Last Updated on September 2, 2022
There’s no way around it: Updated kitchens sell homes quickly. The average cost of renovating a kitchen costs about $66,000 and homeowners can expect to recoup about 60% of their investment.
While it certainly makes sense to renovate an outdated kitchen if you plan on staying in your home for a while, it doesn’t make financial sense to completely gut your kitchen prior to selling.
What does make sense is to make smart tweaks to your kitchen that will pay out big time when you do list your home.
Wondering where to start? Tackle these three items first to see the biggest return on investment.
Replace the hardware
You don’t know how dated your old kitchen hardware is making your kitchen look until you replace it with sleek new drawer pulls and knobs. Depending on your overall kitchen aesthetic go with matte black, gold or even polished nickel to delight today’s buyers. Don’t forget to show some love to that tired faucet either!
Upgrade the lighting
Replace undersized builder-grade lighting with modern and dramatic lighting to really give the kitchen an inexpensive facelift.
Paint the cabinets
Here’s a DIY project that can seriously pack a punch in terms of ROI. Scrub kitchen cabinets clean, remove them from hinges and get to work painting and priming. Choose a neutral color like a white, greige or gray to satisfy most buyer’s tastes.
Now that we’ve covered the most cost-effective kitchen updates, if budget permits, move on to these items:
Remove bulky upper cabinetry
If storage isn’t a problem in your kitchen, consider removing bulky upper cabinetry to give your kitchen that light and airy feel. Replace cabinetry with floating wood shelves to add functional storage while keeping everything light and bright. Look a the the dramatic difference swapping cabinetry for shelves did in this kitchen:
Replace the backsplash
Paired next to a your freshly painted cabinets, an inexpensive backsplash can really give your kitchen that extra boost. Tiling the backsplash is a fairly inexpensive job to hire out or to save even more money, opt for a DIY friendly material like subway tile and install it yourself.
Upgrade to quartz
Even if you don’t change the layout or get new cabinets, upgrading to quartz countertops can really wow buyers. For the biggest return when you sell, don’t even think about granite or laminate– today’s home shoppers are seeking engineered, low-maintenance stone.
