Guest bedroom refresh for summer visitors: five small jobs worth doing

The spare room is the easiest room in the house to forget. It's only used now and again, the door stays shut, and then suddenly the family's coming down from Liverpool and you remember the curtain track's been half-off since February.

Most of it's not a painting-from-scratch job. It's five or six small things. Done in a morning they lift the whole room.

1. The curtain rail or blind

If your curtain rail sags, the end bracket's come loose, or the cord on the blind has frayed, this is the single biggest visual win. Five minutes for a tight refit, 20 minutes to replace a blind mechanism. Tenner at the Cirencester branch of Dunelm for a replacement cord.

If the track's come out with lumps of plaster, that's a slightly bigger job. Needs hollow wall fixings rated for weight, not the cheap plastic rawlplugs that came off the first time. Half an hour to redo properly.

2. Skirting board touch-up

Skirting boards in guest rooms tend to get kicked by the hoover. Chips, scuffs, a bit of dog fur welded on. Five minutes with a damp cloth, ten minutes with a sanding block, a quick half-pot of white satin and they look new. Same paint kit does the door frame if it's had a bang.

Sadolin Quick Dry Satinwood if you want a proper finish. Dries in 2 to 3 hours, overcoat after 4. You can paint the skirting in the morning, the door frame in the afternoon, both dry by bedtime.

3. The bedside light nobody uses

Every guest room I visit has a bedside lamp that the last guest probably couldn't reach or couldn't turn on. Test your bedside lamps. Are the bulbs warm white or that bluish daylight colour that makes people look exhausted? Switch to a 2700K warm white. It's the single biggest comfort improvement in any guest room.

If the bedside socket's on the wrong side of the bed for the table, which is common in older cottages where the plumbing decided the furniture layout, get a better extension lead or a surge-protected strip with USB. £15 and a guest who can charge their phone next to where they sleep.

4. The wardrobe door that doesn't quite close

Hinges loosen over time. A half-turn with a screwdriver is all most wardrobe doors need. If the door has actually sagged, one of the hinge holes will be stripped. Take the hinge off, fill the old screw holes with matchsticks and wood glue, let it dry, refit. Back to square one for the cost of nothing.

If it's a built-in cupboard with a soft-close mechanism that's stopped soft-closing, it's usually a small adjustment screw on the hinge. Tiny fiddle, big difference.

5. The light switch plate that's been yellow since 1994

White plastic switch plates and socket faceplates yellow over the years. A fresh pair costs £3 each. Takes five minutes to swap. Cheapest instant upgrade in a room. Switch off the power at the consumer unit first, unscrew the old one, transfer wires to the new one, screw up, switch on. If you're not confident doing electrical work, leave it to someone who is. It's genuinely a two-minute job but it's still live electricity.

Small extras if you've got time

• A new bath mat in the main bathroom used by guests (£10, instantly smarter)
• Extra hook behind the guest bedroom door (five minutes)
• A quick vacuum and clean of the curtain top rail and pelmet (no one does this till someone points it out)
• Check the spare bed slats are still all in place. Visitors love a bed that doesn't collapse.

What it looks like on a client visit

Most of the above I can run through on a regular half-day booking. Clients usually have a little list when I arrive, I work through it, we have a cup of tea halfway. Nothing fancy. Just someone who notices the small things and has the right tools to put them right.

Guests will notice, even if they can't tell you what's changed.