Listen up, Midwesterners: Frontdoor, an app for home repair and maintenance, recently published a study that revealed the major U.S. cities where renovating fixer-uppers boosts home value the most. Toledo, Ohio, took the number one spot on a top-10 list that includes several other Midwestern cities, as well as Southern and Great Plains capitals (with a dash of Eastern Seaboard in there). To analyze the data, the brand zeroed in on median size and price of homes listed as a fixer-upper on Zillow for the 130 most populated cities in the U.S. Using Kukun’s home remodeling cost estimator, it accounted for the Zillow home listing data (like the cost and added value of renovating main rooms) and local remodeling costs to see which cities came out on top.

Get this: In Toledo, you’ll get a whopping 66 percent increase in value, on average, after renovation. Actually, a refreshed fixer-upper in any of the top-five cities will net you a 50-plus percent boost. Here’s the full list:

1. Toledo, Ohio
2. Detroit, Michigan
3. Springfield, Illinois
4. Jackson, Michigan
5. Cleveland, Ohio
6. St. Louis, Missouri
7. Wilmington, Delaware
8. Lansing, Michigan
9. Montgomery, Alabama
10. Topeka, Kansas

Toledo isn’t just a place to flip houses—it’s also a great location for first-time buyers. Zillow rates it as the second-best metro for newbies among Zillow’s other choices, thanks to extremely low mortgage payments (we’re talking just 26 percent of the average local income).

The study was filled with other nuggets of real-estate wisdom. For example, you’ll get the highest return on investment—the home value you’re adding with the cost of modeling factored in—for a renovation in Miami to the tune of almost 18 percent. Charleston, South Carolina, and Los Angeles aren’t far behind in that category. On the low end, don’t expect to get as much ROI from a fixer-upper renovation in Bismarck, North Dakota, or Augusta, Maine, where renovating is more expensive.

When it comes to the renovations themselves, we weren’t surprised to read that kitchen cabinet upgrades made the biggest difference in value (an increase of about $7,000, or nearly 4 percent). But even just replacing standard lighting with energy-efficient LED bulbs will gain you a thousand or so extra bucks. 

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It’s a homeowner rite of passage: Within the first few weeks of moving in, after having spent most of your life savings on this house, something will go wrong. The water heater will go kaput, the basement will flood, or you’ll hear little critter feet scurrying in the attic. Cue the flying cash emoji. It’s not a great feeling—especially if you’re a first-time homeowner, as home services marketplace Angi’s latest report reveals.

In its survey of 1,000 recent homeowners, 19 percent say that unexpected costs were the most surprising thing about owning a home, and 43 percent of the youngest respondents (18-to-24-year-olds) were uncomfortable with how much they had to shell out on home maintenance. 

But while Angi found that first-timers are more likely to invest in a home project early on, 30 percent have regrets—specifically about the kitchen. Forty percent of the remorseful wish they’d remodeled the space right off the bat. Other top projects they would’ve gotten out of the way: painting, new flooring, and a bathroom renovation. If you’re in the same boat, we’re here to remind you that there’s plenty you can change about your current kitchen while you save up for a total transformation. Here are three in-between updates to consider:

Forgo Cabinet Doors Entirely

Are your cupboard fronts a style that no amount of paint can improve? In Leanne Ford’s first iteration of her guesthouse, she kept things charmingly bare bones, hanging gingham curtains in place of cabinet doors.

Board Up Your Backsplash

One day, creator Emily Jane Lathan’s London kitchen will become a bedroom. Until then, a mini makeover is tiding her over. Covering up the uneven plaster walls with tongue-and-groove MDF sheets instead of a typical tile backsplash helped Lathan keep the budget under $4,000.

Give the Hardest-Working Hardware Some Love

Fresh knobs and pulls are a game changer, but don’t overlook the inner workings of your cupboards either. Wildflower Home blogger Marynn Udvarhelyi swapped the old exposed hinges in her kitchen with hidden ones that also happen to be soft-close.

