STOP Designing Your Home Like HGTV!

[@KatiSpaniak]

Download the Seller's Playbook Here: bit.ly/SellerPlaybook83

[@maryanncrowl1624]

One of your best videos yet. I think the most important thing you reminded people is to focus on a clean house with no deferred maintenance. It's easy to get hung up on how to stage or decorate but the cleaning and maintenance are the low-hanging fruit. It's much easier to decorate our homes when the clutter is gone and broken things are fixed. I'm speaking from experience, ha.

[@KatiSpaniak]

Thanks for this! This was from the heart for sure

[@mwebb3014]

I have always painted and decorated for me and me only because my home is for me. I have sold three houses in Dallas with walls painted brick red, sage green, lilac, blue, etc, and not a speck of grey anything. They were beautiful, cozy and wowed the various realtors I used. My houses were all very well maintained and super clean with beautiful front and backyards because I love to garden. You spend a lot of money on a house so you do you!! You’ll be so happy!

[@nutritioncoachjo]

I am right there with ya! I’ve purchased several homes and always changed the colors. I never let something as small as paint colors deter me from purchasing any house because 9 at of 10 the color is not for me. Especially if it’s grey. I am a warm color gal. I can handle white but I really hate gray.

[@lisahunter6556]

This is a great video. I personally love a quirky house and have literally told real estate agents, "Show me the house you aren't able to sell" because it's often the weird place that sings to me. I LOVE the example of the old church with the original woodwork.

[@KatiSpaniak]

Thanks!!!!

[@Pinnfeathers]

I bought a quirky house that I absolutely love, abandoned for a decade, the worst house in the best neighborhood. Who wants what everyone else has? That ubiquitous HGTV gray floor-white quartz-shiplap everywhere aesthetic is SOOOOOO incredibly boring.

[@cjtzioumis686]

Enjoy Paige's content, loved seeing her on this video. So happy you saw the value in her work

[@DeplorablesGarbage]

Get rid of the dustables. Gives you more time to do other things. I have always loved a French- Italianate look. There was a bedroom set that I had wanted since 1986. I found it on Craigslist last year. I bought it and I love it. I have a couch and a chair and ottoman from the 1890s. I get such enjoyment from sitting in them. I found two 1990s over stuffed chairs that match everything like they were made for each other. I struggled because I had been a Realtor and stuck in the “staging” mode. Recently I decided that I want to live in MY HOUsE! I love my furniture. I have no deferred maintenance and I keep everything clean since I got rid of the dustables. Enjoy your home and decorate it how YOU will enjoy it!

[@woodlucker1968]

I think design trends are really changing quickly right now. We are definitely moving away from the modern farmhouse and gray to more of what this young woman describes in her KZbin. I follow her and I think she has a very solid take on what people want. Especially in the larger urban areas of America.

[@lindawilson4625]

I love this video LOL! Thanks for the clarification, but I felt I understood what you meant when you said make it look like HGTV. Sparse & crisp describes it well. In a nutshell: keep your home well maintained, then when ready to sell...deep clean & declutter (depersonalize while you're at it), fresh paint that photographs well, then stage it with HGTV type of stuff. Not dusty old "Grandma" stuff. Doing that will appeal to older buyers who can see past the decor and younger buyers who often can't. You won't "turn off" and market segment that way. The home we bought in 2019? Built in 1977, never updated, but well maintained (including the yard) & very clean...we love it. After we painted the interior another couple really wanted to buy it, too! We will keep it "as is" as long as it remains fuctional for us. Our bathrooms would make you burst out laughing, but the whole house has a cohesive vibe :-)

[@KatiSpaniak]

Thanks for your comment!

[@willsx2]

Katie, if you want to start less stressful decorating of your home for you and your family, Nick Lewis just dropped a video today about finding your design style and how to work with it. Personally, I love what you have done with your bookshelves!

[@maryanncrowl1624]

I second that. I love Nick Lewis...

[@privateinfo1711]

I enjoyed watching Fixer Upper. I really wasn't crazy about Joanna Gaines' decorating though. She seemed to do the same thing in every house.

