Things You Need to Improve a New Home

Paint

• A fresh coat of paint on the inside and outside of a new home makes everything look better. Experiment with color on the interior walls. If you’re apprehensive about bold colors, try painting one wall in a room a vibrant color and the others a neutral color. If you want to get fancy, install decorative crown moldings around the ceilings and chair rail moldings on the walls. Paint the walls above and below the chair rail moldings two different shades of the same basic color, with the darker shade on the bottom half of the wall. For exterior paint, choose neutral colors and invest in the best quality paint you can afford.

Area Rugs

• One of the easiest and most attractive ways to add color to a room and make it look more inviting is with area rugs. Choose decorative Persian rugs for a traditional look, solid colors for a clean, unfussy touch or bold geometric patterns if you want something dramatic. Area rugs look great on hardwood floors, but you can also use them over wall-to-wall carpeting. They’ll cover up shabby spots and add character to an otherwise drab floor.

Simple Touches

• Fresh flowers always brighten a room, but you can get a similar effect without the fuss if you place a few well-chosen silk flower arrangements around your home -- lilies and orchids are always beautiful. Don’t forget about landscaping. For an immediate boost, sod your front lawn, and add some flowering shrubs and mulch around the base of the house.

Minor Renovations

• A simple way to improve the appearance of the outside of your house is to add decorative shutters, which immediately dress up the facade and are relatively inexpensive and easy to install. You may want to install vinyl siding on your house if the current siding is looking dingy, or if the house has an exterior material that can’t be easily painted, like stucco. On the inside of your new home, think about installing elegant French doors to the dining room or an outside deck.

Major Remodeling

• For many people, a brand new kitchen or bathroom is a dream come true, but you’ll need to do your homework to find out what you can afford. You can spend anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000 on a kitchen remodel, depending on whether you simply upgrade counters and cabinets, or you move walls, replace all appliances, counters and fixtures and choose top-of-the-line materials. A mid-range bathroom renovation costs about $10,000 and includes new floors, tile and fixtures. If you want to knock out walls and make the bathroom larger, you can spend as much as $25,000.