Renovating to sell? Here’s how to transform your home, fast!

Interior designers are often brought in to assist people right before they look to sell their home.  The client may be selling for any number of reasons, and they’ve realised that time is against them and that some professional help is required to enhance the existing property and ideally, increase the sale price!

Recently, I’ve helped a number of people as they look to move to the next stage of their lives and sell the family home. More often than not, these houses haven’t seen an investment in upgrading or renovating for some years so the finishes across floors, windows, paint and cabinetry is looking dated. 

At this point, a full reno is out of the question due to time and budget, so how can you look to enhance the current property whilst not spending a fortune? 

This is where a designer is invaluable, we not only know how to transform your home fast, but how to work with existing items such as a dated kitchen to ensure any new finishes brought into the home work in harmony with original features.

When I’m asked to undertake these sorts of transformations, one thing that is really critical to me, is that whilst you might be on a budget, it’s still really important to choose the best quality finishes you can afford. Firstly, they are going to look and feel better to potential buyers, but it’s also about making sustainable choices.  Sustainable isn’t just what the product is made of or how it’s manufactured, to me it also represents longevity.  Never would I want a new buyer moving into a property only to rip up cheap carpet that’s been laid merely a few weeks prior.

So where are some key areas to focus on if you’re in a similar situation?

PAINT!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – paint is one of the most effective ways to create instant impact. Freshening up your walls, patching any holes and repainting your trims can lift a space within a matter of days. This is especially important if your house has some legacies from the 80s or 90s hanging around – think bold coloured feature walls or orange stained woodwork. 

Grubby doors benefit from a wash and lick of paint, and if the budget stretches, new door handles are like the jewellery on top of your hard work.

Here, we focused on using a warm white to enhance the feeling of natural light due to the home’s orientation.  We used Dulux Natural White for this purpose, anything heading into a “cool” white would have sucked more light out of the space. 

This was also used across the kitchen cabinetry and brick wall in the lounge room. This was a stretch of the client’s budget, but the end result is overwhelmingly worth it to modernise those spaces and reduce the heaviness of the dated brick and varnished cabinetry.  Painting kitchen cupboards can be a finicky task and the finish isn’t always durable over the long term, but here we know that new buyers will likely look to renovate the kitchen down track, so for now it provided a clean fresh look to assist with selling.

Next up is floors!

Here we had a mismatch of flooring surfaces across the main living area which needed to be addressed. The options for hybrid floors have exploded in recent years and means that you can easily have a new floor installed without necessarily having to pull up whatever is underneath.  Win win!

New vinyl planks were installed across the living space, kitchen and hallway to streamline the spaces and add a beautiful new surface underfoot.  This change alone creates such a wow moment from the time you step foot in the property – instantly enhancing the home for new buyers. 

Throughout the lounge room and bedrooms new carpet was installed. Here we pushed the client to ensure that a quality selection was made, it can be easy for a client to want a cheaper option but cheaper is often noticeable and a savvy buyer will notice.  As a designer, you want your clients choosing the best quality they can afford regardless of whether they are improving their home for sale or to live in.  The worse outcome is a new owner ripping up cheap carpets after moving in and sending a brand new product into landfill.

Our clients then utilised the services of the real estate property styling team, who have done an amazing job of bringing in simple pieces that highlight the home’s potential. This allows buyers to visualise themselves in the space and get a real feel for the scale of the rooms.

If your budget allows, you could also review window treatments, especially if these are particularly dated.  I always recommend removing window treatments in the kitchen and bathroom if these have seen better days, and in the bedrooms and living spaces a simple swap of old curtains to cost effective roller blinds can really make a difference.

Finally, there are some smaller enhancements that wont break the bank but will further increase the appeal of your home.  For this particular property there were upgrades to the kitchen sink and taps, handles and some new light fittings.  Again, all really simple, quick fixes that elevate a property and hence, its sale price.

Take a look at our interior designer services and learn how we can help you with your renovation.