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There are a few things that popular retirement destinations have in common: beautiful weather, easy access to medical facilities, a lower cost of living, and relative proximity to metropolitan areas. Realtor.com’s recent dig into the most popular cities where people are settling into retirement also sheds light on another fact—the town names often sound downright delightful. The proof is in the top 10 list.

1. Sun City, Florida
2. Green Valley, Arizona
3. King City, Oregon
4. The Villages, Florida
5. Manchester, New Jersey
6. Monroe, New Jersey
7. Seal Beach, California
8. Sun City, California
9. Laguna Woods, California
10. Whiting, New Jersey

Sun! Seals! Green valleys! No matter how far you are from the idea of retirement, it’s never too early to start thinking of a life where your professional life isn’t the headline. (On that note, know someone who’s retiring soon? Here are the retirement gifts to zero in on.) And in a world where owning a home is becoming more expensive by the day, the idea of settling into a space that you’ll enjoy for many decades ahead is enticing. Enter: aging in place. This theory is exactly what it sounds like—preparing for a life where you continue to live (and get older) at home. Ahead, read up on some tips for designing an abode intended for doing just this.

Splurge on Timeless Elements

It’s entirely possible to make a stunning bathroom hyper-functional, we promise. In fact, that’s exactly what the checkered bathroom in this Long Beach home accomplishes. Designed for a live-in mother/grandmother, the custom Fireclay tile adds some real pizzazz, while the easy step-in shower and handheld spray add accessibility. This space was designed to serve multiple generations—it will eventually become a bathroom for the family’s daughter.

Create Storage Out of Thin Air

The Austin home of 85-year-old painter Cecile Gil Martin is a masterpiece of hidden storage and space-opening tricks. Located in a senior living community, the 600-square-foot one-bedroom became a project between Martin and her son, architect Tom Hurt. Their goal was to create a home that could accommodate different levels of accessibility. The result is a network of Baltic birch and Douglas fir millwork winding throughout the space to offer shelving, drawers, and organization where there was once empty space.

The Chair-and-a-Half Fan Club Is for All Ages

When Domino chief creative officer Kate Berry’s mother had a stroke, she made it her goal to create a cozy living space that would encourage healing. Among the lush greenery, actually chic ADA-compliant furniture from West Elm, and an especially helpful faucet attachment hides a little secret: a sleeper sofa disguised as a chair-and-a-half. This hardworking piece of furniture means that Berry and her daughter or Berry’s sister can spend the night—or settle in for an impromptu movie night—without completely derailing the space.

The post These 10 U.S. Towns Are the Best Spots to Retire (Maybe Even Early) appeared first on domino.

By now, we know that having a pool or painting your front door certain colors can boost your home’s value, but a new report from Frontdoor shows that it’s the inside that counts, too. In a study that analyzed 100 of the most popular trending home features and Zillow data, researchers found that certain kitchen design choices can help you sell your house faster.

According to the numbers, the most attractive kitchen feature is butcher block. In fact, homes with those kind of countertops sell in 49 days on average, the fastest of any other design detail. Next in line comes homes with recessed lighting (52 days), a farmhouse sink (53 days), marble countertops (54 days), and granite countertops (55 days). (Yes, the recessed lighting surprises us, too.)

It’s not totally shocking that butcher block would top the list. It’s a durable surface that doesn’t require a ton of maintenance (though you should condition it regularly, as the wood can dry over time), and it’s much less expensive than stone, especially marble. Plus, if you follow Jessica Maré of Renovate108’s lead and avoid chopping on it directly (she reserves a few cutting boards for that), it will stay in tip-top shape even longer. Don’t have the farmhouse aesthetic to make it work? As you can see here, you don’t need one—the wood adds warmth to almost any space, no matter your style.

The post Sorry, Marble, Homes With This Other Kitchen Countertop Material Sell Faster appeared first on domino.

Downsizing doesn’t mean what it used to. Sure, by definition, it’s all about consolidating the things or space you have and coming out of the process with less. That doesn’t sound like a good time. But actually, the act of downsizing—and the outcome for your new home—can be a lot of fun. In a world where housing prices are only increasing, getting creative with the space you have, no matter how teeny, is more important than ever. A recent study from tiny-home builder Clever Tiny Homes took a bunch of Google Search data for terms like “downsize house,” “tiny home,” and “small houses” and compared it to population data to find the states that are most interested in cutting back. Which came out on top? Tennessee.