[@well57seasoned]

Terrific video. Loved the designer because she caused me to really think about my own buying decisions. As a senior who sold our large home in 2021, we had a professional stager who removed most of our furniture and brought in her staging items. Best decision. We bought our current home in Tennessee all online. What we couldn’t do was “hear the road noise” behind our house and the tight parking situation for our cars. But, the house met our needs even though the master bath was painted “Vol” (University of Tennessee Volunteers) ORANGE!! Quick paint job fixed that. And, that’s one of the difference in generations. Those of us in our first 60’s and 70’s always knew that we would have to do something to the homes we bought and learned how to do that (painting, fixing up floors, etc). We were busy, too,

[@didomilan1725]

Paige is great, also Caroline Winkler. the cleaning and de cluttering are the most important IMO, and that’s what I’ve taken from you Katie. It’s made me look at my habits differently.

[@elisabethvismans]

My home is for me to live in. I took out the bathtub in the master bathroom because I don’t like a bath. I shower. The bathroom is redesigned the way I want it. Most buyers rip out the bathroom anyway. The plumbing is still there so easy to replace the fixtures. When I buy a house I look at the bones of the house. Not at the stuff that’s easy to change. This house was not niceley decorated but everything was high quality. I’m from the Netherlands and lived in several different countries. Here in the States everyone has the same matchy matchy design, over the top or just plain horrible. I’m a visual artist. My physical environment is important to me. When people enter my house the first thing they say is how much they love it. We, Europeans collect things and find a nice place for it. We have old and new. It has character. I lived in Paris and designed my bedroom in the French style. That is the main team in house. Subtle though. Not in your face with Eiffel towers, chickens and definitely no words like kitchen, home sweet home etc. The walls are painted a cool blueish white which goes well with my colorful oil paintings. I do have some variations in all color. One accent wall is painted in the rijksmuseum color blue. It’s so cool. It’s my home and I love it. It was somewhat outdated, built in 1993, but very clean when I bought it 4 years ago. I changed all the wall colors, new light fixtures. Painted doors white, replaced door handles throughout, ripped out carpet in the bedrooms, etc, etc. This year I worked on the outside of the house and the yard. It looks awesome. It’s unique. It’s me. The next owner can do the same for all I care. I buy and sell on FB marketplace where I have found many beautiful well made pieces for a very reasonable prices. I also have a lot of plants which brings nature in. I live on a golf course in WV with lots of trees around. My front yard is more like a forest. Anyway the interior designers on KZbin all mention the same old stuff. Boring. Why don’t they mention to buy art, real art from local artists instead of from major box stores?

[@stacyfausett5436]

Excellent information ❤

[@helaineclendennen8603]

I appreciate your clarification, but I never confused staging with decorating because I remember you did address that and I understood the difference from what you said originally. But then I listen to everything, and maybe somebody else came in and heard one thing and misunderstood it. I’m still really appreciating all you do to assist sellers in getting the best price. We have decided to hold off selling right now because prices in our area are going down in order for people to sell their homes and we can afford to wait, but I am so happy knowing that I will be ready when the time comes!

[@terrikim4992]

Katie these are such interesting and helpful videos. You should have many more subscribers.

[@Singlesix6]

Two years ago we spent a lot of money having two bathrooms torn out and redone. My wife told the contractor to put one sink in the 5-foot-long vanity in the master bath. I thought the contractor and his designer were going swallow their tongues and choke, "But the resale with 2 sinks is much better. Nobody does one sink anymore." When she straightened them out I ended the episode by asking if we could have two toilets in there. Sounded practical, but my wife was running things, so I went out to spend some quality time in our, my, 3-car garage moving things around to suit me.

[@Fuzzmom903]

Thank you!! Finally, someone besides Paige (whom I also watch), gets it! I’m currently renovating, and I have to constantly hear about how ppl pull down wallpaper, because I’m putting up wallpaper. I’m just like, and???? I’m not living in my home based on what the next buyer will want. I’m living in my home based on what I want. It’s my home, not the next buyer’s. Contrary to popular (HGTB) belief, I love pigment, wallpaper, brown furniture, honey oak. . . I don’t like gray walls, beige walls, blue walls, microwaves over the range, quartz in the kitchen (heat is an issue in a kitchen), clean lines, stainless steel. . . Last point, a friend was telling me that a relative’s Gen Z kid just bought a brand new house, and had “ruined” it by painting every room a different color, “like a clown” house. Somehow I the gray walls should have sufficed. Wow. Just wow.

[@KatiSpaniak]

Thanks for your comments!!! Glad to hear this!

