Houzz: Remodeling High on Homeowners’ Lists

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Houzz is the “leading platform for home remodeling and design, providing people with everything they need to improve their homes from start to finish – online or from a mobile device,” according to the website.

Each year the platform releases a report of its findings from its annual “Houzz and Home Survey.” The 2018 results were gathered from 142,259 respondents globally. It focuses on people’s “priorities, plans and budgets” among Houzz users in the U.S. (There’s a separate report for Canadian renovation.)

According to the 8th annual survey, spend in kitchen remodels, the most popular room to renovate, jumped 27 percent in the past year to a median spend of $14,000. This follows a 10 percent increase in median kitchen spend in 2017. Median spend on guest and master bathroom remodels, the second and third most popular rooms to renovate, grew by 17 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

Other important findings include:

Of the 10 highest-spending metros in 2017, seven saw a decline in median spend in 2018.

Use of credit cards to finance home projects continues to rise

4 out of 5 renovating homeowners hired a professional in 2018 (87 percent)

Security upgrades continue to gain popularity, with an average annual growth of 20 percent over the past 3 years

More homeowners choosing to add “smart” devices

What does all this mean for homeowners? For one, it allows you to gauge where you are in your remodeling and decorating plans against others around the country. The information about different markets can help you decide how to get the most bang for your buck.

For those of us in the home products business, it allows us to see what our customers are faced with and how we can best help them in their renovation efforts. Since one of the top renovation challenges reported is funding, it’s great to know we provide products that are both beautiful and affordable, and really liven up a space for very little cost and only a little bit of elbow grease.

What do you think of this report? Let me know in the comments! Be sure to visit our DIY Decor Store Houzz profile here.

How to Frame a Mirror

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The vanity mirrors in the two bathrooms of my home irritated me. They served their purpose, but aesthetically? Not so much. I soon learned there was a solution.

The mirrors were the large, frameless cheap kind that builders hang when they are unimaginative, budget-minded or both. The one in the girls’ bathroom measured approximately 4’x 3’ tall. The one in the master bath was even larger, about 6’x3’. Tacky metal mirror clips held them in place.

Since fixing the problem became somewhat of an obsession, i went on the Internet trying to find easy and inexpensive solutions. I didn’t want to invest a lot of money in the project because we were trying to sell the house, but in the meantime I had to live there and look at the monstrosities. Of course, I could have removed them altogether and hang smaller framed mirrors, but I couldn’t find any I really liked. Proportionally speaking, if I were to buy new, it’d need to be fairly large to look decent.

So imagine my delight when I came across how to frame a mirror. The author is a creative gal who owns a furniture refinishing business in Utah called Sweet Pickins. While she is far more handy and creative than I, she came up with a simple solution to making over ugly vanity mirrors that even the DIY-challenged like me can pull off. She used inexpensive baseboard and chair rail molding to frame out the mirrors, glued it on and did her cool distressed painting application.

Anyone else have such a design/décor dilemma? Let me know what you did to fix it. And if you have any other suggestions, I’m all ears.