Image by MPR529 via FlickrWe all love color in our rooms, some more than others but if you aren't careful, your color choices could be a loud red flag that says your room has not been updated in a while. Color trends of eras gone by can hurt you if you are currently in the market to sell your home so paying close attention to what those colors and finishes are can help you figure out if your home has a chance of getting sold.
The Earthy 70's
The seventies was all about wood tones and earth tones. If you doubt me take a trip through time and look at old home photographs. See a lot of wood paneling? How about on the floor? Is that shag carpet rust colored? Or perhaps you had green carpeting? Lets talk about the kitchen, remember the Avocado green appliances? Or was it Brown, or Harvest Gold? Flooring was usually a wild pattern as well and you can bet greens, and oranges and browns were in them as well. Now if your home is still hanging on to the 70's look, you may want to get it into a time machine fast and move on up to the current decade. Leave that Brady Bunch home behind.
The Pastel 80's
You may think that your buyer will not notice your eighties décor, and in fact you may not even notice or be aware of your 80's décor either. Does your home look like it was used as the backdrop for the show The Golden Girls? To help you assess whether your home is dated, watch some shows from the era and pay close attention to the décor. Whether it is the Cosby Show or Different Strokes, chances are if your home looks similar it is time for an update. Look for these clues, large over stuffed pastel and floral furniture is usually a dead giveaway. Brightly polished brass was another popular finish in the 80's and 90's. While the 80's home furniture was over stuffed and larger than life, the kitchens were suddenly taking a turn as well and County blue and similar shades. You will also notice Oak furniture was all the rage, whether it was in the kitchen, or other parts of the home, Oak was in. Oak and brass was also seen paired together.
The Hunter Green and Burgundy 90's
When we left the 80's behind, someone decided to go from warm and sunny pastels to darker cooler shades such as good old Hunter green and Burgundy. What designers didn't think through in this era was how hard it is to neutralize this color scheme, and when a color scheme is hard to neutralize, it is hard to match it to other colors not in the same color group. What does this mean to a buyer? It means unless they have all neutral furniture, they may have trouble matching their décor in your home, assuming they still want to. Hopefully if your home is caught in this time warp, a can of paint will correct it all. If not, you may be looking at some more expensive measures. If this color scheme carries onto your solid surfaces and flooring, get ready to shell out some major coinage to correct the problem.
In a rosy world, we'd like to think “if a buyer loves my home, they will make the changes to it that need to be made..” however, buyers see “changes” as extra “money” they have to spend and if a buyer thinks they have to sink an additional 5 to 10 thousand dollars updating your home, they might as well look at a more expensive home that doesn't need updating. When selling your home, think like the buyer, not the seller. Disassociate yourself from your home, pull your head out of the past, and look toward the future, if you want to sell your home. Otherwise you will find yourself sitting year after year on your little piece of nostalgia and you will have to make peace with that.
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