So, what are some cheap ways to make your home look more modern? Let’s go over a couple things you can do to freshen your space up. Do note, that the links to products on this page are Amazon Affiliate links. BUT they are 100% products I’ve purchased or heavily recommend.
Cheap Ways to Make Your Home Look More Modern
- Change out toggle switches for rocker switches.
- New Kitchen Cabinet Hardware (We’ll tackle this in a follow up article)
What Is Modern?
First off, let’s define what we mean by modern. The definition of Modern interior design will vary by who you ask. It’s probably heavily influenced by modern architecture which started becoming popular in the 1980s. Classical modern architecture is characterized by it’s use of glass, metals, and concrete. Modern homes tend to be very minimalist. We say “tend to be” because modern arcitecure varies wildly.
Here’s Falling Water for example which looks super earthy, connected to nature, and might be considered a great example of a modern home. This is far from what we’ll achieve, but it’s great to know where a lot of the inspiration for modern interior design comes from. Also, it’ll be helpful to understand that “modern” doesn’t have one definition. It’s what we make of it to a certain extent.
So, back to the defenition of Modern in this article. Modern to me is clean crisp lines. The color pallettes can vary fairly wildly from soft earth tones paired with whites and blacks, to heavy blacks in a more industrial feel. I personally love bright pops of color in my flavor of modern. We’ll be sticking to the clean crisp part of the modern definition for the majority of this article.
How Will We Save Money?
Your largest asset at saving money on house stuff will inevitably be your time. The items we’ll be going over won’t need any expensive or fancy specialized tools. Check out /r/specializedtools on Reddit if that’s your type of thing. But these won’t be needed in any of our projects. We should be able to get by with a philips and flat head screw driver and a couple of other items.
Tools You’ll Need
1. Philips and flathead screw driver
Any old philips and flathead screw drivers will work here. Ideally they aren’t too big. I’m a huge fan of the screw drivers that use interchangeable bits. I personally have something that looks like this.
2. Drill with Philips and flathead bits
So is a drill obligatory? Absolutely not. But it’ll make everything go much more quickly. Do you need some epic drill? Again, absolutely not. I went the cheaper route and picked up a Ryobi from amazon. It’s got power, tons of settings, and is pretty cost efficient. The best part is that it’s under 50 bucks. Do note, you’ll probably need to pick up a battery and charger which is where the power tool companies get you. That’ll bring up the price here.
3. Voltage Tester
The voltage tester will help with getting your switches swapped out. I’d say this is obligatory because electrocucion is no joke. This will let us test out whether our switch’s wires are still hot and whether we turned off the right circuit breaker. Let’s get started on actually showing you some cheap ways to make your home look more modern.
Change out toggle switches for rocker switches.
Estimated Time: 30 min per switch.
Estimated Cost: Less than $5.00 per switch.
So, I’m proposing that you switch out your toggle switches on the left for rocker switches on the right which should give your space a nice fresh feel. I did this in my early 2000s home in Southern California and absolutely love look.
Types of Rocker Switch
Something you might not notice without having changed your homes light switches is that your home’s switches are probably either single or three pole. Single pole switches are for lights that can only be turned on by 1 switch. 3 pole switches are for the lights can be turned on from 2 places. 1 pole switches are most common.
Step By Step For Swapping Out Your Switches
1. Buy your switches
If you’re planning to change the switches in your entire house, then’ll you most likely need to buy a couple of 3 pole switches. Feel free to do this at your local Home Depot or Lowes. I sometimes can’t wait for delivery so just drop by my local hardware store. If you’re too busy for a trip to your local hardware store, you can pick up rocker switches and plates on Amazon. The images below are linked to some recommendations. Do note, you’ll probably get a better price per switch if you buy the single pole switches in bulk.
2. Get Your Tools
Get your Voltage Tester we mentioned above, a screw driver, and maybe your drill if you decided to pick one up or already had one.
3. Turn off the electricity
Let’s tackle a single pole switch first, it’ll be easier. So head over to the switch you want changed. Turn the light on and head over to your breaker switches. They should hopefully be labeled. Look at the labels and turn off the breaker to to the room where you want to change the switch. Once the light turns off, you shouldbe good to go. It helps to have a partner call you while you’re at the break. It’ll prevent you from running back and forth.
4. Remove your switches face pate
Start unscrewing the face plate on the switch you’ll be changing. If the screws are cover in paint, you can use your screw driver to scratch some off. The face plate will not be connected to electricity so this shouldbe fairly safe. Don’t worry about scratches, we’ll be tossing our old face plates.
5. Test For A Live Wire
Pull out your Voltage Tester. Make sure to read the instructions. Every tester is slightly different. My Voltage Tester just has an on button, then I gently touch the visible wires on our switch. If electricity is passing through the wires, it flashes red and beeps. That means that we didn’t successfully turn off the electricity in step 3. Head back over to your breaker box and start turning off more breakers. Head back to your switch and re-test for voltage. THIS STEP IS KEY AND COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE. Here’s a quick video of this looks like for me.
6. Remove screws that hold the switch into the box
The face plate is connected to the switch. And the switch is connected to your homes electrical box. We removed the face plate in step 4. Now remove the screws that connect your switch to your electrical box. You inpatient? Use your drill here to speed stuff up. Make sure to have your drill on the lowest setting to avoid stripping anything.
7. Separate the old switch from your home’s wiring.
Again, we’re assuming you did step 5 and tested whether your switch has any power going to it. You’ve also removed the screws that hold you switch in the wall. So pull on your switch to further expose your wires. Take a photo of your wires and switch. This will help us in case you remove the switch and then forget which wire goes where.
You might need to use your flat head screw drivier to push on a tabs that hold your wires in holes. Push down on those tabs and pull your switch away. Make sure not to break any of your wires. Be gentle.
8. Install your new switch.
Unbox your new rocker switch and unscrew the poles so that they can receive your wires. Match the wires to the same places on your new switch. Screw down the screws that hold the wires in place. Make sure your wires don’t touch when installed.
9. Install the new switch face plate
Your new switch is nice and cozy in the electrical box. Throw the switch plate on and tighten the screws that came with it. Make sure not to tighten it too much or you’ll risk cracking your face plate. Also, if your screw isn’t easily going in, then back it out, and try again. Let’s not risk chewing through our threads.
