3 Bedroom Renovations Real Estate Pros Say You Should Avoid

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Home renovations are a tricky territory. Though there’s personal preference at play, there’s also resale value to consider, and how the changes made to a home will appeal to potential buyers in the future. 

In that sense, not all renovations are created equal. On one hand, real estate agents tend to agree that if you’re going to spend money on your bedroom, it’s best to go with renovations that will add space, storage, and/or functionality. Conversely, some renovations are simply not worth the time, money, and paint fume-induced-headache. To find out what some of those are, I asked four real estate experts about bedroom projects to avoid.

“Unless you have an overabundance of bedrooms in a home, combining two smaller bedrooms into one large master is never a good idea,” says Betti Russo, a broker associate with Keller Williams Prosperity in Wayne, New Jersey. “While a spacious master bedroom has wow factor, reducing the number of bedrooms also reduces the home’s resale value and limits potential buyers. More often than not, fewer bedrooms equals a lower selling price.”

If your bedroom is on the smaller side, Russo suggests extending the space in other ways. “Raise the roof, install oversized windows, or paint the room a light neutral with pops of color to create the illusion of a bigger, brighter, and more open space, while still keeping it cozy,” she says.

“As far as putting money into trendy accent walls, yes, they’re nice, but they won’t increase the value of your home at all,” says Elyse Bouwmeester, a real estate agent with Red and White Realty Inc. Brokerage. The same goes for installing crown mouldings. “A lot of the time, when I’m showing a home, buyers won’t even notice crown moulding until I point it out.”

Alisa Skalicky, a Realtor with Serenity Real Estate Solutions, adds that homeowners should be judicious when it comes to wall treatments in general. “It’s not wise to go with anything that will affect the quality of the walls in a bedroom, such as wallpaper or artwork that requires designer moulding to be removed,” she says.

Skalicky also cautions against removing closet doors, even if doing so makes the space appear larger. “Nine times out of ten, buyers will ask why are they missing and where are they?“

Instead, Bouwmeester recommends focusing your efforts on optimizing your bedroom closets and any other storage areas in the room. “But I wouldn’t put too much money into it,” she says. “There are a lot of things you can do pretty cheap, on your own, or for free, like cleaning and decluttering your storage areas so that people can see the space better.”