You’re not a trendster – you’ve too much sense (and not enough money) to keep chopping and changing your home’s decor and furnishings. But let’s face it: Some styles and fixtures do date or outlive their function. And that can make your home look tired at best and affect its resale value at worst, by turning off potential buyers.
There are a few outmoded features that are especially egregious, making people think that the home is older or in worse condition than it really is. Luckily, changing these features often isn’t expensive or time-consuming. And the transformation from passé to pleasantly modern (or better yet, timeless) can be enjoyable whether you’re planning to put your house on the market, or just want to prioritize remodeling projects to enhance your own living.
Here are seven styles that scream “out-of-date” and ways to update them.
1. Light-colored, imitation-wood cabinets
Light-wooded, fiberboard cabinets with a distinctive raised design were a kitchen and bathroom standard for a long time, along with plain light woods like pine. But they’ve fallen out of fashion now — and possibly in literal ways, if yours were the latest thing when you got them.
“We recommend clients replace their ‘80s cabinets as they are typically falling apart anyways,” says Ariana Lovato of Honeycomb Home Design in Pismo Beach, California. Depending on their condition, “sometimes it is more costly to paint the cabinets and update the hardware than it is to replace them entirely.”
The trends now are toward cabinets in more luxurious materials and/or exotic finishes, such as cerused white oak or driftwood (if a pale look is what you prefer). However, it is still possible to economize with less-expensive engineered materials, including more modern (and realistic-looking) forms of fiberboard and wood veneers, in which thin panels of quality timber are affixed to a plywood core.
While you’re at it, consider a frameless cabinet, which offers a more sleek, streamlined look (because the door hinges attach directly to the sides of the cabinet box, instead of to a face frame in front). “Plus, a frameless cabinet will provide more useable storage throughout,” since it lacks a center stile in the middle of the cabinet doors, Lovato notes.
2. Intense or trendy wallpapers and paints
Wallpaper can be a beautiful addition to a room, but it can be hard on the contemporary eye if it is in a print that had its heyday a few decades ago — or is executed in colors that evoke a certain era, like the 1970s (I’m looking at you, goldenrod, olive green and burnt orange). The same goes for hues of paint. “One of the …….
Source: https://www.bankrate.com/homeownership/styles-that-date-your-home/