See photos and updates from listings directly in your feed
Share your favorite listings with friends and family
Save your search and get new listings directly in your mailbox before everybody else
The typical size of a dining room in the US is 14 x 16 feet or about 200 square feet. This is a significant living area and families spend a good amount of time together in the dining room. Yet for most homeowners, little thought goes into the value dining room updates offer a home’s desirability.
Are you selling your home and looking for ways to increase its value? There is a whole art to selling a home and the dining room plays an important part. Keep reading to understand why neglecting the dining room on your list of renovations could be a costly mistake.
Increased Home Value: Dining Room Updates
Most of us have been spending a lot of time in our homes lately due to the coronavirus pandemic. No doubt the extra time in the house had many homeowners looking around wondering how to make things a bit better.
When you have a burning desire to improve your home it isn’t because you are not happy with it, you have lived there satisfied for years. It’s when you take on a room renovation for no other reason but to make a house a home that you are truly inspired.
The average spending on home improvement for American households increased to $13,138 in 2020, $4,000 more than in 2019. Could it be because we appreciate and love our homes even more now that we have spent quality time in them? Imagine your dining room with:
1. Enlarge Windows
Natural lighting and great views in any room make it more inviting and feel more spacious. When you have beautiful landscapes visible from the dining area, putting in an extra-large window is like painting a nature-loving live mural on the wall. It is a big and messy project, but the ends justify the means.
2. More Storage
Corner china cabinets are a classic addition to the family dining room. Building a full wall storage area with a countertop can take an empty room and give it purpose. Just make sure your dining area is spacious enough to accommodate a family dining room table when the project is finished.
3. Replace Floorboards and Trim
The appeal of new floors and accent boards is highly underrated. You can’t go wrong with hardwood but consider your flooring options before you commit to the project. The type of new floor will certainly set the scene for your dining room so you want to get this foundation just right.
4. Better Lighting
Please don’t forget, when it comes to lighting every room has two important times of day to consider – daytime and nighttime. Are you able to control the lighting in the dining room from very bright to romantically dim?
Give the dining room a presence-altering effect with dimmers. Upgrade the fixtures to match the mood of your decor. Don’t underestimate the power of a nice center chandelier to up the “wow value” of a dining room.
5. Get Creative: For the Modern Day Dining Room
Technology has changed our lives in every way. It stands to reason we should change our home designs to incorporate these lifestyle changes.
Did you know that 88% of American adults eat while looking at a screen, often referred to as “zombie eating”?
Think about building an entertainment center with a place for a large flatscreen TV into the dining room. Maybe incorporate a charging station for devices. Run speakers around the room to give you complete audiovisual control over the mood.
6. Polish and Paint
Remodeling certainly has a personal touch, but some things are universally desired. A room must feel inviting and comfortable. In order to accomplish this in the dining room, be sure to clean it up.
Give it a coat of fresh paint. Even better, look to spice up the walls with neutral tasteful wallpaper or tile designs. Adding a mirror makes a smaller dining room feel more spacious.
7. Stage It Well
If you are renovating to resell your home, you need to be all about finding the golden number. With a little effort towards what adds value to a home, you could tack on thousands to your asking price.
The age, condition, and square footage of the home put it in a price range. The open house puts the value of the home in the minds of a buyer towards the top of the price range.
How you stage your home for sale is so important. Take special care to show how the space can be used by the new owner. All your hard work to be creative and provide the dining room with usefulness and attractiveness will pay off as the homebuyer imagines themselves living in the home.
8. Display Shelves
Although minimalism is on the rise in American culture, American families still tend to have a lot of stuff. Nicknacks, memorabilia, and collections have to go somewhere. Running a high shelf in the dining room gives a nice home for “show-off pieces” in the dining room.
This is a particularly good idea to incorporate in a wall-to-wall cabinet and counter addition. Some items are best stored behind closed cabinet doors while others beg to be displayed for all to see.
Your New Dining Room
When doing a room-by-room renovation, don’t forget to include dining room updates. Creating a space for dining in comfort is sure to add value to your home. Put yourself in the shoes of a homebuyer and ask yourself if they would walk into your dining room and think – I could work with this.
By the time you finish with your remodels, selling the house might sting a bit as you enjoy it so much but we think the extra money at closing will help to blunt the blow.
Are you looking to buy or sell a home in the New York City area? Contact us for further information on how our expert real estate team can help.
