FSBO Jane

Do you want to upgrade an area of your house but are not sure which area to choose? Want to know what potential buyers are most looking for in a new house? According to this Buy Owner Blog post, the Lansing State Journal stated that home buyers find improvements in the kitchen and bathroom to be most important.

With this information, you can upgrade areas of your house that you know most home buyers are looking for! The blog throws out some ideas of aspects to improve, such as upgrading appliances, adding a kitchenette, upgrading a bathroom with a double, his/her vanity and separating the toilet from the rest of the bathroom. The blog even links to past articles that offer advice on upgrading cabinets, countertops, sinks, lighting and décor in these rooms. It’s basically a how-to article for every aspect of your bathroom and kitchen!

Once you make these upgrades, if you’re advertising with Buy Owner, you can upgrade your ad to include these new aspects of your home. Home buyers will see that your home was recently remodeled or upgraded in the rooms that matter most to them, they’ll check it out and the rest is history. Blogs that supply all necessary information are the most helpful tools in the world, at least from a fellow blogger’s perspective!

If you still think all kitchen and bathroom faucets turn on with a knob, think again. The faucet industry doesn’t even design faucets with knobs anymore. Now, faucets look futuristic, sleek and curvy.

For example, there is the single-hole lavatory faucet that displays two square handles and a smooth, enclosed disc cartridge that curves down from the handles and toward the sink bowl. Then there’s a lavatory faucet that displays a popup handle and a flat plate where the water flows from. Some of these faucets produce a rounded, more direct flow of water, whereas others produce a wide, flat waterfall of water. Aside from the actual faucet, some of the sinks that come with the faucets contain a bowl that rests above the countertop instead of inside of it.

According to the senior product manager of Kohler, the shift came from the shift of how people view water. Instead of homeowners viewing a sink as a place to wash dishes or teeth, they now see a sink as a source of water, which can be soothing and tranquil. The modern style of faucets displays sleek, smooth surfaces and curvy, sculpted shapes. The water flows with more elegance and calmness, offering a sense of peace and tranquility.

Don’t believe that a faucet could create all that? Take a look at these “modern and luxury faucets” from FaucetLine.com, Kohler and Signature Hardware, and decide for yourself.

Attention, all of you in California! If you’re remodeling your home, you must check out KitchenExpo.com. Head designer and owner Rick Fahmie created this full-service kitchen, bath and construction firm in 1984. He says that he “tries to work outside the box to create trends, not follow them.” So whether you want to spruce up the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, the bedrooms, an entertainment room or really any kind of space you can think of, this is the place you should call.

Some of these exquisite materials (woods and fabrics) may look really expensive, but Kitchen Expo has something for every budget. If you notice, the designs are known for their unique curves, as opposed to conventional lines typically seen on a give table or cabinet. For example, take a look at the photo gallery for the first traditional kitchen. The countertops curve, the island is round and the cabinets boast arched details. From looking at the pictures on this site, each room looks like it should be an exhibit at an art museum!

One of the best ways to give a bit of flair to a space is to add an accent wall. It’s not just about painting one wall a bold color either. You can install mirrors or faux brick, or you may even find a wallpaper that works well with the rest of the room’s décor. However, you should be careful of where you plan to place a certain accent wall.

Living Room/Great Room

If you want to stick with a colorful accent wall, choose your color wisely. Bright colors like lime green or bright yellow may shock house guests. Some popular color choices for rooms with a modern décor include burgundy, tan or even dark brown. Burgundy goes with black or brown furniture, so that might be a good choice if you have not picked out furniture for the room yet. If you want a particular object to be a focal point of the room (like a fireplace), that is the wall you need to paint.

Quick tip: Mirrored walls make a room appear larger than it actually is! The living room is a good place for a mirrored accent wall, especially if you plan on entertaining guests.

Dining Room/Kitchen

You probably wouldn’t want to put a mirrored wall in a dining space. Who really wants to watch themselves eat? One of the best accent walls to place in these rooms is the faux brick wall. It adds sort of a country charm to the space, and it makes you feel as if you are on a picnic or enjoying a nice meal outside your cozy cottage in the woods.

Bedrooms

Since this is your private space, anything goes really. You could choose to paint, to install mirrors or to plaster up a mural. First, you will have to decide if you want a plain palette with just colored walls or if you want a theme to your bedroom (sports, outer space, nature, etc). This is the space where you should feel free to be as bold and as crazy and you want!

Lanai/Patio Area

You might be thinking, “Why do I need to decorate the outdoor area? Can’t I just do that with the natural landscaping?” While it is a good idea to adorn your yard with tropical flowers or lush foliage, you can do more with the space than just adding plant life. This is where a mural may come in handy, especially if you are going for a specific theme like tropical island, tiki bar or aquatic paradise.

