Home with Dean Sharp

Home with Dean Sharp

Listen to Home with Dean Sharp on Saturdays from 6 AM to 8 AM and Sundays from 9 AM to 12 PM on KFI AM 640!Full Bio

 

Creative Ways To Hack Your Home

Despite National Woes, Bay Area Housing Prices Hit New Highs

Photo: Getty Images

Someone asked me why they would want to be a home hack? Isn’t a hack someone who doesn’t do a good job? We’re using hack in the sense of a computer hacker. Someone who rewrites code to change the behavior of a system.

When it comes to your home the “system” says big changes means big money. But we’re going to hack the system with creativity and use creativity to control or even conquer costs.

We’re going to use your budget limitations as fuel for creativity.

Because constraints are the catalyst of creativity.

So there it is. That's the trick.

There are ways to hack into your home's potential without breaking the bank. 

Which is why I often say, your home often doesn’t need a bigger budget, it needs a better story.

Here are some of Dean's suggestions:

1.Taller baseboards by adding a small molding above the existing and painting the wall between to match.

2.Tall baseboards - cut base from sheet goods and add small topper

3.Trim out your 80’s-90’s bare transom window above your French doors to join them together as one elegant unit.

4.Literally raise the ceiling instead of increasing square footage.

5.Figuratively “raise the ceiling” by running a horizontal wall molding 6’-9” down from the ceiling and painting the wall above to match the ceiling color.

6.Cover the drywall at the top of the wall to lose sight of ceiling line

7.Smooth the wall below the chair rail and repaint as a wainscot.

8.To create molding panels on a wall for paint or wallpaper accents

9.Investigate and eliminate unnecessary soffits - design by demolition

10.Add a fun shallow soffit perimeter soffit to accent a special “raised” ceiling area. Get creative!

11.Adorn inexpensive windows with jambs, casings, sills and aprons.

12.Recess the TV into the wall

13.Get a universal WiFi remote and hide the audio/video equipment

14.Enrich the look of cheap hollow core interior doors with dark colors.

15.While you’re at it, try dark trim and light walls.

16.Stain your concrete instead of new flooring

17.Add mood lighting and dimming capabilities with WiFi enabled bulbs

18.Ugly fireplace - Black high temperature barbecue paint for fire box & Platinum Bright embers

19.Fill an unused fireplace with cordwood logs, flowers, plants, or candles

Want to know more? Listen to the show below

Don't forget "HOME with Dean" is now live on Saturdays from 6am-8am AND Sundays 9am-11am.

As always, you can follow Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer, on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @HomeWithDean.

Missed the show? Don't worry you can podcast Home With Dean on the iHeart Radio app here.

Interested in joining us for our Summer LIVE audience show on July 28th? Get more information here.


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content