Designing for the Sale

Tired of having white walls around the house?

Want to add a little color?

If so, think about this first: "What am I going to be doing with this house in 3 years?"

If your first thought was that you were going to be happily living in it without any thought of moving out, you are ready for my next blog.

But if you hesitated...
If you imagined a home with a little more space...
Or perhaps a bigger back yard...
...you might want to consider designing for the sale.

Often people will decide to sell their home only to find that no one wants it.

There's nothing wrong with the house, its just decorated to someone else's taste and buyers don't want to spend a lot of time making their new home livable.

You may love bright, bold, colors, or perhaps you appreciate subdued earth-tones. Either way...there is only a small chance that the next owner will like what you do.

Having seen hundreds of homes, decorated hundreds of ways, I can testify that people have extremely different opinions about what looks good.

Your "classic taupe" may be someone else's "cranberry red." There is someone else who wants "ultra pure white" everywhere and their neighbor loves polka dots.

If this might not be your final destination...highlight.

Painting one wall in selected rooms can change the flavor of a room drastically, yet it doesn't become an obstacle to a future buyer.

You may believe that buyers plan on putting a little money into a home when they buy it...and you are right. Sometimes this is unavoidable.

But do you really want that potential buyer to be thinking "hassle" when they look at your living room?

If only one wall is highlighted, its easy for the buyer to imagine the room the way that they would have it. If they don't like your style, changing one wall is a piece of cake.

So, think before you pink.

- The Design Guy