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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Monday, November 8, 2010

Interior Painting - A Quick Fix to Your Home for the Holidays

With the holidays fast approaching, so are your holiday visitors. Is your home company-ready? If not, there's still time to do something about it, according to Debbie Zimmer, spokesperson for the Paint Quality Institute.

Why is it that we tend to spot deficiencies in our décor just before family and friends are due to arrive?

"In the throes of day-to-day living, most of us become somewhat blind to the condition of our rooms, including their color. But when it really counts, we take a harder, more critical look. All too often, we don't like what we see. When that happens, we are left with a couple of options: We can panic. . . or paint," says Zimmer.

Nothing changes the appearance of a home interior faster, or more effectively, than a fresh coat of interior paint, she says. And, giving a room an entirely new appearance at holiday-time can help lift your spirits and that of your guests.

What's especially nice about painting just prior to the holidays is that you can even choose colors that are appropriate for the season. . . as long as you'll still love them when the day is done.

Zimmer, an expert on color, offers some suggestions: "At Thanksgiving, fall colors that mirror the time of the year are most attractive -- harvest gold, ochre, brown, beige, and rust, for example. And nothing is cozier and more inviting at Christmas or New Year's than a special dinner set in a beautiful dining room decked out in a deep shade of red or green paint."

If you are really pressed for time, you can paint just an accent wall in a holiday-appropriate color, says Zimmer. "Painting even one wall can make a big difference in the appearance of a room and it can be done in a just a few hours. If you fall in love with the color, you have the option of painting the rest of the room at a later date, and if you happen to tire of it, you haven't invested much effort," she says.

Assuming that your pre-holiday painting is focused on rooms that will be filled with people, keep in mind that paints with higher sheen levels will be more stain-resistant and easier to clean. To make cleaning even easier, be sure to use durable top quality 100% acrylic latex interior paint.

And keep in mind that top quality latex paint offers another nice advantage: It has very low odor; plus, any minor odor it may have will dissipate very quickly. Even if you paint only a short time before your guests arrive, no one will catch a whiff of it!

So think about giving yourself and your family an unexpected gift this holiday season – the gift of color. The cost is very reasonable, and a beautifully painted room will provide pleasure not just at the holidays, but throughout the year!

For more information on color selection and interior painting for the Holiday season please contact 360renos

360renos
Dave Bennett
Owner
phone 613.429.5000
mobile 613.282.2124
email dbennett@360renos.ca
www.360renos.ca

"Everything you can imagine is real" - Pablo Picasso
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Article with excerpts from Earth Times