If there’s one thing I’ve learned after more than five years of home ownership, it’s that home improvements almost always cost more than you expect. Even when you plan carefully, tackle some of the work yourself, or choose the “budget-friendly” option, projects have a way of creeping well beyond their original price tag. The truth is, even DIY upgrades can easily run into the thousands. Take peel-and-stick tile, for example—often marketed as a quick, affordable fix, it can still cost hundreds of dollars for a small space, especially if you opt for higher-quality materials (which you should, unless you want to redo it later). For many homeowners, that kind of spending just isn’t realistic, no matter what you see on Instagram or Pinterest.
The good news? There are DIY home upgrades that can genuinely refresh your space on a tight budget—think $100 or less. I know because I’ve done them in my own home. Here are my top six favorite affordable DIY home upgrades to help you give your home a facelift in 2026.
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Repainting
It’s no accident that repainting is at the top spot on this list. In my opinion, there’s no home DIY project that has the impact a new paint job can have on a room. Plus, relatively speaking, painting is pretty affordable and easy to do. Brighten your space by painting it a light color, add some drama with a dark and moody shade, or use a technique like color drenching to create a cozy, cocooning effect.
Don’t forget that paint can be used on more than just the walls. A fresh coat of paint can give new life to a tired piece of furniture, it can be used to create wall murals or faux wallpaper, or it can be used to refresh cabinetry in the kitchen or bathroom. The sky (or the ceiling) is truly the limit when it comes to paint!
Refinishing Cabinets
On the other hand, refinishing cabinets has to be one of my least favorite DIY home upgrades. Truly, I hate every second of it. It’s so tedious, it takes forever to do correctly, and something unexpected always comes up. However, it’s an amazing way to completely transform the look of your kitchen or bathroom without getting any power tools involved. A new coat of paint, or a new wood stain take can old, tired cabinets from blah to beautiful in just a few (painful) hours.
Just make sure to sand everything down a lot and prime any surfaces you plan to paint with a high-quality primer. My favorite go-to is the Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3, which can be found at Home Depot, Walmart, or online at Amazon.
Swapping Out Hardware
Nothing is as simple and impactful as swapping out old hardware. This goes for kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, interior doors, exterior doors, and even floor vents and grates. New hardware can instantly transform the look and feel of your space, and you don’t need a big budget to make it happen.
I’m currently tackling this project in our kitchen (in addition to repainting the cabinets) and the new hardware. has to be one of my favorite parts so far. I used these knobs from Home Depot, and these cabinet pulls from Amazon. I can’t wait to see the final result in a few short weeks!
This is one of my favorite things to do when moving into a new space. Thoughtfully chosen hardware can truly make any space feel warm, curated, and intentional. If you haven’t given your home’s hardware a second thought before, this is your sign to tackle this simple DIY home upgrade in 2026. You won’t regret it!
Refinish Your Grout
Do your tiles really need replacing, or is it the grout that’s actually the problem? Between stains or colors that just don’t match, grout can have a huge impact on the way a space looks and feels. Luckily, there are a few ways you can refinish your grout to update the look without spending hundreds or even thousands to replace the tile itself. My favorite way, which is also the cheapest AND the easiest, is to use a grout paint pen.
Painting your grout gets a lot of people heated, and I understand why. Certainly, replacing the grout altogether would be the more preferable option. However, I used a grout paint pen almost two years ago now to redo the grout for the wall tiles in our bathroom, and I still LOVE how it turned out. Plus, two years later, it still looks just as good as the day I first did it. Just be forewarned that this task is tedious, but it’s so worth the result.
I can’t speak to how it would hold up over time on a floor, or in a highly moist environment like a shower stall, but on the wall, it’s worked wonders. As such, I can imagine it would be an excellent choice for back splashes, too. To date, this remains one of my favorite DIY home upgrades with a big impact.
Replacing Light Fixtures
Replacing light fixtures is made significantly more affordable for me thanks to the fact that my husband is an electrician (shout out to Andrew), but it remains a relatively quick and inexpensive way to instantly change the look and feel of a space. Plus, if you’re handy and feeling brave, replacing a light fixture yourself actually isn’t that hard as long as you know what you’re doing. I’ve learned how to do it myself, although I will always defer this job to my hubby, because why not? There are plenty of videos and tutorials online that can help. Or, you can use a service like Taskrabbit to quickly hire a pro, no matter how small the job.
Replacing Old Laminate Countertops
I’m putting this one last on the list because out of all of the DIY projects mentioned so far, this one is undoubtedly the priciest. However, I had no idea how affordable laminate countertops were until I looked into it recently for our kitchen refresh. We’ve been living with old laminate counters that were refinished with a resurfacing kit by the previous owner (which is now peeling off in chunks…) for YEARS, and if I had known that just a couple of hundred dollars would give us brand new countertops, I would’ve done it ages ago. Of course, we’d all love real stone counters, but if they’re out of your price range, laminate will also do just fine, and there are lots of stylish and modern options you can choose from.
Home Depot sells modular laminate countertops that can be installed on your own, or you can pay to have their experts install them for you. The same goes for IKEA. As far as replacing materials in the home goes, I was pleasantly surprised at how affordable laminate countertops can really be.