With around 19,981 average monthly searches across the state for smaller homes and downsizing, this tells us that there’s probably a wealth of small-space inspiration across Tennessee—and beyond. Have you been considering a similar move? Transitioning to a smaller footprint doesn’t necessarily mean you have less to work with. We pulled three tips from people who have successfully honed in on their square footage to give you a bit of hope.

Line an Empty Hallway With Closets

If you’ve got a wall, there’s potential for storage space. One L.A. couple used sets of Reform cabinets to pack some function into their 1930s-era bungalow. Not only can it add some personality to an otherwise blank surface, but you can hide all of those winter outfits, extra blankets, and past birthday gifts you only pull out when Mom and Dad visit.

Buy Furniture That’s Easy to Rearrange

When creative Anthony Urbano moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a studio that was better suited for shooting content, he invested in a modular Bellini-inspired sofa that could be set up in different ways. Both this piece and his coffee table (which is actually a bunch of side tables placed next to each other) make his home über-flexible. Plus when he moves out, it’s likely his furniture will fit in his next space, too.

Get Clever With Dividers

Room dividers have slid out of college dorm room territory and right into the sophisticated apartment you quietly covet on Instagram. If you’re downsizing to a studio, you’ll want to section off your space into different “rooms” if you can: a place to dine, a spot to lounge, and an area to sleep. One easy way to do that is to find a sculptural screen that won’t steal from a room’s footprint. Take notes from this 260-square-foot (!) studio in New York City.

The post People in This State Aren’t About That Sprawling-House Life Anymore appeared first on domino.

Having a house with a Calacatta Viola marble island or a zellige tile shower would be pretty cool, but sometimes all we want is a rustic-chic kitchen with rooster-themed art and a staircase swathed in beige carpeting. What we’re trying to say is, sometimes we just want to live in the house we grew up in. And we’re not alone. A new Zillow survey found that 44 percent of Americans would buy their childhood home if cost were not an issue. That number is even higher (closer to two-thirds) among those born in the 1980s. 

It’s easy to get lost in the nostalgia until you realize a comparable home today would be out of reach. Only half of respondents said they could actually afford to buy their childhood home at today’s prices. But that hard truth only fuels people’s daydreaming. “They may associate positive memories with their childhood home, having lived there without the burdens of rent, mortgage payments, maintenance, insurance, or other housing hurdles,” says Manny Garcia, a senior population scientist at Zillow. 

Despite some of these obstacles, a handful of homeowners have been able to make it happen. Often buying directly from their parents, they’ve found ways to leave their own stamp on their childhood home while keeping the past alive. Here’s what they learned when they returned.

Make More Room to Gather

When interior designer Etienne Fang bought her parents’ 1923 home, she made opening up the layout priority number one. In some spots, it was as simple as getting rid of unnecessary walls, like the one dividing the kitchen and dining area. Her architects cleverly added built-in window-seat benches that double as storage. They also repositioned the dining table to one side of the room to carve out a comfortable place for the family of four (plus grandparents).

Then Fang moved onto updates that had been on her to-do list for way too long. “I remember drawing sketches of my dream home as a teen, complete with a window seat and my own bathroom,” she recalls. 

Open the Door to Out-of-Towners

Growing up, Hugo Guest’s home in the Devon, England, countryside had always been part bed-and-breakfast. But when the chef decided to rent it from his parents and scale it to a larger hotel, now called Glebe House, he was nervous about making some of the necessary renovations. “It was so intense, suddenly seeing wallpaper that’s been there for 40 years being ripped down,” he recalls. But it was surprisingly his brothers who gave the ultimate stamp of approval on the changes. “They said, ‘This feels like home.’ That was the biggest compliment,” he shares. 

Honor the Architecture

Sara Charlesworth, a content creator in Salt Lake City, promised her in-laws she and her husband would keep the character of their Utah home intact once they took it off their hands. Charlesworth harkened back to the building’s 1913 roots with painted harlequin check floors in the kitchen, a skirted pedestal sink, and loads of picture-rail molding.

