Remodeling is almost always a good idea. Your home’s layout, aesthetic, and features should not only be functional but also enjoyable. Even smaller, lower-cost updates can make a positive impact on your experience of your home. In real estate markets where options are few and fiercely competitive, a large-scale remodel of your home may be worthwhile. If you’ve been considering this, here are 4 remodeling ideas we recommend. Several of our clients have requested these designs lately.
1. Design a Spa Bathroom
Updating your bathroom is a primary way to enhance the atmosphere of your home and increase its value if you sell it.
This is a real estate fact!
You spend a lot of time in your bathroom. We aren’t just talking about using the toilet, although it’s true you do that multiple times a day! You likely brush your teeth, fix your hair, along with many other things to get ready for the day or to prepare for bed. You may also help your children do these things in the bathroom. You shower or take a bath, not just to wash up but often to relax.
Why not make this space a calming one? There’s a reason why bathrooms are often painted in light shades of blue or designed with a clean, white theme.
If your bathroom does not currently offer this kind of atmosphere, consider these 3 updates to achieve a spa-like bathroom:
Choose new wall colors and floor colors.
Maybe the choice is a new tile that’s clean and bright. Then, a granite top for your vanity that complements the tile.
Or maybe the look for you is a unique, earth-toned pattern that reminds you of the all-inclusive resort where you vacationed. Maybe you incorporate that special tile work into a new shower too. This leads us to our next recommendation.
Install a rain shower or other specialty shower head.
This is a really nice touch! While you’re at it, you could install a steam generator to reap the health benefits of a steam room without leaving your home. If you’re already updating the shower tile design and the showerhead, you could also add a bench.
Update your lighting with artistic fixtures that work on dimmer switches.
This doesn’t just make the space more pleasing to the eye but gives you options for brighter light when fixing hair or makeup and dimmer light when you first wake up in the morning and just want to see where you’re going.
2. Remodeling a Home Office
After a global pandemic, it’s just good sense to build or expand a home office. In light of that, this remodeling trend was prevalent last year, and we believe it will continue. The working world has changed. For years to come, we will live with the understanding that our daily lives and routine could change in the blink of an eye by worldwide events.
Remodeling a home office might look like finishing the open space above your garage. It may require framing a room in the corner of your large, open basement or in a secluded section of the hall around the corner from your bedroom. Maybe your floor plan already has a space, whether it qualifies as a bedroom or not, that’s perfect for conducting business, however, it’s small or the configuration doesn’t work for your technology set up or lighting needs.
Here are our favorite remodeling enhancements we’ve seen with home offices lately:
- Built-in study nook
- Desk and cabinet combo
- Custom lighting
- Pocket doors or sliding barn doors to enhance the aesthetic and improve noise control
These are just a few examples of what you can do to make your home office all you want it to be. Most of these ideas don’t require major demolition either.
3. Selecting Luxury Vinyl Plank or Hardwood
You’re probably familiar with luxury vinyl planking as it’s used in more homes now than ever. Hardwood is also still popular compared to 20 years ago when it was more common to cover it with carpet or tile.
You may know a lot about these two flooring options, but we want to remind you of their similarities and differences because choosing to update the floors in your home can be one of the best remodeling decisions you make. It can increase the value of your home tremendously.
Floors are also a very important part of a cohesive home design since they extend into every inch of it. Flooring impacts air quality, what’s required to clean your home, and more.
Comparing and Contrasting LVP and Hardwood
- Luxury vinyl planking (LVP) is usually easier to install than hardwood, however, they come in pre-cut pieces that could limit the look and configuration of flooring.
- Hardwood planks are usually longer.
- Although a lot of LVP can be manufactured to show unique patterns and look similar to hardwood, actual hardwood is guaranteed to give the natural or rustic aesthetic some people want in their home.
- Hardwood is like a work of art as the grain naturally has more character.
- LVP is cheaper but the maintenance cost for both LVP and hardwood is about the same.
- It is, however, a little harder to maintain hardwood, especially its ability to withstand a certain amount of weight or water. Hardwood can bend, hold moisture, and mold.
- LVP is more environmentally friendly and is known to help with air quality more than hardwood.
Hardwood can be obtained from sustainable natural resources while LVP can be used from recycled materials.
4. Kitchen Reconfiguration
Over 20 years ago, “open concept” became a buzzword. So much so, that people looking to buy or build a home lead with this term when they come to their contractor or realtor. If your kitchen is not an open concept, it’s probably time you remodel it to be one. But that’s not the only way you can reconfigure your kitchen.
A primary way to add more prep space in a kitchen is to add an island, especially if you already have the space.
Prior to the 90s, a kitchen was a room with counters and cabinets lining all the walls with lots of open floor space in the middle of the room. Now, most people prefer to use that open space for prep and storage.
Adding an island after the fact is easier than you think as many people don’t want the island to perfectly match the rest of their counters and cabinets. They like a stainless steel station or a stand-alone antique piece they repurpose as an island. Or they choose a traditional-looking island but with finishes that are complementary to the rest of the kitchen.
If you’d like to extend your cabinets to include a section for spices and pantry foods or wine rack and wine cooler, this may require moving the location of appliances like a refrigerator. However, this is also not an impossible task.
In this example below, a closed-in pantry was built out of a corner of the room and is used for food storage, a bar station, and some food prep.
(Source: Sustainable Kitchens)
These are just 4 of many custom ways you can remodel your home. If you are interested in a free design consultation to discuss your ideas, we’d love to schedule that with you now.
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