Perfect (ly Hideous) Neutrals
Posted by: Alan in Book Reviews, Books, Home Ownership, Non-Fiction
Lately Ron and I have become regular viewers of a show on HGTV where two rather pompous designers visit with the owners of homes that have been on the market for awhile and haven’t sold and advise them on changes they should make in order to get their homes sold. What I find most striking is that in the episodes we’ve seen so far all but one of the hapless home owners has followed the advice (neutralize, Neutralize, NEUTRALIZE!!) and still not found a buyer. The one exception is a home owner who was still contemplating whether or not to follow the designer’s advice when she received an offer and sold the house Without "neutralizing" it. And therein perhaps lies an object lesson for the designers preaching the gospel of Neutrality.
Stephanie Hoppen, author of Perfect Neutrals:Color You Can Live With is one of those designers. The book is an oversized hardcover filled with lots and lots of full page photographs of homes decorated in in what Hoppen describes as the "neutral" shades which, she believes, exist in Every color. Perhaps. I can’t honestly say I understand color and design enough to claim that Hoppen is wrong. I can, without hesitation, state that for me more often than not the pictured decor was downright hideous. One photograph in particular of an incredibly ugly huge black chandelier poised over a dining table in a room dominated by cream tones and terra cotta positively hurt my eyes. It seems to me that Hoppen, like those television designers, is pushing an approach that is a great deal more about their own personal vision than about meeting the home owner or home seller’s particular needs. And as the experience of those homeowners on television shows, accepting and implementing that vision is no guarantee you will be able to sell. Not Recommended.
This is not to say that there is no merit to the oft repeated advice to home sellers to clear out their accumulated junk and excess furniture and stage the house so that buyers can more easily imagine themselves living there. (Another current show on HGTV whose experts take a more handyman let’s get this place cleaned up approach to helping owners of homes that don’t sell seems to be a lot more succesful. In contrast to the first program, these half hours frequently end with the home being sold.) If you are a home seller in need of this latter approach Sid Davis’ Home Makeovers That Sell is a much, much more useful book. Packed with detailed and specific advice about cleaning and staging your home and calculating what improvements will and will not pay off in terms of selling the home, this handy trade paperback will go a long way to helping you get your house sold without converting you to the design school of neutrality. Recommended. For more great tips for home sellers and buyers be sure to visit Cecelia Sherrard’s Real Estate Blog.
And finally today, a tip of the hat to Edge of Sanity who yesterday posted a very clever bit of link love.
Tags: Book Reviews, Books, Home Makeovers That Sell, Home Ownership, home staging, Luke White, Perfect Neutrals, Sid Davis, Stephanie Hoppen
Entries (RSS)
May 7th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Hey Alan, thanks for the mention! You’re right, timing is impeccable. I just wrote a few seller posts about neutralizing and mistakes some sellers make when trying to get their home sold. I’m a huge fan of HGTV too and long before the cable channel became a hit, we told sellers to do certain things and to *stage* their home. Some still don’t get it. It’s one of our biggest battles. They think we’re personally attacking their decor and taste and that’s just not the case. Appealing to the masses is the key and clean and cleared out are two of the biggest factors for success.
Home owners have to be a little careful watching some of the decorating shows on HGTV and getting the new designer books as many of them are now out of ideas and desperate for a new show topic and material. They’re starting to do strange things and call them fashionable. I say stick with the basics. Great post… =)
May 7th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Neutralize? But I thought the thing was to “go bold with color.” It’s so confusing! (It’s a good thing I have no plans to sell our house in the foreseeable future)
May 7th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Bev,
I honestly can’t imagine you moving. You and Walt have lived in the same place longer than anyone else I know. And I personally am a huge fan of big, bold colors, which can be done tastefully and effectively, though for all these books about houses I blog about I probably should mention that I am apartment dweller, sentenced by my lease to living in a plain white box with drab colored carpeting
Cecelia,
I had already written this post when I got your note so the timing really was perfect. I have really been impressed by your articles about mistakes that buyers and sellers alike make and I think your blog is such a great resource Because there is so much bad advice out there and so many people aiming at that market who have an agenda which may well conflict with that of the consumer.
My very best wishes to you both,
Alan
May 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am
The tip I always heard was to bake bread when you knew people were going to come view the house. Olfactory senses have a huge effect on emotions.
Anyway, I’d always heard that whole ‘neutralize’ thing too. We didn’t have time to do that when we sold our first (and only other) house, and yet it sold in one day. In fact, I gather the family that bought it in part bought it *because* of the wacky things we’d done, like paint two rooms in shades of purple and blue, and plant berry bushes all over the place.
May 17th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Ive seen the show your speaking of and I totally agree. It actually made me sort of miss some of the crazy Trading Spaces classics like the walls covered in hay because it was such a snore! I think all the neutrals make the house boring, yes its probably neater and more organized but it probably also gives off the feel that if the house had a personality it would be a real snob! Awesome post ill be sure to check back often.