Blank Canvas

[staceym]

My house is currently up for sale and one of the reception rooms is stripped bare. The floorboards have been sanded and tidied up, the marble fireplace stripped of the nasty white & blue paint. The walls have been replastered. My question is: should I finish the room off in a basic fashion (plain carpet or stained floor, magnolia walls etc) or should I leave it as a blank canvas for the new owner to really go to town on it? I don't want to throw money away, but I also don't want to put people off. If you were looking for a project - would you want to see it as blank as possible or would you want it to be decorated to a basic standard?
Thanks Stacey

 

[MatthewC]

My house is currently up for sale and one of the reception rooms is stripped bare. The floorboards have been sanded and tidied up, the marble fireplace stripped of the nasty white & blue paint. The walls have been replastered. My question is: should I finish the room off in a basic fashion (plain carpet or stained floor, magnolia walls etc) or should I leave it as a blank canvas for the new owner to really go to town on it? I don't want to throw money away, but I also don't want to put people off. If you were looking for a project - would you want to see it as blank as possible or would you want it to be decorated to a basic standard?
Thanks Stacey

I would think that if your house is indeed a project then it's probably OK to leave walls undecorated. If it is just the one room then you must apply some basic decoration. Is the rest of the house decorated and in good order or is it all a project? Of course, a house that requires refurbishment limits the market considerably and I would reckon you will sell more easily and get a better price if you apply basic decoration throughout (although you could possibly still leave bare floorboards).

Matthew
http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/

 

[staceym]

Thanks for your opinion Matthew, looks like I will be painting this week then......

It's the full house that is a project. 2 rooms are completed and the rest are decorated by previous owner (not in keeping with age/style of house), only the one room is bare. I can't see that a 'normal' family would buy the property, it's too big but as a renovation project it would be a dream - that's why I bought it.

(I appreciate that the value will be dramatically reduced but it's just one of those things. I've made a substantial allowance in the price to allow for work that *needs* doing. )

 

[MdB]

Speak to your estate agent - ask for their opinion as to what to do to make the house sell. Tell them to be blunt and tell you what needs to be done even if it is to repaint the wall that you have just painted in your favourite florescent pink.... (though this doesn't sound like it is an issue for you)

 

[staceym]

Speak to your estate agent - ask for their opinion as to what to do to make the house sell. Tell them to be blunt and tell you what needs to be done even if it is to repaint the wall that you have just painted in your favourite florescent pink.... (though this doesn't sound like it is an issue for you)

It's not actually up with an estate agent, it's on this website and a few other private ones. Can you believe that 2 estate agents said it was too big & they didn't want it on their books and a 3rd said he would *try* to sell it for me.....didn't really fill me with confidence about the whole thing and it all seemed like a bit of a chore. So, I decided to try and see if I could find a private buyer, as it is a project as opposed to a finished home. If I get to October and have no interest, then I will have to come up with another plan.

And no, there is no florescent pink, although the last owner did have sky blue walls in one of the reception rooms (including over half the marble fireplace!!!)

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I would think one coat of the dreaded off white would be enough.

 

[88v8]

When we decided to sell our house, there was one unfinished room. The rest was and is, though I say it myself, beautiful. So I spent £3,000 and three months finishing that room to the same standard.
I'd say that your room should be no worse than the rest of the house, at least make it livable.

Oddly enough, the agent didn't photograph our final room, probably there's too much furniture.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30811666.html

Ivor

 

[staceym]

When we decided to sell our house, there was one unfinished room. The rest was and is, though I say it myself, beautiful. So I spent £3,000 and three months finishing that room to the same standard.
I'd say that your room should be no worse than the rest of the house, at least make it livable.

Oddly enough, the agent didn't photograph our final room, probably there's too much furniture.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30811666.html

Ivor

It's gorgeous! I wish I had the time/money to stay in my property to finish what I have started because I know in 5 years time, I'll never be able to buy such a big/beautiful Victorian property for under £200k!!!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Stacey, I could just hug you for not ripping out the period features as you threatened to do last Dec. The house is a bargain, it's beautiful, the fireplaces are astonishing - so intact that I'm looking at them thinking are they reproduction?
You've obviously worked incredibly hard to get certain things looking fabulous. Well done. I hope you feel very proud of your achievements with it.

If I were buying any house at all, I would want to change every single thing - even 88v8's that's done to a very high standard above. I'd want my own bathroom, kitchen, wall coverings, ceiling paint, curtains, wax, garden design. I wouldn't rest until I'd done everything, painted every inch. For this reason I'd never buy a done house, and I would advise you to do very little in the presentation of yours.

I might be unusual but I know I'm not alone in feeling this way. More than ever, interior design and projects obsess us as a nation.

If it were mine to sell, I'd approach all the period property magazines. I see that "Period Homes and Interiors" lists houses they think are good - you could suggest yours as a "Best Buy" feature. Even the newspapers do this as I'm sure you know - our house was in a national newspaper as an interesting, historic, and cheap, property and whilst that was not what brought me to it it did look good ( in fact helped persuade me that we needed to buy it) when I found the article. And this was as rough as anything - 80s wallpaper peeling off, old scabby carpets, horrible kitchen and bathroom, no water in summer, no road here. But a great project.

You could also approach the websites advertising properties for film locations and photoshoots. As long as they were careful with the features, this could be a way of getting some free decoration.

Good luck, you will find a buyer eventually.