Five Insanely Simple Upgrades for 2020

With the New Year behind us and a full year ahead, it’s the perfect time to upgrade our homes. In a month dedicated to resolutions, creating a space that feels fresh and new is as satisfying as a midnight champagne toast.

But heavy construction can be a huge inconvenience. It gets in the way, takes a ton of time to complete, and brings with it this lingering anxiety that something is going to go terribly, terribly wrong.

There are tons of ways to take your home to the next level without having to inhale sawdust for months on end. From switching up window treatments to finding your soulmate paint color, the only thing you need is a little imagination and some new ideas for the new year.

Here are five simple and easy ideas for upgrading your home in 2020—without all the hassle of heavy construction.

1. Motorize Your Window Treatments

With the ever-growing trend of smart devices, we don’t have to move a muscle to turn on our lights, change the volume of our music, or operate a robotic vacuum. We can run our homes with the simple press of a button. Why should our windows be any different?

Motorized blinds are a great way to bring your windows into the new decade without having to commit to complicated heavy construction.

Do you have windows that are hard to reach? Do you have a family member with mobility issues? Or do you just want to introduce more ease and simplicity into your life?

Making the switch to motorized window treatments could be just the ticket for giving your space a major technological update.

2. Introduce a Wall Bed

In just about every 21st-century home, there’s at least one room that’s serving multiple purposes. The guest room slash home office. The bedroom slash library. The music room slash kids’ room slash spare bedroom slash storage space.

What can I say? We’re multitaskers.

The challenge is making the space still feel like part of the home—and not like a cluttered dumping ground for whatever odds and ends find their way there.

You can make your space multi-functional without feeling cramped by introducing a flip-up bed. These beds can be combined with desks or additional storage space, or they can just flip up to allow more room for activities. This small change can revolutionize the multi-functional space and allow it to fully serve every purpose—instead of only half-serving each.

3. Add a Fresh Coat of Paint

A simple coat of paint is an easy way to make a new statement in the new year. Painting interior walls doesn’t require any construction, and yet can easily breathe new life into a space.

Lighter shades can open up a room and make the space feel clean and minimalist. Pastel colors are also known to summon a calming effect. Vibrant colors, on the other hand, make a bold statement—if you’re not sure about going bold for an entire room, an accent wall can also be a fun, modern way to shake things up.

New paint can also hide stains and blemishes, while at the same time protecting your walls from everyday wear and tear and reducing the buildup of dust and dirt.

4. Switch to Warm Lighting

When’s the last time you thought about the color temperature of your light fixtures?

Cool lighting, which we see as more blue, is most common in office buildings. This is because cool light tends to help us be more focused and attentive.

Warm lighting, on the other hand, more closely mimics the natural light of the sun, especially during sunrise and sunset. This lighting, which we perceive as more red or yellow, can inspire feelings of comfort and coziness—which is exactly what you want when you come home to relax after a long day at work.

While cool lighting is still useful for tasks that require attention and focus, warm lighting is best for spaces dedicated to relaxing. Especially for rooms where you spend more time in the mornings and evenings, opt for a warmer light.

Shifting to warm light is such a simple, small change, but it can make a big difference in your ability to find stress-free relaxation.

5. Opt for Window Shutters

It’s 2020, and more than ever, we’re concerned about the environment and our impact on the world around us. And with energy costs continuing to increase, anything we can do to better control our energy use gets a big thumbs up.

Not only can shutters update the style of a room, but they can also make your home more energy efficient, which means you have more control over your energy use and your energy bill.

Sleek and modern, shutters allow you to control how much light comes in while also giving your home a completely new look. White painted shutters can give a space a nice clean finish, while natural wood shutters can add warmth to a room.

Concerned about humidity? Composite shutters are a wood alternative that is more resistant to moisture, without losing the elegance of a natural finish.

Level-Up Your Life—Starting With Your Home

If you want to up-level your home, but you don’t want to deal with the annoyance of heavy construction, you’re not alone.

Luckily, these upgrade options remain completely free from all that frustration.

Whether you’re changing up your window treatments, updating your lights, or streamlining your multi-functional spaces, you’ll be able to shout “new year, new home!” in no time.

Because you deserve to love where you live—in 2020 and beyond.