The Surprising Home Reno Jasmine Roth Says You Should Tackle First - Exclusive

Home renos are all the rage. What with HGTV shows taking up serious screen time and homeowners spending way more time at home than usual (thanks COVID), it makes sense. Why shouldn't people make their houses the best they can be? There is one big problem with home renovation, though: where should people start?

From bathroom and basements to kitchens, living rooms, offices, garages and every space in between, there are a lot of rehab options around the average house. But, according to Jasmine Roth, some rooms should be higher on the list than others. And she knows what she's talking about. Roth, according to Realtor.com, first appeared on screen in her HGTV show Hidden Potential and has since been seen on a whole host of other hits including Help! I Wrecked My House, Rock the Block, and Design Star: Next Gen. So what home reno should homeowners tackle first? Jasmine Roth revealed this advice and more in an exclusive interview with The List.

Where should homeowners begin a renovation? The kitchen. "I think the kitchen is one of those rooms where you use it every single day. It's somewhere that every single person in the house uses," Jasmine Roth told The List. "No matter what type of house you live in, every single person uses the kitchen." But beyond the universality and everyday use of the kitchen, it's a space that also makes for a dramatic final result. Roth went on, adding, "It's one of those spaces that if you can update it and you can make it nice and new and fresh, your life will be that much better. It really will."

The reality star and home renovation expert also gave advice on where people should go for home rehab inspiration. "I watched HGTV so much before I ever had anything to even do with HGTV. I was such a fan. I watched all the shows," Roth dished. "I think just keep watching HGTV and you can learn a lot. Just like I was, just being a fan and watching, a lot of that is applicable in the real world." And, according to Roth, what viewers see on HGTV is real, from the budgets and the homeowners to the timelines. "You can learn a lot, you can get great ideas. You can see floor plans that you never would have thought that actually apply to your own space," the mother and business owner continued. And you're like, wow, that looks like my house. Wow. My house could look like that."

But what if a homeowner is lucky enough to have the time and budget to renovate more than one room? According to Jasmine Roth, they should treat themselves to an updated primary bedroom. She explained, "What I see is my clients, usually, they do the kitchen, then they do the living room and the stairwell, maybe the entry, maybe the exterior, and then they do the kids' rooms. And then they run out of money, or they run out of time. Or they just kind of were like, all right, well, we've done all these spaces where when people come over, they see. And so we're just going to leave our bedroom and bathroom and never get to it." That's no fun!

Roth says that the homeowners should treat themselves. "You own the house, you work all the time. And at the end of the day and the beginning of the day, you're starting in this space that may not be serving you. It probably is not making you happy." No one should live like that, Roth explained, "if you can have that happiness and that serenity and that clear peace of mind that having a new space brings." Plus, as Jasmine joked, "the kids don't care what their room looks like" anyway.

New episodes of Design Star: Next Gen premiere Wednesdays on discovery+.