19 / Spruce up Your Home for little money in a Short time

Home renovations can cost tens of thousands of dollars and take weeks — or months — to complete. But you don’t need major bucks or an entire season to give your place a new look.

Kerrie Kelly, chair-elect of the American Society of Interior Designers and creative director of Kerrie Kelly Design Lab in Sacramento, Calif., recommends these small home projects that don’t cost a lot of money but can have a big impact.

By Nellie S. HuaNg KipliNger'S MoNey power, KipliNger'S perSoNal FiNaNce

glaM up a rooM. Upgrade a living or dining room with decorative molding at the crown or baseboard (roughly $20 for an 8-foot-long piece; a 10-by-12-foot room will need at least six). The catch is you must cut the corners at exactly 45-degree angles with a miter saw. Says Kelly: “If you can’t wrap a present beautifully, you probably shouldn’t be cutting molding.” After it’s installed, you’ll have to paint it. Stick with a semigloss.

let tHere Be ligHt. Consider buying a “statement” chandelier for your dining room, says Kelly, that can also serve as artwork of a sort. Pay attention to size: A chandelier should be proportional to the table (use a measuring tape to visually assess how the fixture will fit in the space), and the bottom of it should hang between 30 and 36 inches above the tabletop.

give tHe BatH SoMe color. Painting your bathroom cabinets, especially if they look dated, can be done inside of a week for less than half the cost of replacing them. White or a light neutral tone in a semigloss or high-gloss finish can make a space look and feel more open. With unpainted wood cabinets, first sand off the burnished finish, which can take time, then paint. “If you see the grain now, you’ll see the grain after you paint it,” says Kelly. With cabinets that are already painted, first “paint a test spot with primer and a coat of semigloss paint to see how it shakes out,” she advises.

puNcH up your FroNt door. A gallon of paint — budget roughly $30 to $80 — and one afternoon is probably all you need to give your entrance a facelift and improve your home’s curb appeal. Consider a high-gloss red, lime green, navy or black, depending on your home’s architecture, says Kelly.