By the time Cathy Hobbs was called in to help stage one Columbia, M.D., home, it had already been on the market for a year. The FOF owner had been looking at her surroundings for so long, she didn’t realize her home had many out-of-date elements. Cathy, a New York-based certified home stager and HGTV “Design Star” finalist, helped bring the FOF’s home into the 21st century. Five weeks later, it sold. “I tell my clients, you need to neutralize, declutter and depersonalize your home before you can sell it.”
Even if you aren’t selling your home anytime soon, keeping it fresh can help you feel renewed and help simplify your lifestyle. “The current economic climate has led us to simplified, uncluttered and organic themes in home design, in direct contrast to the busy and bold decor of days-gone-by,” says FOF interior design guru and New York-based designer Julia Vosler.
Use this checklist to help determine if your home is out-of-date, then read ideas for quick fixes from real FOF designers.
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0 Responses to “{Interiors} Your home is out-of-date if…”
Barbara says:
I live in a home not just a house. We buy a house to create a home, not to just sell it again. Use common sense when painting and redecorating. The sell your house shows do a disservice. You can’t redo your home for $2 and in 2 days.
Janice Caceres says:
I will live the way it suits my lifestyle, not the way it suits a fashion mag or blog adviser.
Sheila MacAvoy says:
The point being to make the place look like it wasn’t lived in? My experience is different. Remove clutter, yes. Refresh paint, yes. But many buyers want to buy a life style, not a model home. Brass doorknobs popular in the 90s? It’s only 2011! I would never use a marble topped kitchen counter, nor buy a home that had one. And I have a library. With books! Dusty.
mamavalveeta03 says:
It seems to me that some of you are missing the point: When you are ready to SELL you home, you have to make the buyer feel that their things would fit in the home!
If you own the home and have no intention of selling, do whatever the heck you want to it!!!
fran says:
What if:
-you HATE neutrals?
-you are a collctor of something that takes up tons of space?
-you live in TINY place?
-you cannot afford all the expensive closet re-dos or to have a prson redo ?
Lastly- what if you still LIKE it?
Get real- not everyone wants to re-do things just becasue the styles change- especially since the style makers ae all 1/2 a lifetime younger than we all are.
Isn’t that pat of beng a grown up and knowing ones own mind?
Gwen says:
We are in the process of repainting the house, and all the walls are now “summer white”. Beige and browns throughout the living area, soft gray in one bath, blonde in another, and soft sage in the third. I totally agree that the neutral colors are timeless!
Catalina says:
Sound advice for selling a house but I live in a home.
Merritt M says:
“When in doubt paint it white” is boring advice but great if you are selling because it allows people to imagine their own colors in the space. If you are living and enjoying your home, go for colors you love. You can always paint it when you go to sell.
tami says:
Personally I much prefer wood floors, but I have to point out how ridiculous it is to use the argument “for” wood floors that “30% of home buyers prefer wood floors”. That leaves 70% of people preferring something OTHER than wood floors, which kind of implies that wood floors are NOT the favorite among home buyers. Not a very good use of statistics…