily cover up imperfections — like that spot where the dog scratched up the finish.
Making the home more energy efficient is another area homeowners can tackle by themselves. With retailers in B.C. now prohibited from ordering certain wattages of incandescent light bulbs, residents are slowly making the switch to the longer-lasting compact fluorescent variety (CFLs). Price says light-emitting diodes are also coming onto the household lighting market.
“An LED is still quite expensive, but once they become more common the price will come down,” he said.
Novice DIY-ers can get plenty of advice from Price and his knowledgeable staff at Ladner Village Hardware. He remembers helping out an older, recently widowed woman whose husband had always taken care of home improvements.
“We started her with some basic stuff and in the end she changed her light fixtures, she changed tap sets, and she built wooden patio furniture,” Price said. Some days she would make two or three trips to the store, just to get a bit more information.
“She got to be quite confident in her ability and she did lots of things she never thought she’d ever be able to do,” Price said.
