Tag Archives: home-decor

I Hate This Trend

You’re not selling this house. You’re not! You’ve just made your living room look like it’s the size of a postage stamp.

Guys, please, I beg you, THINK. When you want to sell your home, you must think about the buyer. You have to get into the mindset of ‘the masses’. Most people do not want a giant sectional sofa taking up all of the real estate! It short circuits the buyer’s mental process of buying. And here’s a little known fact for you: Most people cannot ‘envision’ the space without your stuff in it. They see the sectional sofa as hogging the space and blocking the aesthetic. And they are correct, by the way and more importantly, that huge trendy sectional has just hijacked their imagination.

And it’s not a judgement of your decorating taste. If you like it, do it. You do you. I’d actually love to plop down on that sofa in the picture. Would I buy that house? No. The room’s too small (I’m chuckling). BUT when you want to sell that space, you have got to back your taste into the space behind marketing. I’ve studied marketing; I can even recommend colors. But I don’t do that. I love it when my buyers get to see a lovely space that looks like a HOME. Yes, even with pictures. The days of ‘minimalism’ are fading fast, but maximalism is already blasé. The happy medium and the quicker sale aesthetic, is somewhere in between. Speaking of colors in marketing…if your living room is vibrant orange with purple trim, I’m gonna recommend a change.

Now, do I think you have to sterilize your space? NO! The home should still look like a home. But you have to remember, you are selling space. Big, wide open space. Even people who want more delineated spaces want those individual spaces to look big. And when they stop walking and start to place their OWN furniture in their mind, that’s a GREAT thing. But they never get there if their senses are overwhelmed by MASSIVE furniture crammed into a small space. So here’s what I advise my sellers.

You are moving. This will soon not be your home. Start thinking like a buyer, and ‘rearrange’. Take a deep breath and let go of the emotion (I know that’s hard). Think about your sales price now. Maybe get a small storage unit and put some items in there. TRUST ME. I cannot tell you how many times my buyers turn around and leave when they think the spaces are too small. And there’s this: So many people put the back of a sofa right across the room where the fireplace is the focal point.

The fireplace wall is the ‘money wall’ for your home. DON’T BLOCK IT. Switch the furniture placement to open that view while you are marketing your home. People say, “Wow!” when they see the sweeping vista (okay that’s a bit hyperbolic) from the kitchen island to the fireplace. If you have the floor plan where there’s a dining table between the kitchen island and the living room, don’t put tall decor on the table. Make the VIEW un-interrupted all the way to the ‘money wall’, because they WILL stand behind that island to view the den or living room with the fireplace. They will. It’s okay to put decor on the table (I would), but don’t let it grab the attention of the buyer who is trying to decide if this space will work. Think: SQUIRREL! So…what about that buyer’s decision process:

Buyers enter your home and their creative brain takes over. They immediately start thinking how they would live in that space, and they think about how they would put THEIR stuff in it. The home should have a comfortable temperature, it should SMELL good (don’t put the fragrance things in the outlets; it makes buyers think you’re hiding something). Open the blinds and push back the dark curtains (better yet take them out). Let the sunshine in. Sunshine is a wonderful psychological marketing tool and it’s FREE. Don’t have gigantic decor on spindly tables (danger) and take the pet snake terrarium to a friend’s house (don’t laugh; I’ve had that happen). Think like the masses.

Now about that sectional: Here’s my editorial. Sectionals are a smart marketing tool for furniture makers. They get to make a sectional cheaper than regular sofas and make you think they’re worth more money. So they create the “everybody’s doing it!” idea and of course people fall for it and they pay more money. In marketing, that’s called affiliation. And it has worked. And it’s the bane of my existence unless I’m showing a huge home to my buyers because chances are, the dreaded sectional will be in the living room.

Jurassic Smurfs

I’ve had a very busy two weeks, so much so that at the end of the day, all I want to do is turn on YouTube and fall asleep on the couch. I usually fall asleep with my cats and YouTube, and I have so many subscriptions there’s no way to give attention to all of them, every day. So I leave the TV on all night so I get subliminal YouTube. OMG I wake up to some strange videos, let me tell you.

