Summer is the best season to renovate your home. It is also the season of ice-cold drinks, sea and vacations. You can always make a quick clean up of the place before leaving on holiday, but renovating is times-consuming. Many of us want to refresh the house but to still have enough time (and finances) to enjoy a nice holiday during the warmest months of the year. We’ve put together a few smart re-vamps for your home that won’t cost a fortune – and your whole summer.

Reupholster Old Furnishings

If your sofa is in a good shape, but the upholstery is worn out you have two options: 1) try to clean it 2) get slipcovers to hide the old, deteriorated fabric. Changing the upholstery of your sofa and armchair will instantly improve the whole appearance of the room and make it look like it has been recently renovated.

Change (or Clean) the Rugs and Curtains

When you want to create a whole new look for your home there’s no better trick than throwing away your old rugs, curtains and bed covers and replacing them with new ones. But if your carpets aren’t worn our and you don’t want to invest in new ones you can always find and hire professional cleaners. They use powerful equipment that will extract dirt, stains and even deeply embedded dust bringing back the colours of any rug or fabric item.

New Life for Shabby Furniture

Revamp wooden desks, tables or cabinet’s doors with adhesive foil. There are many types of foil in hardware stores – colourful, metallic or wood imitation – it’s up to you. This is a great, fast and inexpensive way to renovate old furniture, instead of painting it, or throwing it away.

Fix Broken Furniture

If you have to repair broken furniture legs, loose drawer handles or doorknobs you can use silicone or transparent epoxy glue. These adhesives are easy to use, dry pretty fast and are strong enough to keep together the broken pieces. We have to admit, this is a quick fix but it will give you some time in advance before calling carpenter or changing your furniture.

Repair Leaking Taps

Even if you’ve never heard of the Chinese water torture method, you know that the sound of water dripping from a faulty tap day after day can turn anyone insane. Not to mention the increase of your water bill. There is an easy way to fix a leaking faucet, without calling a plumber. You just need to get an auto spout adapter. These converters have reasonable prices and are easy to install and remove afterwards.

Hide Scratches on Hardwood Floors

If your natural wood floor is scratched and looks worn out there is a way to postpone polishing the floor with polish and slow drying. Instead of wasting days of your vacation in renovating the floor you can just mask the scratches with black tea concentrate. Take 5-6 bags of black tea (Earl Grey, or English Breakfast will do great). Boil ¼ gallon of water and leave the tea bags inside until the liquid cools completely. Take out the bags, pour the concentrate in bucket and use it to wipe the floor. Don’t rinse afterwards.

Optical Illusions for More Space

If you don’t have the time or the inner strength to go through remodeling your home and removing walls there is another solution to make a room look spacious. Placing a mirror on the wall of small room or narrow hallway will create the illusion the area is bigger. If you install the mirror next to a window it will create the impression the room is not only bigger but also lighter.

These little tricks will save you time and money and will allow you to postpone big renovation and enjoy your summer.