Give your home the look of an architectural renovation yourself!
Every year, many Israelis decide to refresh their homes and improve various aspects of them. The specific actions that make this possible can be grouped under the term “architectural renovation”.

Renewing the flooring

A significant step that refreshes the entire home is replacing the existing flooring with newer flooring, given that floors are subject to heavy wear, which damages both their appearance and their strength. One of the most typical trends today is adding parquet flooring, which offers advantages such as an impressive aesthetic look, a pleasant feel underfoot, thermal insulation, long-term durability and very simple cleaning and maintenance.

Installing floors yourself, including parquet, requires tools (a saw), preparatory work and, above all, doing things by the book: leveling the surface, laying the underlay foam, laying the parquet (strip after strip), connecting the panels, installing the thresholds and more. Flooring is considered relatively complex, so it is worth considering hiring a professional. This is unlike adding wall cladding, which is a much simpler task.

The importance of lighting
Beyond its practical role, lighting is a first-class aesthetic element. The first option, of course, is to replace the light fixtures, and today you can find a long list of fixtures and lighting solutions. Any design is possible, and light fixtures are affordable and attractive. One of the most recommended solutions is buying spotlights, for a few dozen or a few hundred shekels, which gives the lighting “volume” and attracts positive attention. Most lighting solutions can be installed yourself.

Another solution, no less impressive, is adding dimmers. These are switches that let you change the lighting intensity and thereby create the desired atmosphere – for example, warm or romantic. With a dimmer you can adjust the lighting to the natural light, and so also save on operating costs. Note that this option is available mainly for LED lighting, and switching to LED is recommended because of its high efficiency, significant savings and long-term durability.

Drywall, floating ceilings and everything in between
One of the important trends in home design in recent years is replacing existing ceilings with “floating” ones. This means lowering various parts of the ceiling, which creates the feeling that it is – well – floating in the air. This solution, which was once used to hide central air-conditioning ducts, is considered very impressive aesthetically and creates interest and depth in the home. Of course, a floating ceiling can be combined with lighting solutions to create a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Another option for upgrading the home is adding drywall partitions, considered one of the more recommended options. Drywall can be built using studs, tracks, gypsum boards and many tools. When planning such a wall, the key word is precision: the area where the wall will stand must be measured down to the millimeter. The finish, an equally important step, can be done with joint compound.

Renewing the kitchen
The kitchen is considered one of the most important spaces in the home, if not the most important of all. So it is clear why changing it can have a positive effect on the look of the whole home, as well as on the quality of life of its residents. The first step you can take is replacing the exterior of the kitchen cabinets, which is naturally cheaper than building a kitchen from scratch or replacing all the furniture.

Sometimes all the kitchen needs is an even smaller change that makes a big difference. By covering the cabinets, repainting them or even replacing the hardware (handles, runners and so on), you can increase the value of the kitchen many times over.

Renewing the bathroom
We cannot ignore the bathroom, which also needs upgrading and renovation every few years. More comprehensive bathroom renovations include removing the various fittings you want to replace (plumbing fixtures, tiles, sanitary ware and more). If you do this yourself, it is important to make sure the bathroom’s infrastructure is not damaged. In most cases it is advisable to replace the bathroom’s drainage pipes, and tiling or cladding, or replacing various fittings and fixtures, can make a big difference to the look and use of the bathroom.

Of course, there are also solutions for those who want a less drastic change. There are simpler steps whose essence is mainly aesthetic. The main ones are renewing or resurfacing the bathtub, which naturally wears down drastically over time (acrylic paints are preferable). The bathroom walls, like the walls of the whole home, should also be repainted every few years – especially considering that contact with water noticeably damages the uniformity of their color.