Want to Sell Your Home? Avoid These Bad Living Room Designs

The best part of owning a home is customizing it to fit the homeowner’s style.  Every homeowner likes different things. This is especially true for decorating rooms. The living room is a focal point of any walkthrough when selling a house.  Many people spend a lot of time in their living room so it should be one of the selling points of the house.

However, when it comes time to sell your home, it is easy to chase buyers away with these seven bad design choices.

Placement of TV

Even though few people go without owning a TV it does interrupt the beauty of a room.  A wonderfully decorated room with a roaring fireplace is going to feel just a bit off with a sixty inch TV lurking above everyone.  Take the TV down and store it, but be sure to fix the wall behind it if there are holes from mounting it.

Taxidermy

Whether a homeowner does taxidermy, hunts, or simply likes to see heads mounted on their wall its a turn-off for most buyers.  Unless the homeowner is lucky enough to find someone with this particular interest, it is going to make buyers uncomfortable. No one wants to stare down a taxidermy deer head when they are trying to envision themselves living in the home.  

Natural Wood

The trend for wood in the past has been a lighter, more blond coloring.  This style has been shown to be fading as buyers are starting to prefer the darker wood look.  While it is not necessary to refinish all the wood floors in a house, it is a project that can help the home feel more modern if the homeowner wants to spend the money.

Blank Slate

Obviously, do not paint every single room a stark white and make the house feel like a hospital.  However, when it comes time to sell your home, it is important to paint in neutral tones before buyers walk through.  

Even though bright or very dark colors may look great in a room, or even as an accent wall, chances are that the buyer is going to want to repaint.  There is a lot of work that goes into repainting over a dark color and that is going to cost them money. Which no buyer is fond of.

Old Furniture

Some people prefer the style of older furniture while others simply do not bother to buy new furniture over the years.  Outdated furniture makes a buyer nervous. Few people like to see a couch that looks like it has been in the home since it was last sold.  It shows the buyer that the owner does not frequently update their home which could also mean they do not maintain it.

Focus On The Finish Of The Walls

After the walls are freshly painted in neutral colors it is time to think about the baseboards.  The old trend was to use very slim and short baseboards. Most were only two or three inches tall.  Now buyers like to see something closer to five inches.

Even though the smaller baseboards are not a current design trend, most buyers will be able to overlook this if they are finished well.  The most important part is completing the job without making it look like a do-it-yourself project gone wrong.

Strange Choices

Anything that is staying with the home – like an accent wall with refinished wood plants – should be taken down.  Even if it does look lovely with the bed set, it needs to go. Similar to the crazy paint colors, some people choose updating fixtures in the house with wacky or very specific designs which can also be off-putting for a buyer.

Home sellers have to step back from their home and see it as a property for sale.  They must clear the house of any specific style and leave it as a blank slate for the buyer.  This will make it much easier for the buyer to think about their belongings in the house and they will not need to worry about updating right away when they move in.