[@LouisGonzalez-py1zd]

Joanna Gaines is a one look designer

[@LaBefana-j2r]

This resonates so much with me. Where I live, a lot of people are looking for something vintage and artsy with unique features. More of a “pinterest” look as opposed to the HGTV look.

[@adriaba790]

Hello Kati, Good advice as usual...understanding staging vs decorating BTW what happened to the Monday live podcasts with Warrick?

[@user-hm5zb1qn6g]

The enduring popularity of Tex and Edna Gaines has always mystified me.

[@mwebb3014]

😂😂👍

[@vikingprincess634]

IKR? What made them the beginning and end all of home fashion? I don’t get it either. 🤷‍♂️

[@jeanettetran97]

This is the video I needed rn. I am moving into my new home and I’m not painting it white when it’s time to resell. I’m making it how I like it

[@KatiSpaniak]

Good to hear!

[@kitw76]

I thought farmhouse style was out. I know dark and moody is popular . My home never had grays. My home is more warmer tones even when we got new flooring I went warm brown tone. We did a kitchen remodel earlier this year and I went with white cabinets only because previously we had very dark ones. I went with a countertop with creams, whites, tan and darker tan/blackish tones not just white. It does have a nice design but not over the top by any means. I thought it helps flow with the flooring and wall color which is Accessible Beige. Katie mentioned she has this wall color. I have accent colors of blues. Overall our decor is blues, creams, beiges and whites. It’s coastal colors but Not beach theme at all. We live in Fl so it works nicely.

[@1_viewer]

Love it!

[@KatiSpaniak]

Thank you so much!

[@EmmazingGal]

Hmmm.... in my own opiniom it is hard to be unique if following the HGTV formula becuase if you style your house the tv show way and have one unique feature, that feature is gonna stick out like a sore thumb and may clash with the whole design of the rest of the house and be at odds with the people coming to view the open house. Aslo I think another problem is that having an open layout for the entire livingroom, diningroom, and kitchen you loose the ability to style each room individually which limmits spaces where you can showcase your own stastes.

[@KatiSpaniak]

Yes. Good point

[@annepisacano8012]

If you are updating the sellers playbook, do we need to download frequently?

[@j.m.7056]

Kati, will you please provide a link to that specific video from Paige? Thanks!

[@KatiSpaniak]

Im putting it in the description for this video

[@j.m.7056]

​@@KatiSpaniakThanks so much!

[@mikekeenanphd]

As homes have gotten more expensive relative to income, it becomes understandable that people think about resale value and maintaining the value of their home. Doing anything too "interesting" could be a problem.

[@conservativemovement]

Je l'aime beaucoup de tchotchke!

[@createwithconfidence8094]

I have a hard time making decisions, not about furniture, but making paint color choices. I agree about maintenance-- have no deferred maintenance in your home and property. Right now, we need to rip out a concrete driveway and paver stone walkway because the expansive clay soil has caused either heaving (driveway) or collapsing (front walkway). I shudder to think how we might accomplish the maintenance. How do we determine how to install the new material? Who is our best bet to partner with to ensure we have a driveway and walkway that is well constructed and appropriate for the property and the soil issues?

[@KatiSpaniak]

Great question. Do you have a community Facebook group for moms? I would post in there

[@alynnem0z]

OMG I can't make a decision on anything. kitchen floor, interior paint, exterior paint and roof color...helppppp

[@allalala9916]

Trendy home design goes out of style quickly and I get tired of trendy design quickly myself so unless I have a ton of money I will only go trendy with things that are easy to change.

[@KatiSpaniak]

Agreed!

[@lisat.8138]

Some of us do not want to live in a farmhouse!

[@maryanncrowl1624]

I always smile when I see the farmhouse debate because I actually live in a farmhouse. On a farm. So while I don't think I'd want a farmhouse style in the big city where we used to live, it would seem weird to have an inner city type home here in the middle of a 30 acre farm. So sometimes (not always) style preference is relevant to where you actually live.

[@Fuzzmom903]

Real farmhouses are nothing like the design style.

[@marshavongrimmenstein3069]

You trivialized PTSD. It is a serious disorder and should be respected as what it is.

[@butterflygirl3359]

So I’m positive that even young buyers can understand and visualize when they are lucky enough to find a house in the right location, with the right layout and at a price they can afford, what the walls will look like when they move in and paint them the colors they want them. I would absolutely not give the buyers $10,000 worth of “custom color” painting unless they paid me for it.