DIY Projects to Kickstart Your New Year

The New Year is an opportunity to put the old one behind you and start afresh. It’s the time of the year when many people make their New Year’s resolutions, which they definitely always stick to and see out before the year is done. 

That is not really true and research shows that 43% of people expect to give up their New Year’s resolutions by February. However, if you complete your DIY projects at the start of the New Year then you won’t be one of them!

If you’re looking for some home improvement inspiration, why not consider some DIY projects to kickstart your New Year? There is plenty of stuff to be done around the house, so use this guide as inspiration for your improvement projects!

Update tired decor

It’s a simple DIY project plan but giving tired-looking parts of your home a facelift or a fresh lick of paint can transform any area of your home. The usual suspects include walls, old kitchen and bathroom cabinets, skirting boards and staircases. 

However, make sure to choose your colours wisely. “The right combination can make you feel better, while others can make you uneasy”, says this painting and decorating expert. “Colours also play a vital role in balancing our mood psychology”.

Other simple DIY projects include:

Painting a faux headboard

Giving your window and door exteriors a clean

Stripping varnish from floors and furniture

Adding racks to your garage or shed wall

Applying window film (for privacy or style)

Upcycling old furniture

Creating a garden path

Building a living plant wall

Changing door and cabinet handles

Bring your garden closer to home

With many of us working from home now, it’s important to feel as though we are still connecting with the outside. "Spending time in green space or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing," say experts at mental health charity, Mind. "Doing things like growing food or flowers, exercising outdoors or being around animals can have lots of positive effects".

While not everyone is fortunate enough to have woodlands or a beach on their doorstep, you can still bring the outside in with home renovations. One of the best ways to achieve this is to install patio doors leading straight out to the garden. Consider using the same materials from the edge of your interior through to the garden to make it feel like a cohesive part of your home.

Easier ways to create a seamless path from your home to your garden could be to paint your rooms using earthy tones, surrounding yourself with plants and upgrading your garden lighting. You may also consider building a pergola right outside your external door, giving the impression that an outdoor room is extending your living space.

Build a fire pit

With more time spent at home than ever before, it’s great to have somewhere to escape from our makeshift workspaces. The garden is a great escape but in winter it is unbearably cold, that is unless you build your very own fire pit! Fire pits can keep you warm when you decide to have a nice evening outside, rather than another night in front of the TV.

Building a fire pit gives you a great introduction to working with bricks and mortar. Amazingly, they don’t require much in the way of planning and designing; a simple fire pit can be circular or square-shaped.

Fire needs oxygen to thrive, so make sure your fire pit allows for a little bit of a breeze to blow through it. That could be by using bricks with holes in them or by intentionally leaving gaps between some of them.

Creating your own golf room

You could focus on creating something sporty to help beat the winter blues. “Being physically active can improve mood”, says Sport England,“decrease the chance of depression and anxiety and lead to a better and more balanced lifestyle”. Golf is one of those sports and it can be done from the comfort of your own home.

Simulators give golfers accurate feedback on their shots while also allowing them to play on some of the most famous courses in the world, virtually. Ideal locations for a home simulator include spare rooms, garages and sheds. They don’t need much space to install, just enough for a screen, mat and room for swinging your golf clubs. 

So, if the weather is terrible or it’s already too dark to play outside,  you can just head to your simulation room and swing away until your heart’s content. You can even invite some friends round for an evening's entertainment!

Getting to grips with your bathroom

The bathroom is essential in a home but it’s easily neglected. Common areas for improvement in the bathroom include refreshing caulking and grouting, sink trap clearing and fixing leaky taps.

Unleash your inner plumber by fixing some essential bathroom equipment, namely your taps and drains. Water from leaking taps is one of the biggest wastes of this precious resource in the world, a dripping tap could be wasting around 5,500 litres of water a year.

Not only can you reduce the price of your bills but you will be making a difference to the environment with this DIY project. Repairing your taps is a great way to improve your knowledge and, the good news is, almost all taps are designed to be taken apart and put back together. 

The sink trap in our bathroom and kitchen sinks become clogged over time, which makes this a dirty job but one that will make life easier in the long run. It’s a simple case of disassembling your sink trap, cleaning it out and reassembling but it can also give you a better understanding of basic plumbing.

Design a hobby room

No matter your hobby you can spend time this year dedicating yourself to it. One common resolution people make is to spend more time doing the things they love and where better to do so than in your very own hobby room?

The first step of creating a hobby room is deciding where you want it. Ideal locations are basements, spare rooms and garages. Garage conversions are commonly used as hobby rooms as they are less and less likely to be a place to store your car.

The second decision is to figure out what you want to use your hobby room for. It could be a workout space, an art study or a cosy reading room, it’s really just down to what you love to do.

Once you know where and what you are doing, the fun can begin as you plan your hobby room. We suggest making a floorplan of the room and mapping out where you want things to go to ensure everything fits. After all, having a piece of furniture that doesn’t fit into the room would be more than a bit frustrating.

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