In addition to bathroom improvements, kitchen improvements can provide the best return on investment for improving the value of your home: every dollar spent on a bathroom increases the sales price of the home by about $5, almost every dollar spent in the kitchen increases the sale price of the house. for about $3. As home kitchen improvements can range from the simple to the extravagant, this is something that needs to be approached carefully.

First, decide what you don’t like about your current kitchen. You can have a really horrible workflow, with counters and appliances placed in weird places that make it difficult to work productively. Maybe you want an island counter to organize your food prep, or maybe you’ve developed a deep aversion to gold panning or want more shelf space to work on.

If your desire for home kitchen improvements is simple, the first aspect often overlooked is refinishing your kitchen cabinets. Take a moment to consider this: if your kitchen is too dark, sanding the finish on your cabinets, installing maple or light oak trim, and refinishing can often be done in less than a week, and without the need to hire contractors. expensive. (You may have to eat out for a week while it all heals…) The best part is, as anyone who has ever received contractor quotes for a kitchen can attest, getting professionally installed cabinets is expensive. Everything has to be custom fit, turned and assembled, and the budget can fly out the window, and fast.

The next cheapest method to consider is to replace the flooring or repaint the walls. Vinyl tiles are inexpensive and easy to install. Repainting the walls can give you an airy new look without breaking the bank, and along with resurfacing the cabinets, you can have your entire kitchen looking like new in just a couple of weekends of work. worked.

The most extensive upgrades involve replacing appliances, and that can cost a fortune. However, many modern appliances have colored panels and doors that can be removed and replaced, allowing you to update them to your current favorite color scheme.

When decorating your kitchen, think about workflow and sight lines. Now is the time to decide what goes where, and where appliances and cookware live, so they aren’t constantly sitting on the counter, taking up space that could be used for something else. Think about the steps of food preparation: where things are placed when they come out of the fridge or pantry, where they are cut, where dishes are stored waiting to be washed, what goes on which counters. Take the time to plan the ergonomics of your kitchen and it will not only look better, it will perform better too.