One of my favorite themes is decorating, although my favorite style of decorating is with power tools. That’s a story for another day. Still, I have three all time favorite designers, all focused on aesthetics, and they roll through my feed often. These guys (yep, guys) are my favorites, so I help them with their algorithm by watching and liking. Tonight, it was about what’s new in kitchen trends. Again. I was HORRIFIED to discover that walnut cabinets are BACK. Ugh. I like my white cabinets, and oh my god, my kitchen looks like a blizzard. White cabinets, white countertops, white backsplash. It’s my style, my favorite look, and frankly, I don’t care what anybody else says is ‘in’. And it got me to thinking…Uh oh.

You know, if you’ve read my blog entries, you’re aware that I feel a great deal of disappointment about the lack of creativity in the following generations. I was part of a generation that made a lot of discoveries, invented a lot of stuff, created great movies, wrote great books! Every day there was something new. Like optical fiber, the internet, iPhones, smart TVs, blow dryers, microwave ovens, new building materials, great new tools. SO exciting. What happened? Where did the creativity go?

We have so much exciting technology now and, is it me, or is that tech focused on reinventing the wheel? Stay with me for a second. I saw TWO coming soon movies, one Jurassic World and another the Smurfs. What in the actual hell?? Can I say, putting the word ‘actual’ in that sentence is one of MY favorite new things. Anyway…again with the remakes. REMAKES! You know that I have griped about this before.

I have been around a long time, and I live in a world where seniors are all stupid and irrelevant, have no value, get overlooked and definitely discriminated against…and yet the younger ones copy us. WE WIN, damnit. We win! You have all of the cool technology to use and you can’t dream up a new, exciting plot? Come on. Again with the Jurassic Park crap? And Smurfs? Kill me now. Slow down, put down the gaming console and controller and USE.YOUR. BRAIN. Stop copying!!

So here’s my brain going in two parallel streams again, one with nothing new under the sun, and the other, don’t tell me what to like. Which got me to thinking…hahaha. You know how this works.

I’m a real estate broker and I see a LOT of kitchens. I can tell you that the classic look never turns buyers away. But if you go with a trend, a trend…by definition will go out of style next year. Remember these decorators make their money by getting you to hand over yours, and if you are a follower, you’re gonna redecorate. You’re going to find this year’s hot color, this year’s hot countertop style, this year’s hot cabinet color and style and you’re either going to spend money to put other peoples’ ideas into your kitchen, or you’re going to wallow in the self pity of not being able to copy someone else.

See I’m not wired that way. I don’t LIKE to copy someone else, usually, except with cars. Cars cars cars. I wallow in the self pity of not being able to afford to copy someone else’s choice. I do! Every day. LOL.

So there are ‘types’ when it comes to ‘project management’. One type builds the car with NO plans, NO supplies, just runs to the store building a parts list on the way, runs back home and builds builds builds. The other extreme…me…stares at the venue, thinks, imagines, goes looking for the stuff to build it but doesn’t buy it yet, goes back home, stares some more, and then like magic, it all comes together and OFF I GO to buy the stuff, then back home to build. Both ways get you to the same end, but just two different approaches. Neither is better, by the way.

Point is, if you choose a style for your home, however you get that style into play, there has been effort put into that decor. So own it! Don’t spend your life running around chasing trends. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I’ve seen MY white kitchen style come and go MANY time though the decor world. It ALWAYS comes back. Always. I win again.

Now back to creativity. Please, I beg you, no more dinosaur movies of the Jurassic type. For God’s sake come up with something NEW. Oh god I cannot bear to say Smurf. What you are doing is copying the old folks you don’t respect, taking our ideas and changing costumes, changing race and gender of the characters or heroes. That’s pretty cheap and pathetic and you should be asking yourself what happened to creativity? I think the answer will disturb you.

And can I just say, if I’m held hostage, I don’t want a girl coming to rescue me. I want a big, tall, muscular man. That is also my style and I also like it.

So there you go.

We can talk about these ideas and more when you call me to talk about the new stuff in real estate. Yep. Changes every year. I’m Brenda, with Premier Advantage Realty, at 919-210-6113.