Free home makeover deadline

Can every applicant please have their photos to me by Sunday morning 10am.  Thanks very much for all the interest.

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I've had a great response to this home makeover offer, but the wrong people are getting in touch!  I'm not looking for a terrible house that needs the kitchen and bathroom ripping out, and every room needs re-decorating - I just need a house that needs lots of 'finishing touches'.  Maybe it's cluttered, maybe a couple of rooms need decorating, that's fine, but more than anything we want to teach our delegates how to arrange furniture to show the room off to its best potential, hang artwork, fit new window dressings, add accessories etc.  Lots of people tell me they can't "finish their houses off" - well here's a chance to do just that!

This sort of house is perfect: http://www.homemakeoverservice.co.uk/e14.php 

Please get in touch if you or a friend or relative would like more information - it really is a treat not to be missed.  Here's the original information I sent out:

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Do you know someone who's house is in need of a facelift, or are they thinking about selling it this year?

Can the House Doctor Network style it for them?

I'm a trainer on the network, and we are looking for a property to use on the final stage of an established training programme for our network of ‘house doctors’.  If their house is selected, they will benefit from a makeover of the entire house over a 5 day period in April this year.  Please note, this is not a makeover for the TV show!

We will be training our delegates to de-clutter, plan colour schemes, work the colour flow through the entire house, position furniture to enhance each room, dress the windows appropriately, hang suitable artwork, accessorise with new bedding, cushions, vases, plants and other items.  But don’t worry; the delegates are at the final stage of their training programme, they aren’t 'amateurs', and I will be in the house with them at all times!

This isn’t a totally free TV-style makeover - they must be willing to invest some money into the project (agreed beforehand) for accessories, but all the design work and styling will be complimentary, so they will have an amazing transformation for a fraction of the normal cost.  Our course teaches the art of “Home Staging”, which is the preparation of a property for sale, but so many of the techniques are the same as those for home makeovers that we can accept a house that isn’t intended to go on the market.

Recommendations:  The last time we ran our advanced course in the Midlands, a house in Long Whatton was chosen, and the owners would recommend us “without doubt”.  This house wasn’t going on the market, it was just ready for an update, and the owners chose to use the opportunity to decorate the house and add some new furniture too, whilst they had the professionals around to guide them! If it was simply being home staged, or having an inexpensive makeover, they would have needed to spend between £500 and £1500 on this particular house, but they chose to update their entire colour scheme, decorate and add some new furniture, so their final budget was £6,500, for a four bedroom house.   See the ‘Before’ and ‘After’ photos here: http://www.homemakeoverservice.co.uk/f10.php

Criteria: The house we are looking for has the following criteria:  Located either in Kegworth, Derbyshire or within 30 minutes drive away.    Three or more bedrooms.    Is in good condition throughout, (or they are prepared to have remedial work done before the makeover date).

Contact: Please email Lynn Pick at:  lynn@housedoctor.co.uk or call 01509 551392 for further details.                                                 ,              

Don't pretend the bed looks right if it really doesn't...

I often find beds in strange places! Double beds pushed up against walls, or floating around a chimney breast.  My rule is... double beds are made for two people, and they should have equal rights!! Space around each side of the bed... a bedside table each ... a lamp each...

Here's a few simple furniture re-arrangements that made all of the difference.

Before - no sensible place for bedside tables and lamps

After - plenty of space now

Before - two singles and a large chest competing for space



After - the room looked huge 



Before - difficult for a second person to use



After - space on each side. 
Could be improved more with two smaller tables.

Remove old fixtures - tatty bedroom overhead cupboards can really take over a room

 

Before - These old, broken cupboards were all that you noticed when you entered the room

After - We removed them, repaired the wall, and added a headboard

Before - even in a larger property, the overhead cupboards were dated and overpowering

After - wow this room looked huge!!

Don't be scared or reluctant to remove old cupboards like this when you're selling your home.  You have to remove everything from them when you're packing anyway, so why not do it first, and double the appeal of the room.  No-one else will want old, broken units, and they may not realise how easy it is to remove them.  

Put all your clutter on display...

An ex-declutter client of mine has just shown me this link.  A Chinese artist, Song Dong, has put 10,000 of his mother's posessions on display in an exhibition in London - five decades of clutter! 

http://m.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/feb/14/chinese-artist-clutter-london-exhibition?cat=artanddesign&type=article

Furniture placement can make such a difference

Before - the TV felt wrong in the middle of the window

After - the sofa had been creating a 'block' in the room

Simple re-arrangement of furniture was all that was necessary to improve this room.  The furniture, colours and eveything else was fine.  Moving the TV and repositioning the sofa opened the room up for a better photograph.

Don't create storerooms, you're throwing money away

Before - a store room, unused and unloved

After - a useful study with seating area

The homeowners didn't know what to do with this room. Their family had grown up and they didn't need the space themselves, so it became a storeroom. That's fine, until you want to sell the property. Then, your "business head" has to take over. This room accounted for one quarter of the floor space downstairs, so if it didn't have a sellable "use", it would be like throwing money away. There was already a good dining space in the living area, so it wasn't needed as a dining room. The best use in this case was a study. Useful for adults, teenagers, easy to convert to a playroom - instantly it becomes a talking point instead of a waste of space.

Grass carpet - never come across this before!

Look what I was greeted with today - "grass" carpet.  Strangely enough, I can actually see the reasoning behind this colour choice - to bring the outdoors in!  But I think it's finally time to cut it!

House Doctor makeover...

I'm a Senior Consultant and Mentor on the House Doctor Network, and helped Ann Maurice to set up this network several years ago. As part of the training for the new House Doctor consultants, we do a full-house makeover with them.
This springtime, the course is being run in Kegworth, Derbyshire. I will soon be starting the hunt for a suitable property to work on in the area, so please watch this space and contact me if you know of any posibilities. It's not completely free, the homeowners pay for the new furnishings, but all the design and styling work is provided at no cost. More details to follow soon. Thanks.

I'm definitely being set some challenges this week...

                                                                                                                               This is the "Dining Hall" of a property I'm looking forward to staging. How would you improve it?! 

Oh, I really want to stage this property..

 Going to chat to an "old"client this week about working on a second property for her - staging this potentially gorgeous grade II listed building for sale.  Really, really want to get my hands on this one!!

More photos of the golden house...

Here is the room next to the living room I showed yesterday. The homeowner had continued the pink through, which is correct - use the same colours in connecting rooms. But the pink needed swopping for gold, to bring the scheme together.     

Don't forget the wallpaper!



The pink accessories in this room were dramatic with the black and grey sofas, but the home-owner hadn't taken into account the fact that the walls had a golden background. Pinks and golds don't work together, so the room felt wrong. Just swopping the pink for gold made the room glow.

So, when chosing accessories for a room, don't forget the colour of the wallpaper!