Live In Your Unique Home

Many people design their homes with a future buyer in mind. They choose neutrals whether or not they like them. Yes, it is safe. It might not offend anyone. They live cautiously, as if tenants in their own homes.

As a first-time homebuyer, I made different decisions. I chose to decorate our home. I did not ‘stage’ it. I did not neutralize it. I decorated it to our taste and expectations. It was not expensive, simply lovely.

I was warned repeatedly. “Nobody will buy this when you want to sell.” ‘They’ were wrong. Not only did my homes sell, they sold quickly and for top values. Even when two of my two-story foyer walls were enameled in hunter green.

Why? Because a home that has been lived in fully carries something no neutral palette can replicate. It has presence. It has coherence. It has conviction. Buyers do not respond to emptiness. They respond to authenticity.

Endless expanses of neutrals might offend no one, but they inspire no one either. They exist in a kind of suspended neutrality, waiting for permission to become something else.

A decorated home, one that has been lived in and cared for, offers evidence of permanence. It shows that the structure was worthy of investment, it was worthy not only financially, but emotionally. It shows that someone trusted the home enough to inhabit it fully. That trust has value.

A home must feel permanent and anchored. It should not feel disposable. It should neither be assembled from materials designed for replacement, nor lived in cautiously for the sake of resale. It should be inhabited fully, honestly, and without apology.

Raising children on ‘nice’ furniture and flooring helps them know that they are trusted and valued.  Pets can be trained to respect property. Do not relinquish your life and time to “children and pets” at the expense of quality and permanence. Even if an item sustains damage, that damage carries a history of time and place.  It will bring wistful memories when there is peace and order in the house.

I encourage my clients to buy the nice furniture while their children are young. Let them inhabit a home, not just a ‘playhouse.’ Help them understand value, boundaries. Help them learn care and consideration. That is a priceless education.

Choose what you love and it will endure.

Live where you are.

When the time comes, the market will recognize the difference.