Adding character to 80s houses?

[beancounting]

We're currently looking for a new house having accepted an offer on ours before Christmas - so far our buyers have been very patient but they won't wait for ever and we're really struggling to find anything we like. We were hoping for a period property (our current house is a Victorian terrace with lots of period features) but one of the areas we really like is quite expensive and the older houses are out of budget so we've started looking at houses on a small 80`s estate there - but so far they don't seem particularly charming.

How do you make a modern property more characterful and interesting? Would it look silly to add stripped wooden doors, for example? I'm a bit lacking in imagination and experience of this age of property, and have no idea what would work and what might make it look like a theme pub - help!

Watching with interest as we have an 80s house on an estate. We still have all the original fixtures and fittings which definitely need replacing when we can afford to do it! I have no idea what will work as I have much more of a period property kind of style...

Going for a very modern look I think is the way forward but hopefully you might get someone here who has done an 80s house up!

This was us 2 years ago. Just like you we went for boring 1980s Barrett house as we got (a lot) more for our money. Like you I'd always imagined myself in a characterful period property. This will never be that - but there are many advantages (lots more space, detached, bigger garden, garage, parking etc etc). We've taken out all carpet and put in wooden floors, modern kitchen and bathroom. We love it. I've always liked a mix of modern and old - and a lot of our furniture is old (not valuable enough to be called antique... but has character!) We're planning to put in a wood burner next year - a friend who lives in an identical house down the road has done that, and it looks great - and definitely adds character!
Hope that helps!

In a similar situation trying to buy a period house that ticks all the boxes. We've considered buying a 1960's detached house (in a great village) which isn't particularly inspiring and doing an external renovation and adding an extension downstairs. I guess the positives are higher celings, bigger rooms and open plan living. If you have a decent budget something as simple as rendering brickwork and changing windows makes a huge difference.

www.channel4.com/4homes/build-renovate/building-renovating-advice/exterior-facelifts-gallery

Thanks all, I especially like the idea of a wood burner and think modern might be the way forward - have been googling contemporary doors and staircases and getting quite enthusiastic! I'd love one of those external renovations, some of them are amazing - but suspect that our budget might not stretch to that.