Can a cabinet reshuffle help you boost the value of your home?
David Cameron might not be the only Briton reshuffling his cabinet in order to sell himself better. The kitchen is widely recognised as one of the most important rooms of the house when it comes to sale price. With a 40% increase in the number of sales of properties in the £500k - £1m bracket, buyers can certainly afford to be high maintenance as recent data from eBay demonstrates.
Online marketplace eBay has seen a huge rise in high end DIY, home décor items and appliances since the housing market has picked up with 121,000 kitchen doors and 21,600 marble furniture and DIY items sold in the past 90 days. In addition to 32,000 hobs selling over the same time period, there are also large numbers of listings for high end appliances including: 1700 SMEG fridges, 1200 pizza ovens and range cookers with AGAs far outstripping Rayburns at 1,086 vs 261 listings.
Charles Peerless, Director, Winkworth
The standard of finish in a kitchen is very important and people are always more attracted to recognisable brands, so spending a bit more on appliances will make a kitchen feel more premium. The kitchen has become much more of a living area over the last decade, so it is worth spending a bit of money to make it more homely. In particular, invest in a decent dining table and chairs.
Theoda Solms Iles, Interior Stylist, Writer and Blogger
The kitchen is the heart of the home and also the hardest working area, so from time to time, a bit of tender loving care is needed in the form of a spruce-up to make it look fresh again.
GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY
If you have a wooden kitchen, the most effective and dramatic update would be painting the cabinet doors a strong colour. Cream, grey, charcoal, sage green or pale blue are all popular choices and work well in kitchens. Make sure to take the handles off, sand down the wood and apply the right specialist paint for the job. If your doors are too shabby to save, often the carcass of the kitchen is still fine. Just replace the doors with new ones, most doors fit standard kitchen carcasses but do double check first. Now you can transform your kitchen from country style to a glossy contemporary cooking hub.
QUICK FIX
Door handles can date very quickly and an easy way to update your kitchen is by replacing them. For such small items it is surprising what a transformation they can bring about.
TREND UPDATE
Marble is a big trend in interiors right now and also filters through to the kitchen. Especially white and grey marble, look out for mock-marble accessories to dress your counter tops and replace your wooden chopping boards with white marble ones for a modern feel.
BUY INTO THE LOOK
Copper is the metal of the moment and an ideal colour and material to warm up the look of a tired kitchen. Replace your old pots and pans with brand new copper ones (most retailers do these now). Instead of packing them away, leave them out on the hob. Take the copper look further by replacing your light fittings with a copper hanging pendant shade. Even kettles, toasters and mixers are now sporting this copper look, and it works remarkably well in traditional and contemporary kitchens.
Ends
For more information please contact Yasmin Khostovan at Launch PR on 020 7758 3910 or email YasminK@launchpr.co.uk
eBay’s marketplace in the UK is part of eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) a global commerce and payments leader, providing a robust platform where merchants of all sizes can compete and win. Founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., eBay Inc. connects millions of buyers and sellers and enabled $212 billion of commerce volume in 2013 through eBay, one of the world's largest online marketplaces; through PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive digital payments, and through eBay Enterprise, which enables omnichannel commerce, multichannel retailing and digital marketing for global enterprise clients.