Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

These days, more and more homeowners are choosing to renovate their homes. In part, they’re doing it as an investment, to add value to their property, but they’re also doing it to add comfort and convenience for themselves and their families.

If you are thinking about remodeling for the same reason, you may be wondering what renovations will add the most to your home in value and sheer pleasure. And of course, for most homeowners, cost is a concern, so you may have to pick and choose. What is going to give you the most bang for your buck? What is going to attract potential home buyers when the time comes to sell your home?

Let’s look at a few of the top renovations people are adding that won’t necessarily break the bank but will add value to your home and your everyday living:

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If you have kids or dogs and carpets, it’s a foregone conclusion, you’ll be dealing with the occasional stain. I saw the Bissell 1200B SpotBot–a compact home carpet cleaner–on the Home and Garden Channel the other day and decided to check it out since they spoke well of the machine, and its compactness attracted me (if you’ve ever rented the gigantic carpet cleaners from the grocery story, you know why a small one is appealing).

The Bissell cleaner has two modes: hands-free (I like the sound of that) and manual. The company says that in the hands-free mode, you can just fill the tank with water, flip it on, and walk away. The SpotBot is supposed to be able to take care of both new and old marks on the carpet, such as coffee, juice, red wine, and pet stains.

The Bissell carpet cleaner is available via Amazon.com where they have a video so you can watch it in action. Perhaps more importantly, there are a number of reviews and the overall consensus is that it’s a good machine. The price is $150 (and it was on sale when I checked): Bissell 1200B SpotBot

Adagio Inc. puts out some nice vessels sinks carved from stone (like this blue marble bathroom sink we took a look at a couple weeks ago), but their wooden sinks are handsome too. Their model WD-105 (you’d think such elegant sinks would deserve more creative names) caught my eye because, unlike the rest in the line, it was asymmetrical. Now, we tend to appreciate symmetry, but sometimes it’s fun to throw out convention and do something unique. Maybe you could pair it with this twisting tree trunk pedestal (also from Adagio):

http://www.adagiosinks.com/

If you’re a wine lover, or you know one, these Christmas-themed wine bottle toppers could make a fun purchase. Put out by Gardners’ Supply, the miniature, working snow globes are made of polyresin and cork, so they keep your wine fresh while perking up the bottle. The toppers come in a set of 3: Santa, Christmas Tree, and Snowman. The set costs $15.95, not including shipping.

http://www.gardenerssupply.com (look in the “In the Kitchen” section)

If you like gourmet coffee but don’t want to go out to Starbucks every day, you can get a home espresso maker to add panache to your standard cup of joe. The Saeco Incanto Sirius has a stylish black and stainless steel housing and a touch screen readout to give it a modern look. In the fall issues of Home Appliance magazine, they looked at a few gourmet coffee makers; here’s what the review had to say about the Saeco: “The Saeco machine has the most maneuverable frothing nozzle, making it easy to fit the nozzle into all types of cups and mugs. It also featured a swivel base, so that you can turn the machine easily from side to side. One feature that we did not like about the Saeco is that its coffee bean grinder was the noisiest [of the three machines they tried].” Oh, they mentioned it made a pretty good cup of espresso too. The price for the Saeco is $1,499.

http://www.saeco-usa.com/

Washing machines have been top-loading for ages, but you usually have to hunch over and stuff your heavy, wet clothes in the dryer from the front. The Fisher & Paykel Top-Loading Dryer is an alternative that seems like it would be more ergonomically sound, since you just move the clothes from one machine to the other without bending low. The design may have other benefits too: according to the company the top-loading dryer has a drum that “tumbles foward and reverse, reducing creasing and tangling and improves even drying.” The recommended prices for the dryers are: $799 for the gas model DGGx1 and $779 for the elctric model DGEX1.

http://www.fisherpaykel.com/

People like to put fish in some interesting places. Fortunately, we’re here to tell you about them. If the aquarium toilet, aquarium sink, and aquarium kitchen backsplash weren’t enough for you, check out this aquarium table, a perfect interest piece that can double as the living room coffee table. Sold by the Be Creative company, the tables start at $1,400 (fish, rocks and gravel, and shipping not included) with custom tables available if you’d like one made to your specifications.

http://aquarium-tables.com

Decorating the children’s rooms is a fun way to add personality to fit your kids’ passions. Some people hire painters to do custom murals, but if that seems time-consuming, maybe you can check out the wallpaper murals at That’s My Room. This pirate wallpaper mural is one of many different pictures and themes they offer. You need to apply your own paste, but that means you can pick something that won’t stain and that will be easy to change when the kids grow out of it. Prices for the murals start at under $50 and go to more than $500, depending on the size.

http://www.thatsmyroom.com

If you’re remodeling the bathroom, one thing that can make a memorable focal point is the sink. Instead of buying some plain white ceramic one from the local home improvement store, don’t be afraid to shop around and find something that reflects your personality. Granted, the “Sunflower Sink” isn’t gender-neutral enough for many, but if you have a country decorating style evolving in the bathroom, it could work. And of course, the company who makes this sink, Painted Fire Garden, has others to select from; they specialize in hand-painted sinks and ceramic art. Their bathroom sinks run about $650.

http://www.paintedfiregarden.com

We’ve mentioned the Whirlpool Drying Cabinet, which is basically air drying on steroids, but the Maytag Drying Center is a little different. It combines a normal dryer with a drying cabinet (for garmets that need to be hung to dry) that, according to the company, removes odors by using steam and optimum temperatures to grab odors while the air flow removes them. A dryer sheet can be used to add fragrance. The benefit of a drying cabinet is to quickly dry special-care items that would shrink in a regular dryer. Unlike with the Whirlpool model, you get two units in one here.

http://www.maytag.com