Bring Retro Details Up to Speed

The circa-1926 blue and white tile in this Pittsburgh home was a serious blast from the past. Studio Lithe’s client, who grew up in the house, initially wanted to rip it all out, but after seeing a few renderings of how the old tile could fit in the new space, they decided to work around it. Plus buying the same amount of tile of the same quality today would cost a small fortune. Saving this relic from the past saved their budget.

The post Our Love of Nostalgic Interiors Has Reached a New Level, According to This Study appeared first on domino.

Imagine this: It’s the first 80-something-degree day of the year and you’re touring a house that’s for sale. You spot a swimming pool in the backyard and, suddenly, nothing else about the listing matters—you’re sold. Our mind can play tricks on us in these ways, and that’s the very reason houses with pools unsurprisingly close for an average $34,000 more in the spring versus the winter, according to a new report released by Opendoor. Similarly, homes on one or more acres close at about 5.3 percent higher in the spring, and places with three or more bedrooms are not far behind. 

But there is one feature in particular that will boost a home’s value almost as much as a swimming pool: a roomy basement. Opendoor also found that homes with basements over 1,000 square feet close for $32,000 more than expected in March, April, and May. The usable square footage is a bonus, no doubt, especially if the space is completely finished, but we also suspect many see the basement as a cooling escape from the sun. If your basement is your selling point this month, or if you’re planning on buying a house with a lot of basement to offer, here are three ways to make the most of a spacious lower level. 

Beautify Your Chore Zone

EyeSwoon’s Athena Calderone no longer dreads the trek downstairs when she needs to toss in a load of laundry. There are happy green cabinets (sourced from Wayfair!) and terrazzo checkerboard floor tiles that keep her company as she washes and folds. 

Welcome Guests, But Only When Necessary 

San Francisco–based designer Alison Damonte’s clients tasked her with transforming their unfinished basement into the ultimate flex zone, somewhere their teens can hang and guests can sleep. A wall bed was a necessity, but this one from Resource Furniture is more than that: When the mattress is tucked away, it offers open shelves for displaying objects.

Go Beyond the Basic Playroom

There’s so much more to a great play area than foam floor mats and toddler-size craft tables. In this basement reno, the dead space underneath the stairs was used to provide storage for Legos, board games, and blankets as well as a built-in reading alcove that the homeowner attests can comfortably fit their whole family at the same time. 

The post This Feature Can Boost a Home’s Value Almost as Much as a Pool appeared first on domino.

Open. Closed. Open. Closed. It seems like no one can ever agree on which one is best for a kitchen layout. Some homeowners prefer a setup that allows them to watch the game on the living room TV while they’re standing at the island; others want to do all their cooking (and mess making) behind the scenes in a cozy galley. But by the looks of Drew Barrymore’s Hamptons home, which the actor and talk-show host recently listed with Kathy Konzet at Sotheby’s for a cool $8.45 million, you don’t have to choose between the two.

Barrymore’s farmhouse-style kitchen, featuring butcher block countertops, milky white cabinetry, and industrial black track sconces, is only partly open to the adjacent living space. Two glass doors flank the island and offer the opportunity to divide—or open up—the two areas. 

For added flexibility, there are small accordion doors running along the island topped by a half-wall of windows. It’s basically a traditional kitchen pass-through window—a feature that renovation platform Sweeten saw spike during the pandemic as homeowners started to crave the best of both worlds—with a twist. You can push the doors fully open when dinner is served or crack them just a bit when you simply want to hear what everyone’s chatting about in the other room. 

Perhaps the most genius part of Barrymore’s arrangement is that even with the accordion and two side doors closed, the space is still flooded with natural light, addressing the common worry that a closed-off kitchen will feel cavelike. As someone who is slowly reimagining every small countertop appliance in our kitchens, we should have known Barrymore would have the answer to this debate, too. 

The post Drew Barrymore’s Hamptons Home Is for Sale, and It Has the Ideal Kitchen Layout appeared first on domino.

