3 Simple Kitchen and Bath Updates That Will Make a Huge Difference
If you’ve ever seen virtually any show on HGTV, you know a thing or two about buying, remodeling, and selling homes. If you know a thing or two about flipping a home, you know that one of the most important factors, after the location of course, is the bathroom design and kitchen design. The simplest home remodel of the bathroom and kitchen can take an otherwise forgettable home and turn it into a home that has buyer beating the door down.
We know what you’re thinking, unlike the producers on HGTV, you don’t have an unlimited budget to throw at a bathroom or kitchen remodel. It is true, a good kitchen renovation can easily add up fast.
However, you’re actually in a better position to make a higher profit off of your home if you stay on planet Earth with your kitchen remodel. Think about it: Homes in your neighborhood are going for $100,000. Your home is currently valued at a little less than that; we’ll say $85,000 to keep the numbers even. If you dump $15,000 into a fancy bathroom and kitchen remodel, you could easily get $100,000 or even more out of it. However, if you throw $65,000 into a state-of-the-art kitchen and bathroom (which is easier to do than you’d imagine), you most likely aren’t going to find a buyer who wants to spend $150,000 — 50% above the going rate of homes in your area — on it. No matter how nice the kitchen and bathroom are. The trick is knowing the small upgrades you can make that have the biggest impact on your home’s marketability. To help you out, we put together a list of low hanging fruit for bath and kitchen remodels:
- Replace the back splash.
For both kitchens and bathrooms, back splash trends come and go. When a back splash is contemporary with what is hot at the time, it has a striking impact on the entire kitchen or bathroom. As we already mentioned, the kitchen and bathroom has a striking impact on the look and feel of the whole home.
However, the opposite is also true. When a back splash is ten years or older, the chances are, it is outdated and makes your entire space feel out of style. The good news is that updating your back splash isn’t a lot harder than painting a wall. If you aren’t the DYI type, hiring someone else to replace the back splash in your kitchen and bathroom won’t set you back too much, but it will make a huge difference in the look and feel of the whole home. - Paint the cabinets.
Your cabinets are probably one of the most obvious factors in both your kitchen and bathroom. If they are outdated or poor quality, unfortunately, they make the whole space look outdated or poor quality. To add oil to the fire, replacing your cabinets is among the most expensive kitchen or bathroom upgrades you can do. You will most likely end up with a five-digit bill when you replace your cabinets.
If it just isn’t in the cards to spend that much on your kitchen remodel, painting the cabinets might be a more practical fix. Almost every major paint line has a cabinet paint system that cost less than $100. If you don’t want to use a cabinet painting system, you can use regular wall paint and primer as well. Furthermore, if you don’t feel like lifting a finger to paint your cabinets, hiring someone to do this also isn’t a big expenditure. - Paint it white.
Over the years, color fads have come and gone. In the 90s, having a brightly colored kitchen was hot, thanks to Monica’s kitchen in Friends. In the 80s, we saw a lot of rose dust pink and forest green. Now we cringe at the sight of these looks. Meanwhile, white is always en chic. It’s classy and can be styled in any way that is trendy. Also, white makes a space look larger. Painting your walls white will make your kitchen and bathrooms more spacious. And, painting the walls white is less than $100! It’s also an inexpensive update to hire someone else to do.
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