10 House Projects You Can Do For $100 or Less

These past few months have been an interesting time in my life to say the least. I’ve had some amazing breakthroughs with my business and finances and I will have to share everything in detail in an update post very soon.

Lately, I’ve just been trying to stay afloat and work toward many of my annual goals. We are already halfway through the year and I’m glad to have met my goal of buying our first house.

Now that we’re getting all settled in, we’ve been doing a ton of house projects to improve the space. My goal has been to knock as much as I can out this month then take a break for a while and do some of the less important things slowly.

There have been so many late nights and early mornings but it’s all a labor of love. It’s also been hitting our wallet pretty harshly too.

Related: How to Grow Your Account Fast and Where to Start

My husband and I decided it was wise to create a budget category for house updates and maintenance so we can either spend the money each month or roll it over to the next month.

On the bright side, there are plenty of house projects that can be done pretty affordably. Of course, you’ll have to DIY if you really want to save money. If you’re willing to do that, you can successfully pull off some of these 10 house projects for $100 or less.

1. Convert Your Closet Into Office Space

You can never have too much closet space until you truly don’t need it. I’ve always thought about converting an unused closet to office space was such a cool idea and may even try it in my home.

My son has an extra closet in his room and we’re thinking about turning it into a homework or art space. We can do this by removing the closet doors to open up the space and installing a floating shelf to serve as the desk. Then, we can paint and add a few other cool details.

What you can do with this project all depends on how much space you have and what the set up currently looks like. Installing a floating shelf to a wall may save more space than moving in an entire desk, but just have fun with it. I love this concept with a corner desk and a comfy bench.

To save money, you can use reclaimed wood and spray paint or refinish it to create extra shelving and shop around at garage sales for inspiring office supplies.

2. Stain Furniture

As I’ve been searching for furniture, I realized barn-themed doors and farmhouse style furniture are really popular these days. I personally love the look, but it can be so expensive. Even if you want to buy a used farmhouse accent table or entry table, you can still wind up spending hundreds of dollars.

Whether you’re going for a farmhouse style or not, you can always stain your existing furniture to freshen it up and give it an entirely new look.

Wood staining is easy and doesn’t require too many materials. You’ll need to sand the furniture down and you can invest in a palm sander for only $25 on Amazon.

3. Trim Trees and Plant Flowers

Landscaping is one of the biggest hidden costs and time commitments for homeowners in my opinion. There always seems to be something to do or maintain and you can easily create several affordable house projects from this.

Trimming the trees in your yard and planting a few flowers can do a lot to transform your home’s curb appeal. Annuals are pretty cheap and often come with their own potting soil filled with food and nutrients to keep the plant alive for at least 6 months.

You can even add curb appeal by installing a window box outside some of the main windows and filling it with flowers and greenery.

4. Install a Backsplash

Even if you can’t install cabinets, you might be able to do a kitchen backsplash. Keeping this project under $100 will depend on the type of tile you decide to use and how big your space is.

Our backsplash project was affordable because we went to a discount home store and used tiling that was in our budget. Some fancier tiles can easily cost $10+ per square foot. Ours was around $5 and you’ll likely even find basic styles like subway tile for $1 – $3 per square foot.

For this project, you’ll also need to purchase thinset, grout, a cutting tool to cut some of the tiles, and a level.

5. Paint the Interior of Your Home

Painting is one of the cheapest home projects you can do. If you can get you can get the whole family involved, the job will be done in no time.

Our sellers actually left us some paint and primer at the house and labeled each container with the name of the room it was used in. This was great to use for touch-ups.

Lowes will charge you around $4 for a sample paint can and you can purchase a decent-sized can of paint for $20-$40.

Spray paint cans are cheaper and may be ideal for smaller items and furniture you wish to update.

6. Fix or Replace Your Light Fixture

A new light fixture can change the entire look of the room. Plus, it’s an easy house project for $100 or less. You can find some nice ones for under $50. This is a quick and cheap project you can do especially if it’s something you’ve been putting off for a while.

7. Install New House Numbers

I hate when people don’t have the address number on their house or it’s super hidden. It makes it harder for me when I’m using directions to locate someone’s one.

My husband was slightly obsessed with putting new clearer address numbers on our home and I let him knock himself out with this $20 project.

8. Stain Your Bathroom Window

Window privacy is important, especially in your bathroom. When you have a window in your bathroom it might look weird to install curtains or blinds to cover it. What you can do is cover or stain the window in a creative way.

You can turn it into a painting project, or you can buy a peel and stick window film that is already colored and designed to fit your preferences.

 

9. Makeover Your Fireplace

If you have a fireplace, it’s probably one of the main focal points in your living room or family room. Why not make it stand out? If you have brick fireplace, you can either strip the color and restore it back to its original glory, or you can whitewash it to your liking.

10. Upgrade Your Home Decor

If anything, you can always update your decor. This can easily help turn your house into a home and it’s one of my favorite house projects for $100 or less because I can cover a lot of ground with $100. My husband and I love putting up pictures and I like organizational bins, table accents, decorative pillows, wall hangings, and canvases.

I like to look for home decor on sale anywhere I can find it. Some stores have discount or clearance sections, or I use Ebates to earn cash back when I’m shopping online.

I love canvases so I was super excited when Canvas on the Cheap reached out to me and offered to send me one for free. I customized a canvas with one of our wedding pictures last year as an anniversary gift and felt like my husband and I already had enough pictures of ourselves around the house so I ordered a canvas showing a view of Chicago’s Millennium Park.

I found a High Res image on Unsplash.com and like that you can just upload any picture you want to customize your canvas with Canvas on the Cheap.

In honor of our new house purchase, Canvas on the Cheap has decided to sponsor a free 16 x 20 canvas to one lucky reader as well so you can spruce up your home decor too.

I’m grateful for all the well wishes and support many of you have provided over these past few months. Even if you didn’t reach out and just read my posts and emails about our home search and process, that still means a lot to me that you took the time out to hear me out.

We’ve wanted to buy a home for a while now but wanted to get our finances more in order and were almost afraid to even set a goal because I didn’t know if it would happen with me being self-employed and having a fluctuating income.

That just goes to show you that you shouldn’t let your goals and desires scare you out of even researching and trying to see if you can bring it to fruition.

You can enter the giveaway below! I’ll be randomly selecting a winner next Friday, 7/27!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have you done any of these house projects for $100 or less lately? What’s on your home improvement to-do list for the next few weeks?