My husband and I have transformed two houses from dated, tired spaces into modern, well-presented homes - and we've done almost all of it ourselves. In our previous house, we spent seven years renovating, and when we sold, we'd nearly doubled its value.

In our current Newquay home, we've spent around three years working through every room, every floor (aside from the kitchen's which is on our to-do list), the kitchen, three bathrooms, and an entire garden redesign.

Ben did most of the heavy work; I've helped with flooring, the garden, painting, and various projects along the way. And most of the design decisions have been mine - I like to plan and design, and Ben makes it a reality! We only brought in professionals for plastering, the boiler, electrics, and a couple of specialist jobs like fitting a new front door.

Doing it yourself saves an enormous amount of money and makes the results feel genuinely yours. Here's what we've learned about modernising a home and adding value - based on real experience rather than theory.

Remove carpet and replace with hard flooring

If there's one change that transforms how a home looks and feels more than almost anything else, it's replacing carpet with hard flooring. We've done it in both houses. In our current home we have oak-topped hard flooring throughout the main living areas - it looks beautiful, it's easy to clean, and it photographs far better than carpet when you come to sell.

I also ripped the carpet off the stairs myself, sanded them back, and painted them white. It sounds daunting but it's very achievable, and the result is striking - white wooden stairs look so much cleaner and more contemporary than worn carpet.

Bathroom floors we've tiled in both properties. In the kitchen and dining areas we haven't changed the flooring yet in our current home, but it's on the list. Hard floors throughout is the goal - it adds value, it's more hygienic, and it appeals to buyers far more than tired carpet.

When choosing flooring, the quality of the finish matters. If you're going for a wood effect, inexpensive hard floor ideas that look authentic are worth exploring - modern luxury vinyl and engineered wood options can look just as good as solid wood at a fraction of the cost.

Update your kitchen - you don't always need a full replacement

Kitchens sell houses. We've updated the kitchen in both of our homes, and in our current home we replaced the kitchen units and worktops entirely - but kept the oven. Ben ripped out everything else and fitted new units with integrated white goods. Doing it ourselves saved thousands compared to having a kitchen company install it.

You don't always need to start from scratch. If your cabinet carcasses are solid, replacing just the doors and handles can completely transform the look. A new worktop - particularly something classic like a wood or stone effect - makes a huge difference. Knocking through to create a kitchen-diner if the layout allows it is one of the best investments you can make; open-plan living is consistently popular with buyers.

In our previous home we kept the units, but replaced the sink, tap and worktops and tiles and it made a huge difference - it looked like a new kitchen.

In our new kitchen, we kept the oven, but replaced the kitchen units ourselves, added handles, new worktops, a new extractor hood, tiled, painted and added rustic reclaimed wooden shelves.  We'll do the floor one day.  It looks OK from afar, but is an older, cheaper laminate, so has chipped off in many places and at the joins. 

Bathrooms add serious value

We have four bathroom spaces in our current home - a main family bathroom, two ensuites, and a downstairs toilet and sink. We've replaced and fully renovated all of them. The original ensuite in our bedroom didn't even have a proper wall - it was open to the bedroom. Ben built a wall and door to create a separate room, which completely changed how that space functions and feels.

In our previous house, we added a downstairs toilet where there hadn't been one before. That one addition made our house stand out from every other property on the street, because all the neighbouring houses were the same layout and none of them had it. Being unique in a row of identical houses is a genuine selling advantage.

The key with bathrooms is finish quality. Grout lines, sealant, tiling - if these look rushed or worn, it undermines the whole room. Take the time to do it properly. Internal oak doors on bathroom and ensuite entrances add warmth and a premium feel that carries through the rest of the house.

Adding a small downstairs WC doesn't need to take up much space, but can make a property much more appealing.

Replace or paint internal doors and woodwork

In our old house we replaced every internal door and all the architrave. It completely changed the feel of the house - going from dated hollow doors to solid, well-finished ones transformed each room. It's one of those changes that sounds minor but has a surprisingly significant impact on how modern a home feels.

If replacing isn't in the budget, painting existing woodwork - skirting boards, door frames, banister spindles - in a fresh white or colour-matched shade makes a huge difference for relatively little cost. We've given our banister a complete makeover in our current home too and the staircase is one of the first things people notice when they come in.

Remove artex and replaster

In our previous house there was artex throughout - that swirled or textured ceiling and wall finish that dates a property immediately. We had it removed and the ceilings and walls freshly plastered throughout. Combined with a fresh coat of paint, it made the house feel as though it had been completely rebuilt inside. If you have artex and are wondering whether removing it is worth the cost of hiring a plasterer, the answer is yes - it's one of the most transformative things you can do to a dated property.

