Interior Design with
Julia Luttrell
Mini renovations reap maximum rewards
So Martha, you say you are selling your house? To take the trauma out of
the transition you’ve assembled all the experts to advise you. You’ve
loved this house, it’s mid-size, structurally sound, well maintained, in
a good neighbourhood and your appraiser says you’ll get a fair price for
it, as is.
Your realtor however, suggests that investing a few thousand dollars for
a mini face-lift will increase the selling price considerably. You
wonder whether it’s wise to put in the work. Does it make sense to sink
money into the sale? If so, what should you spend? What changes can you
make to have maximum effect on its perceived value?
Well Martha, it’s a fact; a craft conversion can as much as quadruple
your investment in returns!
As little as $1500 may bring you a return of $6000, for a $5000
investment, your house may be sold for an additional $20,000. Each
situation is different, however it’s in your realtor’s interest to avoid
pricing your house out of the market, so you can trust his or her advice
on how much you should spend.
Any house can benefit from a new paint palette and a dash of divine
decorating and putting a fresh face on your home is fundamental to a
fast sale. Delighted buyers will delve deeper into their pockets for
custom features that distinguish their new home from the ‘formula’
design of standard construction.
Living in a home does over time, tend to distort one’s perception of how
it may be viewed through the eyes of others. Those little imperfections
you’ve learned to live with may appear to be major flaws to an outsider.
You may also have grown so accustomed to the more charming features of
your home, that you no longer see the potential to enhance and highlight
them to their best advantage.
As long as you are assembling the experts, you should know that the key
to increasing the perceived value of your home is the connection between
your realtor and a reputable designer. Your realtor should be able to
recommend a good designer and a talented designer is trained to walk
through your home and spot minor changes that can be made to achieve
maximum effect.
A good designer will know how to refurbish kitchen cabinets, restructure
storage space and use the creative blend of colour, or the simple
addition of well-placed mouldings to increase functionality and
transform any space from blah to beautiful, within a limited budget.
With skill, creativity and minimal materials, plain kitchen cabinets for
example, can be updated on site without the disruption or cost of
replacement. The result gives the effect of a new high-end custom
designed kitchen, for a mere fraction of the cost.
In this instance, a small decorative moulding is applied to any exposed
sides of the existing cabinetry and then the entire cabinet receives a
coat of tinted primer.
Moulded fibreglass embossed panels, manufactured to mimic traditional
Victorian embossed tin wainscoting, are then applied to the cabinet
doors and framed in with a delicate moulding edge detail. As an
alternative to these fibreglass panels, anaglyptic (embossed) wallpapers
may be used.
In either case, the embossed application, as well as the entire body of
the cabinet is then painted. I recommend a rich ‘no-fear-of-colour’
colour. A Moroccan red earthtone, or an eggplant, or a deep blueberry
colour will look fabulous! A faux finish is then overlaid onto the
embossed panels only, to produce an ‘antiqued’ effect.
Add a crown moulding to the top and a simple light
box valance to the bottom of the cabinet. Finish with a Victorian
ceramic knob for the cabinet doors and a ceramic backsplash to
coordinate. Change the countertop only if it is necessary to make the
colours work.
The completed project should cost under $3000, yet the unique custom
details will create an upscale effect that suggests you’ve spent five
times that! So ferret out the best experts and then trust them. Your
fabulous kitchen will be just one small feature among many that will
sell your home in a heartbeat for more money than you’d ever counted on.
