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Ready, Set….SELL!

Spring is here and that means the housing market is warming up and getting ready for busy season! If you are thinking of putting your home on the market this season, consider these top tips for readying your home:

Clean, clean, clean! I’ll say it again, clean! We cannot emphasize enough the importance of a pristine home when putting your house up for sale. That means windows, bathroom drawers, appliances, porch webs and debris, and every other nook and cranny you can think of. We even encourage sellers to dust their basement appliances like water heaters and softeners, as well as furnaces.

Depersonalize and neutralize your space. Pre-pack all family photos, anything with your name on it, calendars, and other items that are very meaningful to you. Imagine you are creating a blank slate for a buyer to tour your home and be able to imagine their life there. I often tell clients, “no signs of life in your house! People know you are living here but they don’t want to know you’re living here.” That means taking laundry hampers and garbage cans with you when you leave or out to the garage, tucking away toilet brushes and plungers, removing any dish towels, rags, soap and accessories — even the cute, just-for-decoration, dish towels!

Repair is essential to preparing your home for market. The goal is for buyers to feel like your home is truly move-in-ready and that they can’t find a single project they must do. Improvements that make a difference, but sometimes get overlooked, can include:

professionally cleaned carpets
freshly painted front door (no chips or signs of ware)
closet doors that open easily and quietly, and shut correctly
walls and closet interiors free of scuff marks
demineralized faucets and shower heads
conditioned wood, especially in areas of high use or next to water sources such as railings and bathroom and kitchen cabinets
working lightbulbs with matching hues in all fixtures
patched and painted walls as needed

Refresh your home before taking photos or offering open houses. Add crisp, new white bath towels and hand towels to bathrooms. Pick up a few house plants from Trader Joe’s (or fake one’s from Ikea!) to add some life to your space. Toss lemons and limes in a wooden or ceramic serving bowl and set it on your dinner table, they’ll last for weeks! Pick out a fresh, colorful bouquet for picture day and display it on your kitchen island. Perhaps you want new bedding for your next home, buy it early and make your primary bedroom look extravagant for showings. Updating or adding hardware throughout the home can make oak cabinets look new again, and replace yellow-gold fixtures with black or oil rubbed metals. Small, less expensive changes such as updating light fixtures or replacing outlet covers, can make all the difference in the end!

It’s reasonable that preparing to sell your home feels overwhelming. You’ve built a whole life in your home and it can be a lot of work, both physically and emotionally, to prepare to let it go. I find it can be helpful to imagine you are setting up your home to bless the next family to live there. What can you do to make your home the best it can be for them? Or imagine you are a buyer for your home. What would you want to see or not see? What would feel like projects if you were just moving into the property? Put yourself in the buyers’ shoes and you’ll know just what you need to do. Of course, if all else fails, just clean, clean, clean!

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

Find Your Inspiration

We are starting a series on how to find inspiration for design. We can often feel beholden to current trends on social media or what’s available in the Target home goods section (don’t get me wrong, I’d happily use everything in that section, all of the time, everywhere, in my home!), but what if we learned to take something we truly love – a painting, our favorite blouse, a photo from our most memorable vacation – and bring it to life in our home? That’s our goal – functional design we love, that breeds life and love and warmth in our everyday.

With each post in the series, we will break down our inspiration into color palettes, materials, décor, and other elements of design and apply how they could be used in your home. We’d love to hear from you! Send us your inspiration – we’d love to use what you love to teach this series! Send pictures to katya@ahomerevival.com.

Let’s start with my favorite painting by Salvador Dali, “Girl at the Window.”

Source: Salvador-dali.org

What colors do you notice? What patterns do you see? How is light used in this photo? What elements catch your eye or hold your attention? How does the print make you feel?

For me, this painting is a reminder of the years I lived in Spain. It evokes a sense of slowness in me; calmness, the opportunity to rest and reflect. Iberian culture is built around gatherings and coffee and community – Spaniards are skilled at enjoying the moment and feeling accomplished if they succeed at completing even one to-do in a day. These are sentiments I’d love to cultivate in a kitchen – a calm, relaxing, beautiful place to gather with friends. So, let’s design a kitchen!

The Tile Shop

The cream colors and ocean waves inspire this Retro Lino Ceramic Subway Wall Tile by The Tile Shop.

Lowes

The blue hues of the girl’s skirt, as well as the ocean, provide inspiration for aqua, diamond cabinets on the lower half of the kitchen walls.

Lowes

To balance the blue cabinets, we’ll add matching cabinets, in Agreeable Gray, to the top half of the kitchen wall, and a brushed oak center island.

Décor Pad

For the walls and countertops, we’ll add bright, white elements. Its easy to miss, but there is the slightest sunray illuminating the left side of the window, adding movement and brightness to the painting. I want to replicate the same lightness in our kitchen.

I’ve selected Snowbound by Sherwin Williams for our wall color, and we’ll use a beautiful, warm, quartz for the countertops.

Sherwin Williams

Great Lakes Granite & Marble

The piece de resistance of the kitchen will be the Balboa Counter Stools with Surg Stripe Coastal Blue covers by Serena & Lily. The blue stripes, introduced by the girl’s skirt and the lines of the curtains, complete our design.

Serena & Lily

Other design elements taken by “Girl at a Window” can be added throughout the kitchen with coastal elements such as:

Rattan lighting
Sandy textured ceramics
Plants
A white, stucco stove hood
Iberian inspired dishware

Add a fancy, Illy, espresso machine, and perfect your array of tapas, and you have yourself your very own Spanish, communal, oasis!

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

Crazy for Tile!

I love, love, love picking out tile. So many choices and not enough rooms. HA! Have you seen the tile available these days? The textures, the patterns the colors!

Whether you are renovating to live or updating to sell, tile can add a touch of whimsy, make a bold statement or create a sense of luxury.

The tile on the right is one of my latest selections for the back wall of a double sized walk-in shower. You just want to touch it to see what it is. The patina finish, along with the modern yet classic subway tile that will go around it, is the perfect combination.

The printed black and white tile in this photo is going on a kitchen backsplash. It will give the feel of having been around a while in an otherwise very sleek white kitchen. It’s the unexpected.

Check out some of these patterns and textures:

Photo Credit: The Tile Shop

Timber_Trails_Varsity_Blues_MudRoom-1025×1536

Photo Credit: The Tile Shop

Photo Credit: The Tile Shop

Subway tile, like you see in the tub area above, is timeless and classic. It is a good balance with almost any patterned tile to keep it from getting too busy.

No matter your project or purpose, take the time to check out all the great tiles out there and have fun!