5 easy kitchen and bath upgrades to wow holiday guests

(BPT) - Ready to host for the holidays? Whether you're planning parties and/or welcoming visitors to your home during this festive season, you probably want to make a great impression. Ahead of this busy time of year, you'll be glad to know there are some easy upgrades you can make to those all-important rooms - your kitchen and bath - which will delight your friends and family. Even better, you'll love them, too.

1. Celebrate the heart of your home

The kitchen is the heart of the home, where everyone gathers, and the sink is the workhorse of the kitchen. To make a statement that's both practical and aesthetically pleasing, this Strive® farmhouse workstation kitchen sink takes a lot of the stress out of holiday hosting.

This sink raises the bar on functionality and professional styling with custom accessories that integrate seamlessly within the bowl's ledge. With an eye toward food preparation plus cleanup and storage, the included accessories are thoughtful and practical: a cutting board, drain board, colander/drying rack, soaking bin with drain, stainless steel bottom sink rack and drain cover. Strive is made of thick, premium quality 16-gauge stainless steel with easy-to-clean rounded corners and a sound-absorption system that significantly reduces disposal and dishwashing noise for an improved experience as you gather with friends and family to make memories in your kitchen over the holidays.

2. Kitchen detail upgrades

When time is limited, you'll want to keep kitchen improvements easy enough to execute in a single weekend. For example, swapping out cabinet and drawer pulls for modern touches like mixed metals or matte black hardware instantly update your kitchen's look. If you have the time and ability, painting cabinets or adding a new tile backsplash are upgrades that make a big visual impact.

Ahead of hosting, one of the best things you can do is clear the clutter from your precious counter space so you'll have more room for cooking, baking and gathering. Not enough space in your cupboards to put the clutter away? Box up items like small appliances you rarely use to store elsewhere. You'll be happy to see a lot more counter space to work with when the holidays begin!

3. Boost the power of your shower

One easy swap will transform your shower into a spa-like experience. Kohler's SpaViva™ Two-function handshower with all-in-one cleansing device features the pore-cleansing power of MicroBubble spray while also offering the full-coverage Katalyst spray that retains more heat with each drop.

The MicroBubble spray infuses tiny bubbles into water to help clean pores and leave skin feeling refreshed, and the all-in-one cleansing device offers versatile attachments including a facial brush, body brush, body scrubber and body massager. The facial brush has small, gentle silicone bristles that help to deep clean pores, the body brush offers full, densely placed silicone bristles to tackle larger areas of the body, the body scrubber features a natural stone surface that delicately exfoliates to remove dead skin from feet, and the body massager provides five pressure-point nodes to target tired muscles.

4. Give your bathroom a quick makeover

Another easy move that instantly gives your bathroom a facelift is switching out window treatments, shower curtain, bathmat and towels for fresh new sets. Consider a livelier color scheme that coordinates well with your existing wall and tile colors, and you'll be amazed at the difference these details make the moment you walk into the room.

5. Improve comfort and cleanliness

Bidet seats are trending, for good reason. Your family and guests alike will appreciate the comfort afforded by a seat like the PureWash® E930 Elongated bidet toilet seat, which brings you the freshness of personal cleansing in a slim, low-profile design made to fit most elongated toilets. This heated seat comes with an easy-to-use handheld remote control that allows you to adjust and set all your personal preferences, from water temperature and pressure to seat temperature and air-drying. A built-in nightlight provides illumination of the bowl, and the self-cleaning stainless steel wand uses UV light for automatic cleaning. Plus, you can personalize and control your product through the KOHLER Konnect® app feature.

With these tips, you'll enjoy hosting even more this season. Just a few of these updates will help you feel more confident that your home is in the best possible shape for celebrating the holidays with friends and family. Visit Kohler.com for even more ideas to improve your home.