Baths | Bowes Real Estate Real Living | BOWES Real Estate Real Living Skip to main content

Merchandising Your Bath

Like kitchens, bathrooms play a major role in the sale of a home. Prospective buyers want a bath that is in overall good repair, has ample storage space and is sparkling clean. Your bath may already be updated and well-maintained, but if it’s not, you can easily make it more appealing to prospective buyers.

 Make It Brighter
Your bath should be as appealing and decorative as the rest of your home. A brighter, lighter bath painted and decorated in a neutral color will have the strongest appeal to the largest number of buyers. And if you stick to a one-color scheme, buyers will find it easier to imagine how their towels, accessories and other furnishings will look in your bathroom.

Painting the walls and ceiling is the easiest and least expensive way to update and brighten a bathroom. Generally, gloss or semi-gloss finishes are more soil, steam and water-resistant and can better withstand repeated scrubbings.

Store Items Neatly
To make your bath look more spacious, keep all the counterspace -- the vanity, countertop and back of the toilet -- clean and clutter-free. It’s best to move all personal items such as cosmetics, toothbrushes, combs and hair dryers from sight.

And don’t just shove everything into your linen closet or medicine cabinet -- arrange items neatly because buyers will often look inside. To increase your bath’s storage capacity, add a few wire baskets or rolling storage carts if they don’t clutter the room.

Clean and Odor Free
Smell is one of the first things buyers notice upon entering a home, and the bathroom especially can be a troublesome area. Maintaining an older bathroom is important because outdated and worn surfaces are likely to trap odors and may be harder to keep clean. Beyond regularly wiping the walls, floors and porcelain surfaces with a mild detergent, always have an air freshener handy and put a toilet bowl disinfectant in the tank.

Tips

  • Scrub your sink, tub, shower and toilet.

  • Polish the chrome fixtures.

  • Fix a drippy faucet or running toilet .

  • Remove mildew stains and stains from tiles and regrout or recaulk if necessary.

  • Clean lime deposits from shower head.

  • Clean out all clogged drains.

  • Clean your mirror, window and window coverings.

  • Display your best towels and rugs.

  • Hang a new shower curtain.

  • Put out decorative bars of soap.
Designer Baths for All Budgets Video
Dramatically change any bathroom by adding color, lighting and more. This video is part of HGTV's "Bed and Bath Design" show hosted by Joan Kohn. Presented by Real Living; video.realliving.com