Blind spots

 Sometimes when looking through the photos of listings of homes for sale, I am struck by features that look out-of-place - whether because they give a shabby appearance to an otherwise great room, or because they look dated. If these are bedrooms or living rooms, these features can often be quite economical and cost-effective to remedy, whether for your own comfort or if you are planning to put your home on sale.

In these rooms, the culprits are often damaged, faded or dated wall finishes - if painted, a new coat of paint in a tinted white would be my recommendation. While it is quite dramatic and trendy to use bold colours as an accent wall or even for a whole room, these can become limiting on any future plans for the room, and can negatively affect the perceptions of a prospective buyer. A tinted white gives a bit of character and liveliness to the space, rather than pure white, which can be quite sterile and harsh. 

Wallpaper can be a bit more of a challenge - if it is still in excellent condition, but with a dated or over-dominant design, you can usually get away with painting over it. If it is even slightly torn or peeling, then a coat of paint will accentuate the flaws, so best to remove it completely and replace or repaint. This is quite a messy job, but fairly easy and quick - just be sure to wash the walls down well with sugar soap to remove any glue residue before painting or re-papering.

A cat-clawed chair

The same chair given a facelift

If you are putting your house on show, you may want to do a bit of "smoke and mirrors". We did this with my brother's house just before he called in the estate agents - rearranging the furniture to best effect, hiding some of the most tatty pieces in the garage, hanging a painting over a very obtrusive electrical distribution board, and draping a throw over the part of the couch that had been clawed by the cat.

But let's move on to the difficult rooms - the bathrooms and kitchen. While a "good impression" in the other rooms may influence potential buyers subliminally, in presenting a place that looks well cared for, the shabby or outdated bathroom and kitchen will be those spaces that could be a deal-breaker. 

The kitchen can sometimes have quite a superficial makeover, repainting the fittings and perhaps replacing the countertops. New handles or knobs would give the finishing touch here for very little cost, and usually very easy to do yourself. Re-tiling will be more expensive and cause disruption, and not a task to be taken on as a DIY - inexpert tiling is far worse than tiling that is just old or an unfashionable colour. There are some good paint options to give old tiles a new lease on life, but be sure to get the purpose-made type of paint, as this will be designed to grip on the smooth enamelled surface. The paint can last for several years before it shows signs of scratching and wear, but is a very cost-effective stop-gap. 

But your kitchen may need a far more radical approach, as mine did! The stove was one of those clunky old freestanding ones, probably dating from the 1960s, and the cupboards were beyond cleaning and repair. As I planned to live in my current place for many decades, the kitchen was worth the investment, but I was very conscious of having a design and colour scheme that would not look dated in a few years and at the dame time, fit with the streamlined Art Deco aesthetic of the building. A kitchen upgrade, if done well, can add enormous value to your home, whether for yourself if you are planning to stay a while, or for a potential buyer. This said, try to filter out the most trendy features and colours, even if you are upgrading to sell - your new owner will thank you in five year's time!

And so to the bathroom. Here you really need to be strategic, as a full renovation can be very costly, especially if you plan to move the fittings around, because this may need some fancy footwork for the plumber to realign the pipework. My niece embarked on just such a radical upgrade, as her bathroom and separate shower were really sub-optimal, so they rearranged them into a single room. This required extensive pipework, that took the plumbers longer than all the rest of the work of tiling and installing the fittings, and needed a dropped ceiling in the kitchen to carry some of the new pipes.

On the flip-side, when I was refurbishing my own bathroom, I decided to "save" by retaining the existing bath, and only installing a new toilet and basin, a decision I have regretted in hindsight. I think it is an example of the "Diderot effect" where a new item can make everything else look tawdry by comparison. As with the kitchen, when refurbishing a bathroom, curb your enthusiasm for the latest trends, as the amazing ideas from Pinterest will look "so 2026" in a couple of years. Rather stick with the more timeless alternatives - they have stood the test of time because they are fit-for-use, easy to clean, and go with a broad range of decor choices.