Oak Stairs

When you’re considering upgrades to help improve your new home’s value, one of the first ones you should consider is swapping your carpet stairs for oak. Carpet may be soft, but it wears out and gets dirty after just a few years. Over time, it can become stained, threadbare, and dated, driving down the value of your house.

However, oak stairs are a timeless upgrade that will bring a sense of class and elegance to your home. These stairs are much more durable and easier to clean, meaning it will be a lot longer before they start looking worn. Oak is also a classic, meaning that whenever you sell your home, you can trust that oak will be just as desirable and value-boosting.

Stone Counters

The other major upgrade you should consider in your kitchen is swapping your laminate countertops for quartz or granite. Countertops completely change the feeling of a kitchen, and there’s no substitute for working on stone. Granite and quartz are both timeless favorites that offer a stunning blend of durability and beauty.

While granite is a natural stone, quartz is manufactured, comprised of stone dust and resin set into durable counters that come in a variety of colors and patterns. Which you choose depends on both your budget and your personal style preference. If your focus is resale value, consider going for a pattern that’s a little more neutral.

Larger Windows

In addition to high ceilings, one way to make a home feel larger without increasing the footprint is by making the windows larger. Natural light makes everything feel more open, airy, and spacious, and large windows can blend your indoor and outdoor spaces. And in the summertime, who doesn’t love taking advantage of the natural daylight hours as long as possible?

If possible, upgrade your home to larger size windows in every area you can. You should also opt to place your curtain rods close to the ceiling, rather than at the top of the window. This will make your windows seem larger and your ceilings seem higher without making any additional upgrades.

Ceramic Tile Showers

Another upgrade that will maintain your homes’ resell value is adding full ceramic tiles to your shower walls as opposed to standard acrylic shower walls. With so many patterns, sizes and textures from which to choose, ceramic tile shower walls add a personal touch and visual interest to an otherwise blank, white wall. Plus, you can choose different tile layouts such as diamond, herringbone or diagonal to further customize your bathrooms. Or even mix and match two different tile styles in the same color palette. To ensure your bathroom never looks outdated, opt for neutral colors and patterns such as white subway tiles for a classic, yet modern, look or brown and grey pebble stones to make your bathroom feel like a spa. The possibilities are endless.

Higher Ceilings

When you walk into a home with high ceilings, the difference that extra height makes is immediately apparent. Rooms feel larger and airier, and the home itself feels more elegant. This is especially true in basements, which oftentimes feel cramped, dank, and claustrophobic, even when they have standard height ceilings.

While it may not be in your budget to upgrade to eleven-foot ceilings, even raising the ceilings by a single foot can make a huge difference. Most standard homes come with eight-foot ceilings; upgrading to nine-foot ceilings can make your home feel more luxurious. 

Hardwood Floors

It should come as no surprise that hardwood floors are on the list of recommended home improvement upgrades. Wood floors are a classic, providing the sort of timeless elegance we all strive for in our homes. They’re long-lasting, and unlike carpet, they can be refinished, rather than having to be replaced, when they get worn out.

If you plan to get hardwood floors, you should be aware that you’ll need to do some work to maintain them. Always clean them only with mild soap and water or a specialized hardwood floor cleaner. You  should wipe up spills as quickly as possible to prevent warping.