The master bedroom should be your safe haven–a sanctuary where you can relax and find privacy from the stresses of the world, including family.

Here are a few tips:

* Don’t skimp on the bed size or mattress quality.

* Enhance the bed with an attractive frame/headboard/footboard, large comforters, and decorative pillows.

* Use flooring that is both attractive and comfortable. Although I usually avoid carpet, it can help make a bedroom feel warmer. However, it can also trap dirt, moisture, and allergens, which in turn can disrupt your sleep if you have allergies. I prefer hardwood with decorative rugs.

* Brighten & enlarge living spaces using lighting, paint, and window treatments, but also ensure that the room can be completely darkened when it’s time to sleep.

* Install a ceiling fan over the bed or in the middle of the room, both for decoration as well as for circulating the air to make it more comfortable on those hot summer nights.

It can be quite easy and affordable to transform a dreary bedroom into a cozy sanctuary. And it not only makes it more enjoyable for you, but also (if you are intending to sell) it enhances the ambiance of the home in the eyes of a prospective buyer.

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!

Get more information at http://HomeUpgradeIdeas.com

This has relegated the old style living room (a.k.a., great room)–often situated far from the kitchen in older home designs–into something akin to dead space, rarely seen by human eyes. Oh sure, you intend to use it whenever you have guests…but somehow you just can’t get anyone to leave the kitchen and go there.

Once upon a time, the great room was reserved for adults, often for the men folk to share a nightcap and a cigar after dinner. But today, many families turn it into a game room with billiards, ping-pong, card tables, and a big-screen TV, just to get some use out of it.

When you walk into a living room or family room, you want it to feel warm and inviting. To me, flooring is the most important feature, and you don’t want to cover it up with lots of clutter and obstructions–although an oriental rug can accent it nicely.

Here are a few tips:

* Flooring is your most important feature–make it continuous and stunning

* Brighten & enlarge living spaces using sunlight, lighting, paint

* Remove obstructions to vision and movement

* Furniture and amenities can make it or break it

As always, seek simplicity, comfort and value!

Sorry, but I’m not a big fan of wallpaper, although it can work if simple in design (no flowery prints, please.) If you have existing wallpaper in your home, you can try removing it and re-texturing the wall (if necessary), but if it is strongly adhered, you might be able to paint right over it. It has worked for me before.

If the ceilings have an acoustic (“popcorn”) sprayed surface, I highly recommend that you consider scraping it off and retexturing the ceiling smooth. (Beware, however, of possible toxins like asbestos in older acoustic ceilings.) Popcorn is an indication of cheap construction, so it’s best gone from your home.

The hardest part of choosing a color is visualizing how it will look in your home based solely on a swatch from the paint store. In general, light neutral earth tones (e.g., eggshell, almond, cream, sand, biscuit) or mediums (e.g., gray, taupe, beige) always work well. However, don’t discount darker colors altogether. Using deeper neutrals (e.g., chocolate, charcoal) for the main wall color, or adding more contrast, can make a large room seem more intimate and cozy.

In my e-book, “Transform Your House! How to Update & Upgrade (Without Major Remodeling),” I identify some inexpensive interactive software programs that let you colorize images of your own rooms so you can test a color before you paint.

http://www.TransformYourHouse.com/ebook1

Also, help your paint do its job of lightening the mood of the house by doing what you can to let in more sunlight. That means things like lightweight curtains, clean windows & screens, skylights and Solatubes.

As with the interior, paint is the most cost-effective wonder cure for the exterior of a “plain vanilla” or older home, especially if you can apply it yourself. There are so many colors and textures available to add vibrancy and character, but be careful about getting carried away with anything too crazy. What you like might not appeal to others, so stick with neutral colors.

If you like to make frequent updates to your decor, painting your home in a neutral allows you to do things like change the color of your front door or repaint your house trim without having to repaint the entire house.

But don’t be afraid to experiment with effects like a faux finish or sponge texture. After all, you can always paint over it. In fact, I have been known to go through several applications of various colors and effects before settling on something, and even then I might change it again in a month or two!

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!

Ever walk into a house with no furniture in it? If the floors are a mish-mash of old and new carpet, tile, and wood laminates, your impression is immediately negative. But if the floors are a continuous hardwood throughout, you undoubtedly will be impressed. I firmly believe that you can make more impact on your interior from beautiful floors that flow throughout the house than from any other single improvement. But with so many choices of flooring, which type should you go with?

Well, let me start by saying … I hate carpet! I don’t want to offend anyone, but in most applications I prefer to avoid carpeting. I like wood floors first and foremost, followed by tile, for most of the house. Ceramic, Travertine stone, or marble tile works best in the bathrooms, although hardwood also can work well in the bathrooms and kitchen so long as you are diligent about mopping up puddles of water.

Okay, I’ll admit that carpet might be okay for certain uses, like bedrooms, family rooms, or dens. It certainly costs less, which is a big plus. And for kids’ rooms, carpet provides greater warmth and helps insulate, and it’s much easier on the kids’ knees when they play on the floor. But carpet also tends to breed or trap bacteria, dust, pollen, moisture, assorted allergens, pet smells, bugs, and other sorts of undesirable things.

For expansive floors, nothing compares to wood. Hardwood traps none of those undesirable things and can completely transform your home all by itself. And although wood laminates can be more affordable, I personally prefer real hardwood boards (in an alternating variety of lengths and widths) laid over a plywood base–with a good moisture barrier.