A while back, we reported on a rush of millennials heading to Texas to put down roots. According to an analysis of U.S. Census records, the Lone Star State experienced a net influx of more than 75,000 millennials in 2022. But if you take a look at Gen-Z home buyers, the story takes a different turn. A recent Realtor.com report shines a bit of light on this generation’s moving habits, spotlighting the top metro areas where they’re buying homes—and Texas isn’t even on their radar.

There are a few big takeaways from the data. First, lots of Gen Z are flocking to the Midwest. Cities like Lima, Ohio, and Waterloo, Iowa, are slightly surprising to see until you think about the cost of real estate. In addition, many of the communities topping the list are home to military bases, which makes sense when you realize many first-time home buyers are using loans from Veterans Affairs (VA). This kind of aid allows people to lock in lower mortgage rates and, at times, avoid coming up with a down payment. Base housing can be hard to come by, especially for married couples, so these perks are certainly appealing.

Now that you’ve got some context, here are the top 10 cities on the list and the median home price in each destination:

1. Jacksonville, North Carolina: $330,000
2. Elkhart, Indiana: $295,000
3. Lima, Ohio: $212,500
4. Waterloo, Iowa: $280,450
5. Cumberland, Maryland: $158,000
6. Watertown, New York: $235,000
7. St. Joseph, Missouri: $169,000
8. Hinesville, Georgia: $282,000
9. Dubuque, Iowa: $308,750
10. St. Cloud, Minnesota: $350,000

It seems like those born between 1997 and 2012 are not afraid to ditch big-city life and its high cost of living. And it’s easy to believe when there are listings like this three-bedroom brick beauty hanging out in Dubuque. A cutie like that may need some work (she was built in 1872, after all), but we’ve got tips for that. Hint: Peel-and-stick wallpaper goes a long way, and adding some squiggly personality to outdated bifold closet doors is a breeze.

The post Millennials Might Be Taking to Texas, But Here’s Where Gen Z Is Moving in 2024 appeared first on domino.

What if your wanderlust wasn’t limited to a 10-day vacation? In our series ”My Life Abroad,“ we ask expats from around the world what it takes to resettle thousands of miles away from home, plus how their new city has influenced their style. 

Who we are: Lauren van Aswegen, a creative at Apple and cocurator of @visual_thread, and Matt Edwards, an executive creative director.

Where we used to live: Cape Town > Prague > New York. 

Where we moved (most recently): San Francisco.

How long we’ve lived in our current city: Four years.

Why we moved: We moved from South Africa to Prague originally. While many South Africans move abroad, we felt like Prague was a very unique option, as it gave us access to the European Union while still being very different from the life we had grown up knowing. After spending three years there and exploring all the nearby countries, we were beginning to see the ceiling in our industry and decided to look at other places that could accelerate our careers. 

We were not ready to move home and wanted the adventure to continue, so we looked at Australia, but when a job opportunity arose in the U.S., we ended up moving to New York. After spending six years in the East Village and Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, we moved to our current home in San Francisco. We actually did a year of long distance (we had an apartment in Brooklyn and one in Pacific Heights). There was a lot of flying back and forth. Lauren ended up moving out to take a job here at Apple, and a month later the pandemic hit.

The logistics we needed to line up before we moved: When we first moved to Prague, we were on a South African passport, so the companies we were going to work for had to do a lot of heavy lifting to get us a Schengen work visa. This process took around six months and a lot of paperwork. In the end, it was well worth the trouble, as having this visa allowed us to visit so many places in the EU (Barcelona, Majorca, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Marseille, Madrid, Stockholm, to name a few). 

When we decided to move to the U.S., it was a much bigger undertaking. We had both found jobs, and they were willing to help us with our O-1 visas (for Individuals with extraordinary abilities). However, the background checks were far greater than what we had experienced in Europe, and doing it all from a foreign country where speaking the language was difficult at times made it that much harder. We used to meet for an evening every week at our local bar in Prague and discuss logistics. Again, it took around six months to plan. 

Once we arrived in New York, it was a culture shock. Prague is relatively quaint compared to the hustle and bustle of this massive city. We did however make a great life for ourselves and ended up getting our green cards and getting married while living there. 

