Easy kitchen updates that buyers love

The latest kitchen trends offer lots for sellers to love.

Long a route to buyers’ hearts, the kitchen can make or break first impressions.

But a new study from Metrostudy and Meyers Research provides insight into what consumers want now, and some of the trends can be relatively easy and inexpensive to adopt.

Check out the wise advice of professional home stagers Helen Bartlett of Kansas City Refined Interior Staging Solutions and New York’s Tori Toth, founder of the Stage 2 Sell Strategy:

The clean look of white cabinetry is still in, but with some color pops.

“Use a black or dark blue hue on the island to make it stand out as a unique space,” Toth says.

Leaving upper cabinets white, with a different color on the bottom is another popular color pop, Bartlett says. “After years of neutral grays,” adds Bartlett, consumers are now excited by color, especially navy blue and emerald green.

In case you didn’t know: Small appliances are increasingly available in eye-popping colors like teal, Bartlett notes.

It’s better to open up and let light in. So that means take off window treatments, especially heavy curtains that darken the room.

Replace a few wood doors, especially on ceiling-high cabinetry with glass doors, Toth suggests.

Or go a step further: Take a chance and eliminate a few cabinet doors. “Open shelving is one of the hottest trends we have today, allowing for an airy look,” Bartlett notes.

And then you can always let loose and bling up the place. Mixed metal touches excite consumers today. Replace old handles and knobs with new, well-designed, coordinating metal ones. Try changing a faucet — especially if the sink is on an island — with a metal contrasting with the faucet handles, Toth suggests.

“You could take a simple round cabinet pull and add a sleeker pull,” says Bartlett. “That simple detail could change a more transitional kitchen into an updated and more relevant space.”