There is a general impression that the ideal way to sell a property is to paint the entire place magnolia. Research shows buyers do want a blank canvas, but also want to buy a house which feels like a home. By introducing the right kind of colours in the right places it will achieve both.
- This task works when you think about the house / flat as a whole. Go through the house and see which is the most common colour of the cushions, curtains, ornaments, lampshades etc.
- Once you’ve identified this – this is your theme colour. If you have two main colours, choose the softer of the two (we want to introduce colour but not for it to dominate the space)
- Your theme colour shouldn’t be white, beige or cream. If you want some inspiration – a white house can have any soft colour, to break you in gently try silver of a soft grey. Beige and cream go really well with gold’s, brown and moss greens.
- Collect up all of your theme colour loose items (Don’t take curtains down!) but do think about cushions, throws, blankets, lamps, small pieces of furniture, pictures, ornaments and candle holders. We need to collect these up as they are going to be relocated around the house to ensure an even distribution of colour.
- Go through each room and remove items which aren’t your theme colour (see my other posts for storage tips)
- Using the items you’ve collected up go round the house and put them out, so there is colour in each room. Remember – your potential buyer / renter won’t know the cushions in the lounge used to ‘live’ in the spare room… they’ll just appreciate the overall affect.
- If you haven’t got sufficient items to go round the house think about investing in some small colourful items. Matalan, Ikea, Dunelm Mill and charity shops are all great places for picking up items at a very reasonable price.
- Go back round the house. If there are any rooms where the theme colour clashes with the walls – these are the rooms which you should think about painting. This is significantly cheaper than painting the entire house
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Abigail Hall Design offers a full range of interior styling services to help sell / rent properties. For a free half hour consultation please contact her on Abigail.Hall@Abigailhall.co.uk or call 07811 155194