Then we decided to give the West Coast a try. This was our easiest move yet, already having our green cards and, again, our companies facilitating the move, but emotionally leaving New York took a massive toll on us. We had some great friends there. 

How we got our stuff overseas: When we moved to Prague, we were young and just starting out in life as a couple. We didn’t take much with us and saw this as a real blank canvas. We bought a lot of basics from IKEA, as this was a novelty we didn’t have back home. Along with that, we acquired some designer pieces from our travels, as well as some antique furniture from the Prague markets. Often around the cities, people would just empty apartments and put all the furniture and art in skips on the street. We picked up a few pieces that way. 

When we moved to New York, we gave up a lot of the basics we knew we could get there and kept the items that inspired us: a modular chest of drawers, some paintings, Czech crystal glasses. We still think of our solid oak dining table where we spent our evenings drawing and drinking wine—we had to let it go because we didn’t know if it would fit in our tiny NYC apartment. 

While in New York, we really started to collect things that felt timeless. This is where we started to discover our decor style. Our art collection also started to grow, as we made a deal that every year for our anniversary we would buy a piece of art for our home.

Rent or own: Rent.

What our house search was like: Prague has an abundance of high-ceiling old apartments, so this was the easiest of the property searches. As long as we were near a subway line, we could live anywhere in the city. 

New York was the complete opposite. The process was ruthless and the inventory was limited. We also had no idea about credit records and broker’s fees, so at our first apartment in the East Village, we had to pay six months rent up front to secure it. 

When we moved to SF, it was still in the tech boom, so while there were a lot of apartments, we were still met with competition. Our search here took a bit longer, as we wanted to find a place we could happily live in for five years. 

The biggest challenge with moving abroad: Being apart from your family. South Africa is far from almost everywhere. The familiarity and comfort to being in your own country (you know what’s around every corner; you know how to read people)…it’s just easier to get things done. If we needed a doctor or tax person, we had a support system to ask. However, solving these challenges by ourselves does bring about a sense of accomplishment. No matter how big or small. 

The biggest joy of moving abroad: It sounds cliché, but the adventure. There is something quite thrilling about everything being new and undiscovered. We think the friendships you develop with other expats is also a source of joy. When you are without your family, you tend to replace them with really deep friendships. 

It’s definitely a hard life in some respects, but when you are at the top of a mountain in Utah or up the coast at Sea Ranch, so far from home, you have to just enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. It feels like a life well lived.

The most surprising thing we’ve learned about our current city since we got here: The proximity to so much varied nature was a big surprise. The beach, the redwoods, the wine lands are all just around the corner. Our lives now revolve around getting out of the city and exploring as much as we can. That’s not to say the city doesn’t have things to offer; we have eaten at countless amazing restaurants, visited the ballet and opera, and seen great art exhibitions. 

Where we found design inspiration for our space: Prague inspired our love of European aesthetics (Bauhaus design, modular furniture, antiques). New York gave our style a bit of a punch. Since coming to California, we have tried to soften that a bit.

The best piece of decorating advice we’ve learned from our current city: Two of the biggest things we’ve learned from California is that new is not always better, and you don’t have to take things so seriously. Have fun with your space. 

The item we brought from home that brings us comfort: We have two: our collection of South African art (every single day we look at it and are reminded of what an amazing country we come from) and our antique tableware from Lauren’s mom. The dishes usually only make it onto the table when we are having dinner parties with our friends who are now family, and they always bring such warmth. 

The moment we felt like locals: Whenever we have visitors to show around our city, it makes us feel like locals. The other one is when people ask for directions and you actually know the answer. That’s a favorite for sure. 

If we were to move abroad again and could do anything differently, it would be: We don’t think we would do anything differently, because even when things went wrong, it taught us something. It was all part of the experience. If we could give advice to someone who just recently moved abroad, it would be to stick with it. The first six months anywhere are supertough, but after that you start finding your groove and carve out a life for yourself. You find the route to walk the dog, your favorite coffee shop, and before you know it, it feels like home.

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