Budget Friendly Renovation Ideas-Changing Out Outdated Fixtures

Budget Friendly Renovation Ideas-Changing Out Outdated Fixtures

When we bought our new house, one of the biggest complaints I had about it was how dark it was. I really like light and brightness, it just makes me happy. Darkness depresses me, so when we starting thinking about budget friendly renovations ideas, changing out the outdated light fixtures was high on the list. The outdated fixtures were gold and looked quite old. The house was built in 2006 but the fixtures felt like they were from the mid 90’s. Plus they didn’t light up the spaces very well. Some of the bulbs were the compact fluorescent bulbs, I haven’t seen or used one of those for years! We decided to switch the gold out for a nice matte black finish and I love how it all turned out!

Changing out fixtures doesn’t just have to be the light fixtures, you can change out the faucets and door knobs/hinges. Changing out the fixtures is a really easy and simple thing to do, it doesn’t take much time and it doesn’t have to be expensive. There are lots of inexpensive options out there that look great!

Before we changed out the majority of the light fixtures, I wanted to change out the door knobs and hinges. The gold knobs were cheap and so outdated. They drove me nuts. I found some nice matte black hinges and doorknobs on Amazon. I got the closets ones and the bath/bed ones with locks. Changing out hinges and door knobs is super easy, all you need is a screw driver and time.

I don’t love the color of the doors but the black hinges and knobs make them look so much better!

Changing out of light fixture isn’t hard but it is trickier than the door knobs and hinges. Here is a full tutorial on how to change out a light fixture. Once you get the hang of it, then it only takes a few minutes to change out the light fixtures.  As you tell be the pictures, the simple change makes a big difference!  We bought a lot of these light fixtures at Costco, Amazon and a local auction site.

We added a sensor light on the front porch, it so nice that you don’t have to turn it off in the day and turn it back on in the night.

The light fixture in the living room was bad, it was so dark even when it was on.

We found this chandelier fan and fell in love with it. We liked it so much that we put 3 of them in our current house, in the bedrooms. It has a dimmable light and a fan, it is so nice! We got the silver version for our house.

We called this the spiderweb light. We had mixed feelings about this one, some people like it, some people did not. It was the very last light that we switched out because we were on the fence with it. My problem with it was that it was really greasy and the bulbs hit the back door when opened.

We went with a more simple design chandelier. This one we got for a really good deal on an auction site.

The lights in the kitchen were the same as the rest of the house, ugly and dirty and dark.

We just changed out the ceiling one at first with a sleek panel light.  We left the one over the kitchen sink and it totally made the space not look as nice. It is crazy what a difference it makes.

I found a sleek pendant light and it looks so much better! We added a little Edison light bulb to match the chandelier in the dining room.

Both of the lights look much better!

For the upstairs hallway, we found some nice flush mount lights. We bought a total of 3 of these, two in the hallways and one in the entryway.

Not only do the light fixtures look better, they are so much brighter. The majority of the lights we bought had settings that you can change the color of the white. You could make the light cool or warm. We went for the medium setting on most of the lights. We also bought a lot of Artika light fixtures. We used that brand in our current house and I love the style of them.

Changing out the light fixtures and also painting the walls have made a huge impact on the house. It is no longer depressing and dark! Both of these options are super budget friendly and easy to do. If you are thinking about doing some kind of renovations on your house, I definitely recommend doing it, it makes a big difference!

If you want to see more home improvement ideas, check out my other posts here.

This post contains affiliate links.