On Personal Style and ROI
We’ve been taught that the more “personal” the remodel, the less return on investment you can expect to see when you sell. Let’s unpack that.
What if listening to that adage when remodeling was counterproductive to both building home equity and to being happy in your space? I want you to build smart equity, and to love your home. They are not mutually exclusive. So how do you unwind some assumptions about what you “should” do, and get on with making a great home that works on all kinds of levels?
First up is the underlying assumption that your taste is not that great. Personal style, particularly when it is really outré or against the grain, is low-key dissed in shelter magazines. The messaging is: If your taste deviates from whatever is trending right now, you are putting your home’s future value at risk.
Part of my mission with every project is to help people understand their innate sense of style, so when I design something, I know you will actually like it. It is So Much More fun starting from this place of curiosity than from shaming the client, for everyone.
The second and bigger issue under the personal taste v money making false conflict is about timing and trends. Ingrained in how the home design industry operates is that you should always choose things that a future buyer would want. (And underpinning that is the idea that all decisions are to be made from the perspective that your home is a source of wealth first, and personal sanctuary second, a topic we can deep dive into another time.)
I suggest to you that unless you’re planning on putting your home on the market in the next six months, designing for a hypothetical future might be a fool’s errand, especially if you go all in for current trends. They cycle hard and fast. Here’s a side by side of dream kitchens from 2019 and in 2024.
Five years ago people wanted to live in Joanna Gaines’ world. Brick should be painted white or black. Red is gross, because it’s a color. Shiplap goes everywhere. Got rusty farm equipment laying around? Put it on the wall! Chunky reclaimed wood everything! No more upper cabinets, only open shelving (bonus points for raw edging) with over-engineered heavy brackets. Lower cabinets are white. Maybe black. Stainless is the only appliance finish. You’re allowed to do white subway tile backsplashes again. Wood is the only reasonable choice for flooring. All lighting should be barn lights, ideally galvanized, or that thing where you wrap like 25 exposed filament bulbs over a reclaimed wood beam suspended from the ceiling. It was a mood.
Now, we want to be scullery maids at a ramshackle English manor. The cupboard doors have little decorative holes in them because they’re cute and remind us of a time before mechanical refrigeration. No more open shelving, but def a little pegboard rack to display your tiny brooms and copper stuff and drying herbs. Frilly small pendant lights. Moody and quiet. Your taps are unlacquered brass. White feels stiff, but mushroom and taupe and green are fresh. Pink feels understated and even sophisticated again against shades of marsala and burgundy. Everything should whisper, except for the marble, which should be shouty. Cook by candlelight on a 48-60” statement stove. You need that. You might need a butler’s pantry for storing the family silver and dinnerware for 30 people. If a material can be fluted, do it. Distressed brick is a comfortable and practical kitchen flooring choice. Or maybe large format checkerboard…
I’m not knocking either look, but I do want you to pay attention to how uniform design can get in a short period of time.
Both of them, in their way, were/are billed as “classic”, a link to a pastoral past, a subtle way to soothe you into thinking that this a timeless look. But wowsers. That’s just five years. Home design cycles are moving closer together, like fast fashion. It’s hard to say what the Hot Kitchen will look like in another 5 years but I can tell you the industry needs it to look different from today’s, so that future you will buy it.
And if you’re asking, I think 2029 will focus more on the use of resources (energy, water, long-term food storage for food grown and stored at home, upcoming composting laws…) and self-sufficiency (grey water systems, composting for better soil), than about what kind of marble is trending.
What if there was a more sustainable way to build a beautiful home, layer by layer, build solid and predictable equity, and feel good about it? This idea is why I opened up my shop to more than just full service design projects.
If you’re not selling for 3+ years, what’s happening now on pinterest might be irrelevant because of the speed of trends. Unless you are planning on selling in a matter of months, let’s start with who and what the house is, and make it the best it can be, for you. There is a path through to building smart equity, and loving your home. And it’s way more fun this way.
Regardless of when/if you sell, a major kitchen or bath remodel might not even be the biggest things to focus on for resale. There’s a reasonable set of data that suggests that curb appeal (plants, a beautiful front door, and the vibe of a well loved space) might yield more ROI, dollar for dollar, than replacing your 90’s bathroom. That’s a win win for homeowners on a budget.