How To Stop Kitchen & Bathroom Remodels From Being A Waste Of Money

First off, how do you quantify whether a kitchen or bathroom remodel is a waste of money? Mostly it comes down to the remodel’s impact on your home value. Nine times out of ten, both kitchen and bathroom remodels end up as the best upgrades to boost your property value. That’s because people value these rooms more than almost any other in a home – but going about your remodel in the wrong way can have the opposite effect. 

A “bad” kitchen or bathroom remodel can downgrade your home’s value, so let’s look at what causes this and how to avoid it: 

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Extreme Personalization

You want your kitchen or bathroom to represent your tastes, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that approach – unless you go too far. If you care about reselling your home at some point in the future, then you should avoid: 

• Overly bright and outlandish color schemes
• Strangely industrial kitchen designs
• Jacuzzi tubs in the bathroom
• Unconventional flooring choices

Simplicity is key; yes, you can still stamp your personality on a bathroom or kitchen revamp, but do it tastefully. Lean into the main design, focusing on modern and futureproof styles that almost anyone will enjoy. Then, start personalizing with touches here and there that can easily be removed or don’t detract from the entire kitchen or bathroom. 

Unprofessional Work

To be frank, it always pays to look for professional kitchen & bathroom remodeling services when you embark on a home upgrade like this. Some people will consider making this a DIY project, but it creates a host of potential issues that devalue your kitchen/bathroom space. 

DIY jobs may not: 

• Adhere to the right building regulations
• Include professional electrical/plumbing installations
• Meet the high standards people expect

While it saves money at the time, a DIY job may devalue your property because the kitchen/bathroom doesn’t seem up to scratch. In the case of poor or improper plumbing/electrical installations, these can actually make it harder to sell your home in the future because prospective buyers won’t want to spend money correcting your problems. 

Go down the professional route to ensure your remodel meets the mark and is performed to the correct standards/regulations. 

Complete Juxtaposition

Sometimes a kitchen remodel looks fantastic, but it sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest of your home. The same is true for bathrooms, and these two rooms are the biggest culprits of this because most homeowners like upgrading older versions. 

Specifically, you could move into an older-style home and be happy with every room apart from the kitchen or bathroom. Why? These two rooms can easily become outdated and are more prone to issues, so you choose to revamp them. 

You’ve not even slapped your personal style on them; it’s just that now your home has 18th-century interior design throughout, but then a modern kitchen and bathroom. Future owners might not like this because it makes the home seem too disjointed. It could also mean that they either have to renovate every other room or undo a perfectly good kitchen/bathroom renovation just to make the house feel more put-together. 

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Impractical

You can’t lose sight of practicality when it comes to kitchens and bathrooms. Here’s a quick rundown of some extremely impractical things you can do when renovating these rooms: 

• Remove the shower from your bathroom
• Not leave space for a washing machine in your kitchen if you don’t have a laundry room
• Design your kitchen with hardly any cabinets or worktop space
• Remodel your bathroom without an extractor fan
• Remove windows from your bathroom

All of these things make a bathroom or kitchen more impractical, and future buyers will hate that. This devalues your home overall because they’ll have to make the necessary adjustments after buying your property. Expect low-ball offers across the board. 

Why might you make a kitchen/bathroom impractical during a remodel? It goes back to the original point about personal preferences, but it could also be as simple as a lack of foresight. You’ve never needed a shower, so you don’t think it’s essential. You don’t struggle with worktop space because you don’t have many kitchen appliances, but others would. 

Let Your Kitchen or Bathroom Remodel Upgrade Your Home

What should you take with you after reading this guide? To begin, remodeling your kitchen or bathroom won’t automatically add value to your home. You need to avoid the issues mentioned above, as they can actually devalue a property. The key to a successful bathroom or kitchen renovation is to keep things simple. Opt for timeless design elements and focus on practicality to make these rooms do all the work and upgrade your home’s value. 

This is a contributed post.

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