How to Love Your Home While Waiting to Renovate

Published on May 15, 2019 | Last Updated on May 15, 2020

Learn how to love your home while waiting to renovate. These 5 strategies will help you love and appreciate your home even when you can’t make all the changes you dream of.

We have big plans to renovate our forever home, but because the changes we plan to make are costly, complicated, and time consuming, we simply have to wait, save, and plan. This is not my first rodeo though, and as such, I’ve learned a thing or two about how to love your home while waiting to renovate.

Love Your Home With New Paint

Any time I am asked for advice on where to start after moving into a house, my go-to answer is “paint the walls.” When we moved into our house, we painted all the walls white (BM Swiss Coffee in flat) because every single wall was dark brown. We did this to lighten things up but also to give ourselves a blank slate to work with. Painting our walls has definitely helped us love our home while we wait to renovate, and I highly encourage you to make this one change.

Before | Dark Brown

After | Bright White

The Color Concierge has a great round up of the best white paints, complete with descriptions and the best locations for each white. It just so happens that my favorite white paints line right up with theirs. For a more detailed look at the whites I choose every time, head to their post.

Love Your Home By Hanging Things Up

In my opinion, hanging things up is on par with painting walls…it transforms the feel of any space. One of my closest friends bought a house in our neighborhood just a few months before we did, and she still hasn’t hung a single picture or piece of artwork on her walls. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she requested that I come over and help her figure out where to hang things. She understands that bare walls feel clinical and empty and she’s ready for it to feel like home.

Before | Bare Brown Wall

After | Art and Paint

Hanging things up is a huge priority for me in any room. This includes art, curtains, and sconces. In fact, if you cannot afford to paint just yet, hang things up in the places you know you want them, and paint later. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces of art. I’ve included everything from printables to investment pieces, so there’s something for everyone! And if you need a budget-friendly framing option, I wrote a full tutorial on mounting artwork and building your own frame.

I mounted and framed this cloud art myself, and it’s so easy that anyone can do it. 

Lighting Helps You Love Your Home

Painting walls and hanging things on walls will go a long way to helping you love your home while waiting to renovate. Lighting, if you can afford it, will take your pre-renovated home to the next level. We still want to replace our floors and knock down walls, but take a look at the difference paint, art, and lighting make!

Before | Dark Walls and Outdated Lighting

After | Updated Paint, Art, Lighting

It really is amazing the difference cosmetic changes, like my staircase gallery wall, can make, so don’t get discouraged if you can’t do everything you want to in your home right now. Paint your walls, hang up family photos and art, and replace lighting if you can while you’re waiting to renovate. 

Keep Things Clean While Waiting to Renovate

This should go without saying, but even I forget how much keeping my home clean makes a difference in my attitude toward it. It’s easy to be happy with your home, even if it looks like a tornado hit it, when everything in your home is visually pleasing. But what about when you have shag carpeting you can’t change yet? How about a giant wall you can’t knock down yet?

You keep it clean and you count your blessings.

I’m always amazed at how much better I feel when I clean a space in my home that I really don’t like. I often think about what the woman living in a mud hut with dirt floors in rural Africa would think if she moved into my home. Would she fixate on all the things I think need to be changed? She would probably mop these floors I can’t stand with a smile on her face and song in her heart. 

Make Memories While Waiting to Renovate

What if you’re house poor and can’t afford to paint, buy any new furniture, or even hang a wreath on the front door? That’s when you look around, realize you have shelter from the elements and a place to make memories with your family and friends, and get busy living life in your home.

Bake cookies in your outdated kitchen. The kids won’t remember the way it looked, but they will remember baking with you.

Invite your friends over for dinner in your carpeted dining room. They’ll never even think about the flooring if they’re busy laughing over a good meal with people they love.

Have lots of movie nights in the family room with the 1970’s fireplace you’re dying to rip out. Better yet, paint the fireplace and decorate it like I did with our old brick fireplace. 

You’ll never regret making memories in your pre-renovated home. But you may look back and wish you hadn’t fixated so much on wishing your house looked or even functioned a certain way. Make the very best of what you’ve got right now, right in front of you. The renovation will come one day, and believe it or not, you’ll look back with fondness on the memories you didn’t wait to make.

Invest in your pre-renovated home, just as much as you will once it’s renovated. LOVE your home while waiting to renovate. Do what you can with what you have, and open your door to welcome friends and family, and make lasting memories in your imperfect home.

I would love to hear ways you love your home while waiting to renovate.