We painted the entire interior of our previous and current home ourselves. It's time-consuming but straightforward, and the cost of paint and materials is minimal compared to hiring decorators.

Fit spotlights and update lighting

In our old house we had spotlights fitted throughout, which instantly modernised every room. Good lighting is one of those improvements that buyers notice even if they can't put their finger on why a house feels nicer. Harsh single bulb ceiling roses look dated; recessed spotlights, pendant lighting, and well-placed lamps create warmth and a sense of quality.

Don't underestimate how much lighting affects photography too - when you come to sell and list online, well-lit rooms photograph far better and attract more viewings.

Add a garden office

Ben built our garden office from scratch at the back of the garden. It's fully insulated, has electricity run to it, and functions as a proper room - it's his full-time office. It looks brilliant and adds genuine usable square footage to the property without requiring planning permission (subject to size and local rules).

Garden offices have become one of the most sought-after features since remote working became normal. For the cost of materials and Ben's time, it added far more to the property's appeal than the build cost. If you have the garden space and a handy partner, it's one of the best value-adding projects you can do.

Transform your garden

A garden can make or break a sale - and ours has been one of the biggest projects in both houses.

In our current home we removed all the grass from the main garden and completely redesigned it. We now have two levels of sleeper and Cornish stone stepped terraced paths leading to the back, with ten raised vegetable beds between them where we grow around 30 different fruits and vegetables each year. We built a deck at the back with a fire pit and hammock, built a roofed veranda on the back of the house for all-weather outdoor living, and Ben built a custom L-shaped wooden sofa area under the veranda with side tables and a coffee table.

We painted the back of the house, built four storage sheds, and have plans to re-paint the front of the house when we get to it.

For the front garden, we removed the grass - partly because the local cats had other ideas about what to use it for - and replaced it with gravel with a planted centrepiece. It looks neat, requires almost no maintenance, and solves the problem. Low-maintenance front gardens consistently appeal to buyers.

In our old house we laid a large porcelain patio ourselves (Ben and I both worked on that one) with a reclaimed scaffold board boardwalk to the end of the garden. It looked stunning and was a real selling point.

We even added a pizza oven!  We've since painted it grey and it looks great!  There's a pond at the front there too which brings lots of wildlife to the garden. The blue shed-looking building at the back is actually a large garden office room.

Convert unused space

In our previous house we converted the garage into a fourth bedroom with ensuite - a significant project that required a builder plus plumbing and electrics. That conversion added substantial value because it changed the house from a three-bedroom to a four-bedroom property. The difference in value between those two categories is significant in most markets.

We've also boarded and carpeted our attic in the current house, added roof windows, fitted storage shelves, and even built a teepee-style den up there for the kids. It's not classed as a bedroom as we haven't converted it properly, just made it more usable for ourselves for storage and as an enjoyable space and it adds to the overall appeal of the house.

If you have a cellar, that's another potential conversion - though worth checking building regulations first regarding ventilation, natural light, and fire escape requirements before treating it as habitable space.

Replace windows and doors

We've replaced the front door at our current house and painted all the windowsills. In our previous home we replaced most of the windows. New windows make a significant difference to how a house looks from the outside, how warm it is inside, and how much buyers perceive the property to be well maintained.

A new front door in particular is often cited as one of the best return-on-investment exterior improvements you can make. First impressions matter enormously - buyers are forming an opinion before they've even stepped inside.

Fix structural issues first

Before any of the cosmetic work, structural issues take priority. Damp, subsidence, mould, pest infestations, cracked walls - these will derail a sale faster than anything else and cost far more to deal with than buyers factor in. Sort these before spending money on surfaces.

The value of doing it yourself

The single biggest lesson from renovating two homes is that labour is the expensive part. Materials are manageable; tradespeople are where costs spiral. Ben's skills have saved us tens of thousands of pounds across both properties, and the work is better than a lot of what we'd have paid for because he takes pride in it and there's no rush.

If you're reasonably practical, willing to learn, and prepared for projects to take longer than expected, DIY renovation is one of the most effective ways to add value to a property. We hired plasterers, an electrician, a boiler engineer, a door fitter, and a builder for the garage conversion - everything else we did ourselves.

The result in the old house was that we nearly doubled its value in seven years. In this house, we're well on the way to doing the same.

Before you go...

If you're looking to improve your home on a budget, inexpensive hard floor ideas that look authentic is worth a read - there are some brilliant options that look like the real thing without the price tag.

And if you're thinking about a full banister update, banister makeover ideas for all budgets covers everything from a quick paint job to a full renovation with real before and after photos.

Our previous living room transformation - this looked so modern.  When we moved in, there were Artex walls and ceilings, old carpet and a ginormous dated stone fireplace surround!