If you’ve got a kitchen, bathroom or piece of furniture with outdated cabinets that you aren’t ready to replace completely, whether for financial reasons or otherwise, consider painting them instead! Painting your cabinets can give them a totally fresh, like-new appearance that is as good as replacement.

Here are some examples of transformation that I liked online:

Kitchen: (part of larger remodel) dated ‘80s to sleek modern! Source: L.A. Times.

Kitchen: boring wood to beautiful black! Source: Chatting at the Sky.

Furniture: dark to light! Source: Design Sponge.

If you don’t have the time (or the money) to make major renovations to your kitchen, don’t even worry about it! There are tons of ways you can spruce up the cooking/dining space in your home. Here are five quick tips:

1. Replace the hardware on the cabinets. Getting brand-new cabinets can be an expensive project. It could even take as long as a few months to demolish the existing cabinets and to install new ones. Instead, why not choose new knobs or handles? Before you shop around, though, make sure you know how the knobs/handles are screwed into the door. They’re usually held in place by one screw. Make sure to check, though, just in case.

2. Appeal to the senses. You don’t always have to be cooking something amazing in the kitchen to get sweet aromas to fill your house. Try lighting ginger-scented candles or placing decorative bowls of potpourri on one of the counters. And if you want to appeal to visitors or family members’ stomachs, you could also decorate with a bowl of fruit or a basket of vegetables. That way, the food is also right at your fingertips whenever you do decide to cook!

3. Add curtains to a window above the sink. If you have ever watched Leave It to Beaver or Lassie, you’ll notice that there’s always some kind of cute café curtains adorning the window in the kitchen. Add some country charm to the space. It also adds some femininity to the room, reminding people of their momma’s home cookin’.

4. Make your own wall decorations. How many times have you read a magazine, and a food photo made your mouth water? Cut out the picture, stick it in a frame and hang it up on a wall in your kitchen. Make the kitchen all about food. You don’t just have to cook and eat in there. You can enjoy looking at it, too!

5. Declutter! I’ve said this all along, for any room. It’s not very attractive when you have piles of paper or other loose ends piling up on/falling off counters. You’ll even want to raid the cabinets for expired food and items you don’t even use. Do you really need two can openers, seven bottle openers or 50 different Tupperware containers? Get rid of the mess and your kitchen will look much better (inside and out).

Whether you are cooking a meal on the stove, washing the dishes in the sink, or loading up that handy dishwasher, you’re going to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, facing the wall. Adding a backsplash not only makes your kitchen appealing to others, but it gives you something to look at, as well, instead of staring at a boring, neutral-colored wall.

Forget installing high-end granite, stainless steel or glass tile backsplashes! Try something affordable. You don’t even to install a faux backsplash. All you have to do to create a unique feature to your kitchen is grab some paint, along with a few tools, and get to work. Some of the most desired options for faux painting including tile, stone and wood.

Tile

You can easily achieve the look of a tiled backsplash by using stencils or by measuring/taping off sections of the wall. Either way, you want to make sure that your stencil/tape is at least 1/4 inches, as that is the width of most grout lines between wall tiles. The height depends entirely upon how big you want your faux tiles to be.

To achieve a sparkling tile look, mix three parts clear glaze with one part of the paint color of your choice. Once applied to the wall, the mixture can be dabbed with a sponge if you want to create a different texture other than a flat finish. Remove the tape when you are done, and let everything dry. Boom! You’re done!

Stone

Start with a base coat of white latex enamel, and apply it with a sponge brush. Let it dry, and then coat half of the wall with an earth-toned or neutral-colored glaze (with a different sponge brush) in random spots on the wall. Repeat this step with an even darker glaze, applying it to the rest of the wall, on the places in which you skipped over when you applied the neutral glaze.

After everything has dried, the next step is to wash. Use whitewash in some areas and another earth-tone wash in other, the same way you applied the glaze. The more random the pattern, the more natural your wall will look.

Before the wash dries, crumple up a piece of newspaper and dab the wall, like you would with a sponge. Repeat this process until you achieve your desired look.

Wood

Apply a yellow base coat, preferably mustard or ocher, and let it dry. To create a glaze, mix one part white vinegar with six parts burnt umber/sienna water color paint. Apply the glaze to the wall.

If you want a grainy type of look, drag a comb across the glaze before it dries. You could also dab the wet glaze with a sponge. Each object gives the wood-like wall a different finish. Experiment! You can always change your mind.

After the glaze dries, apply one coat of oil-based varnish so that your faux wood backsplash shines as if it were the real thing.