Most homes don’t look dated because of their layout. They look dated because of details: honey oak trim, tan walls, a faucet that’s lost its finish, one dim ceiling fixture trying to light a whole room. Nearly all of that is fixable without a remodel, and most of it comes down to paint.
Here are seven updates, roughly in order of effort, with an honest note on which ones make good weekend projects and which usually go better with a crew.
| Update | Typical time | Good DIY project? | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repaint walls in a current neutral | 1–3 days per floor | Yes | Every room you paint |
| Paint stained or yellowed trim and doors | Several days per floor | Possible, but slow | How old the whole house feels |
| Change bulbs and light fixtures | A few hours | Bulbs, yes. Wiring depends on your skills | Brightness and mood |
| Swap cabinet hardware and faucets | An afternoon | Yes | Kitchen and bathrooms |
| Refinish kitchen cabinets | 3–5 days | Hard to do well | The kitchen |
| Paint the front door | One day | Yes | Curb appeal |
| Repaint the exterior | 3–7 days | Rarely | The whole house |
1. Repaint the Walls in a Lighter, Warmer Neutral
Walls are the biggest surface in any room, so they set the era. The colors that date a house fastest are the ones that were everywhere twenty years ago: tan, Tuscan gold, sage paired with burgundy, and dark accent walls squeezed into small rooms. A lighter, warm neutral makes rooms read larger and brighter without feeling sterile.
If you’re choosing now, our 2026 paint color trends post covers what’s actually going on walls in Utah homes this year. For the finish, the paint sheen guide explains why most living spaces suit eggshell or matte.
It’s also the update people tend to enjoy most. In the National Association of Realtors’ 2022 Remodeling Impact Report, painting a home’s entire interior earned a perfect “Joy Score” of 10 from homeowners.
2. Paint the Trim and Interior Doors
Orange-toned oak trim and yellowed white trim age a house more than almost anything else. Painting them a clean white or soft off-white changes every room at once.
Two things to know before you start:
- Yellowed white trim is usually old oil-based paint. Oil-based enamels keep oxidizing as they age and drift toward cream. Modern waterborne enamels avoid most of that. Sherwin-Williams, for example, says its water-based urethane trim enamel resists yellowing compared with traditional oil-based coatings.
- Water-based paint won’t stick to oil without prep. To find out what’s on your trim, rub a small spot with a cotton ball dampened with rubbing alcohol. If color comes off, it’s latex. If nothing comes off, it’s probably oil-based and needs a light sanding and a bonding primer first.
Stained wood trim needs cleaning, scuff-sanding and a stain-blocking primer. Skip the primer and natural tannins in the wood can bleed through as yellow-brown spots.
3. Update the Lighting
A room can look dated simply because it’s underlit, or lit with bulbs that don’t match. Before replacing any fixtures, put bulbs of the same color temperature in every fixture in the room. Color temperature is the Kelvin (K) number on the box. Around 2700K is warm, like old incandescent bulbs. 3000K is a slightly cleaner warm white. 4000K and above reads cool and bright. Mixing them in one room makes the walls look patchy.
Lighting also changes how paint looks. A warm gray can turn beige under 2700K bulbs and blue under very cool ones, so test paint samples under the bulbs you’ll actually live with.
If you’re replacing fixtures, hire a licensed electrician for anything beyond a simple swap you’re confident doing yourself.
4. Replace Hardware and Faucets
Cabinet pulls, door levers and faucets are cheap to change and you touch them every day. Pick one finish per room and stick with it. Before buying new cabinet pulls, measure the center-to-center distance between the existing screw holes. Matching it saves you from filling and redrilling every door.
5. Refinish the Kitchen Cabinets
If your cabinet boxes are solid and you like the layout, painting them is usually the biggest change you can make to a kitchen for the money. Professionally refinished cabinets typically cost 30 to 50 percent of replacement and take days instead of weeks. Our cabinet painting cost guide breaks down Salt Lake City pricing.
This is the update on the list where DIY results disappoint most often. Kitchen cabinets need thorough degreasing, sanding and a hard-curing enamel, ideally sprayed. Oak also needs a grain filler if you want a smooth finish instead of visible grain. You can see how we approach it on our cabinet painting page.
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Our Salt Lake crews do the prep most painters skip, so the finish lasts. Every job is backed by a 9-year craftsmanship guarantee.
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6. Paint the Front Door
One door, one day, and the front of the house looks more deliberate. Use an exterior-grade enamel and choose a color that relates to something fixed on the house: the roof, the brick or the stone. In Utah’s strong sun, a very dark door on a south- or west-facing entry absorbs a lot of heat, so check that the product is rated for exterior doors.
7. Repaint the Exterior
The biggest single change, and the one where timing matters most. Utah’s exterior painting season runs roughly from spring to early fall, and good slots fill early. Our guide to the best time to paint a house exterior in Utah walks through it month by month, and our exterior painting cost page covers pricing.
Where to Start
Start with the room you use most and the surface that dates it most. In most homes that’s the main living area’s walls and trim.
If you’re planning to sell, paint first. In NAR’s 2025 Remodeling Impact Report, painting the entire home and painting a single room topped the list of projects Realtors recommend before listing. Our post on painting before selling your home goes into more detail.
Not sure which colors will work with your floors, counters and light? Our free color consultation puts samples on your actual walls.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the cheapest way to make a house look more modern?
Paint. Repainting walls in a lighter neutral and painting dated trim white changes the look of a whole house for far less than any remodel. Matching your light bulbs and swapping cabinet hardware are the next cheapest updates.
Should I paint my oak trim white?
If the oak is orange-toned and the rest of the house has moved on, painting it usually makes rooms brighter and more current. It needs cleaning, sanding and a stain-blocking primer first so tannins don’t bleed through. Fine or historically significant woodwork is often worth keeping stained.
Can I paint over oil-based trim with latex?
Yes, with prep. Clean it, scuff-sand the gloss off and apply a bonding primer before the water-based topcoat. Skipping the primer is the most common reason new trim paint peels.
How do I tell if paint is oil-based or latex?
Rub a small area with a cotton ball dampened with rubbing alcohol. If color comes off, the paint is latex. If nothing comes off, it’s likely oil-based.
Does painting increase home value?
Painting is consistently near the top of the projects Realtors recommend before selling, according to the National Association of Realtors’ Remodeling Impact Report. Fresh, neutral paint helps buyers see the house rather than the previous owner’s taste.
