Painting interiors, deep-cleaning carpets, scrubbing windows a power washing outer surfaces are just a few steps you can take to make your home sparkle. But if you’re looking to freshen up your living space and improve your home’s curb appeal, while also potentially raising its value, there are two easily tackled do-it-yourself projects to consider. We talked to two local experts who explained.
Replace old flooring to freshen your indoor space
Smitty Smith , a project manager in sales with Direct Flooring Center in Bend, says replacing old, outdated carpet with laminate or luxury vinyl products can make a huge difference in your space.
“People don’t want to be slaves to their homes. This stuff is extremely maintenance free. And it’s a good investment,” Smith said. “It does cost a little bit more per square foot versus carpet and pad, which would be the most affordable way to freshen up your spaces, but it increases your home’s value. The ‘Street of Dreams’ and all of the home parades are putting it in their homes now.”
There’s a “plethora” of options with respect to colors, patterns and opaqueness available, Smith said, at Direct Flooring, which has stores in Bend, Albany and Boise, Idaho. It offers products from approximately 15 manufacturers.
“The ones we’ve selected are the ones we trust. They’ve got good reviews and are a good product that we stand behind,” Smith said. “There’s a plethora of different products and opportunities. You just have to bring your interior taste. You just need to pick out the perfect product. That’s the hardest part of the process. Installing, that’s the easy part.”
Materials start in the “high $2s” per foot up to $11 per foot, depending on the product you choose. While you might have to do some scoring or trimming of edges to fit your particular space, installation is mostly a breeze because the products “snap in.”
Vinyl flooring has been around since the early 1900s and was first introduced at a world fair in 1933. However, it wasn’t until after World War II ended in 1945 that it became a popular choice for homes because, Smith said, people “took their floors with them when they moved.
“You can take it out of the home, and you can put it back into your new environment with minimal waste,” he said. “It wasn’t really introduced or became popular here in the United States until the mid ’80s, when we got the first couple of products. Back then, we had to glue the joints together. It’s evolved since then. Everything clicks together, and you don’t have to use adhesive anymore. It’s a pretty simple, straightforward, do-it-yourself project.”
Use native plants to increase curb appeal and decrease water bills
If you’re looking to spruce up your outdoor space and increase your home’s curb appeal, consider planting native grasses, shrubs and trees. An added benefit is that many of them, after they become established in the ground, don’t require nearly as much water as non-native plants.
Ben Snyder is manager at WinterCreek Nursery, which is part of the nonprofit High Desert Horticultural Center and one of the largest native plant nurseries in Central Oregon. WinterCreek is open to the public, and you can stroll around the grounds and check out the varieties of plants available, while discussing your needs with staff. They also offer classes, such as “Transitioning Your Existing Garden” and “Creating Gardens for Wildlife,” and events such as an Earth Day Fair.
There are ground covers, small plants, grasses, shrubs and larger plants and trees. They also offer cuttings from their cactus garden. All of the available plants are native to the area and are as aesthetically pleasing as they are hearty with respect to Central Oregon weather and growing conditions.
“I sometimes make the joke of ‘You know, if you bulldoze your house and wait 100 years, this is the stuff that would grow there, with no one doing anything,” said Snyder. “Native plants are the plants that naturally live here and that evolved here. They don’t need a ton of extra input and help to get going. That’s a real great benefit of using native plants.
“In terms of curb appeal, there are lots of really beautiful native wildflowers, like wild buckwheats and other flowering plants that are super tough, like native penstemons, which are really beautiful, and I would say, are really great for adding curb appeal,” he added.
If you’re looking for shrubs and trees, there’s Oregon Grape, which is the state flower and features bright, yellow buds (there’s also an Oregon Grape ground cover that Snyder has affectionately named “Creepy Grape”), as well as Manzanitas, Mountain mahoganies, Ponderosa pines and Serviceberries.
“You can’t go wrong with native plants,” Snyder said. “We’ve got all different variety of plants, depending on what people are looking for. We’ve got ones that are evergreens and ones that are deciduous. Ones that are flowering or that have berries.”
Most are easy to plant and maintain, he said. You might need to add compost to your soil, depending on your location in Central Oregon, and water them to help them become established and “to make life easier for the plant.” But once they’re established, he said they typically don’t require as much water as non-native plants nor much in the way of winterization. He said using ornamental plants that aren’t native to Central Oregon can “sometimes be like trying to put a round peg in a square hole” with respect to whether the plants ultimately thrive. The converse is true with native plants. In fact, he said WinterCreek stores many of its plants outdoors during the winter.
“The nice thing about native plants is that they’re so tough, so resilient. In this climate, they don’t need a lot of water. I think they’re very DIY’able,” he said. “A lot of the shrubs and wildflowers have a similar cycle, where they go to sleep in the winter, and then in the spring they wake up when it starts getting warm, and they start flowering and doing their thing,” Snyder said. “I don’t want to say it’s impossible to mess up, but there are certain plants—the real tough ones like the buckwheats—that wouldn’t grow here with no help from people if they weren’t incredibly tough. Those ones are pretty tough and pretty easy.”
This article appears in the Source April 2, 2026.
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