360renos - Home Improvement & Decor

How to make your home stand out when selling

We can help your house sell quickly and at a good price -- even in a slow market.

It takes a lot more than sparkling windows, scented candles and chocolate-chip cookies to sell a home in today's market.

Improvements should be made so that the property shows well, is consistent with the neighborhood and does not involve capital investments.

Beyond any doubt, the best investment you can make is new paint. Painting can make a room or an exterior façade look brand-new, and totally transform the look and feel of a room or the entire residence. It is always wise to be somewhat restrained when choosing colors for a home-staging paint project. Avoid choosing colors that are too individual or flashy and favor neutral colors and schemes. This does not mean painting everything white, however.

Use subtle color schemes to accentuate the home's strengths and minimize weaknesses. Dark colors, for example, tend to make a room feel smaller, while lighter colors and pastels can make a room feel bigger.

There is another benefit to painting as well: the process of preparing the interior or exterior surfaces of a home for painting automatically allows us to go over the entire area receiving paint in great detail, and this can often expose items or areas requiring repair. It seems you always discover where the caulking has let go, where the wall is dinged.

It is always preferable that we discover and deal with these items before the real estate agent (or worse, the prospective buyer) points them out to you!

Dave - 360renos




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Friday, February 15, 2008

Make a Room Look Larger with Paint

It is often true that a current living situation does not allow you to have the luxury of huge spaces in your home. Therefore, the question of how to make a small space look larger often arises. With some simple painting techniques and attention to decorating, any room can be transformed from a small cubicle to a luxurious living area that seems much larger than it really is.

Paint can significantly aid in making a small room appear to grow in size. Cream and white, icy blues, pale greens, and butter yellows are perfect selections of paint that not only appear to open up a room in size, but aid natural shades that will make the room feel warmer.

When these colors are transferred to furnishings, larger furniture items will appear to almost be part of the walls, and therefore, create a more open feel to the room. Furniture pieces can be distinguished with ornamental trim, such as stenciling, handles or brackets, but the shades of the furniture can aid in the “growth” of the room.

A room may also be made to look larger when the furnishings that are selected for the décor do not block doorways, windows or other pathways that lead throughout the home. These spaces are important to creating a larger space because they are generally areas of light. Light has the ability to appear to expand the size of the room, as well as enhance the richness or tone of that colors that used.

Therefore, whenever possible be sure to allow natural light, as well as manufactured light, to be part of a small space. Lights can also be added to bookshelves, corners of the room or to showcase artwork.

Light is also a consideration when selecting curtains. Most professional designers recommend using sheer draperies that will allow as much light into the room as possible. Sheer drapes also have the ability to reduce the feeling of clutter and weight in a space.

The chosen colors of the room can be transferred to upholstery, as well as large pieces of furniture. When covering upholstered furniture, it is best to either use a complimentary shade of the wall paint, or use neutral tones that are solid, not patterned. The more simplified the colors of the upholstery, the less “busy” and cluttered the room will feel. Splashes of color can be added with accessories, such as pillows if needed.

Dave - www.360renos.ca

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