Are you trying to live “green”? Wood flooring that is considered green, or environmentally-friendly, includes bamboo, cork, eucalyptus, and engineered oak.

Are you looking for something inexpensive? In general, I prefer to avoid vinyl or linoleum; however, I acknowledge that the cost incentive is hard to ignore. You might consider higher-quality inlaid linoleum for a laundry room, pantry, or even a bathroom, but stick with decorative patterns such as black & white checkerboard or faux stone.

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!

When I find pictures of a design or furnishings that I really like, I tear them out and keep them in a file folder for future reference. Sometimes such ideas are fairly easy to copy at a reasonable price.

Then, stay on the lookout for items that can help you achieve that desirable look. Sometimes I find something that works great on Craig’s List, eBay, a garage sale or the newspaper classifieds. Sometimes I find it at a retail store like Pottery Barn, Pier 1, Mi Casa, Restoration Hardware, or Z Gallerie — or any of several local stores that I like. Furniture stores or specialty lighting and hardware are my favorites for finding unique items.

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!

P.S., I go much more in-depth on this in my comprehensive e-book,
“Transform Your House! How to Dramatically Update & Upgrade (Without Major Remodeling)”

http://www.TransformYourHouse.com/ebook1

1. Tidy, well-maintained neighborhood displaying pride of ownership

2. Curb appeal (e.g., neat & tidy, impressive front door and driveway entry, decorative fencing)

3. Beautiful floors–elegant & consistent throughout the home

4. Modern kitchen & bathrooms

5. A comfortable master suite (including master bath & closets)

6. A light, bright, airy, spacious feel (e.g., new paint, ventilation, skylights or Solatubes)

7. Lush landscaping and stylish outdoor living areas (e.g., patio, barbeque, recreation)

8. Solid-core doors and double-pane windows

9. Natural materials, especially environmentally friendly (“green”)

10. An attractive, well-conceived swimming pool, and out-buildings (e.g., a guest house)

Let me expand on the subject of swimming pools for a second. Swimming pools can either increase or decrease value, depending upon the particular buyer and depending upon how you have designed and built the pool to flow and enhance the home. A pool can certainly enhance the look and feel of a home, depending on how it’s built and placed, and it can be desirable for a given segment of buyers.

On balance, however, from the standpoint of resale and appealing to the broadest segments of the market, it’s usually better to not have a pool. But if you already have one, keep it looking its best, e.g., clear water and no stains or chips. And a retractable pool cover is great for keeping it safe, clean, warm, and energy-efficient.

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!

1. A cheap, unattractive, or ill-conceived swimming pool (e.g., one that overwhelms yard, creates a safety hazard, requires high maintenance costs, is poorly placed, uninteresting design, etc.)

2. Disjointed floor plan

3. Cold, dark, or cluttered rooms (e.g., wood paneling, heavy drapes, dark paint in a small room, unattractive wall paper, “popcorn” acoustic ceilings)

4. Outdated appliances

5. Strange, grossly outdated, or overly-personal decor

6. A worn-out roof

7. Poor maintenance and many obvious repair requirements

8. Poor drainage (e.g., obvious puddling of water around the house) or other moisture & mold problems

9. Small or no garage

10. Neighbors’ homes unkempt or in disrepair — or a generally run-down, unattractive, unsafe neighborhood

Some of these are easy to fix, but several are tough to do much about. So if you are looking to buy a house, you should probably pass on it if it has the really hard-to-fix features.

But if you already own a house with hard-to-fix weaknesses, you’ll want to put extra effort into accentuating its good qualities so that a buyer might choose to overlook the obvious deficiencies.

Swimming pools are also on my list of features that can increase a home’s value, if done properly. A pool can either increase or decrease value, depending upon the particular buyer and depending upon how you have designed and built the pool to flow and enhance the home.

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!

1. For interiors, floors and paint are the most important enhancements. I prefer hardwood floors, and light or medium neutral paint tones in most cases.
2. For exteriors, paint and landscaping are the most important for enhancing curb appeal and creating outdoor living areas.
3. Remove clutter and obstructions to vision and movement.
4. Choose furniture that is bright, comfortable, and size appropriate. It’s okay to mix furniture styles, such as contemporary and rustic.

Note that I’m not addressing critically important issues that might arise during an inspection, such as drainage, electrical & plumbing, HVAC, insulation, or the roof. Certainly you cannot overlook these things.

However, my focus is on aesthetics–simpler projects that can be completed quickly but have a big impact on the look and presentation of your home.

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!

Newer homes are designed to address the desire among buyers for luxurious and spacious baths, whereas older homes generally neglected comfort and space in favor of pure functionality. Therefore, if you are updating a more modern bathroom, you are at a distinct advantage (although the quantity of tile might make it pricier, the results will be better). Nevertheless, if you are updating an older bathroom, there are still many things to be done to make it so much more attractive and luxurious.

A typical bathroom upgrade project might involve replacing the vanity counter with integral double sink and fixtures, and perhaps even replacing (or refinishing) the tub, if necessary. It might also involve re-tiling the shower/tub enclosure and installing a new glass door; replacing the toilet; adding a recessed medicine cabinet; replacing the flooring; and either repainting or installing vinyl wallpaper. And be sure you have a water heater that is sufficiently large.

Lastly, if you decide to add another bathroom or powder room, try to use existing space. Building an addition to accommodate a new bathroom means pouring a foundation and constructing a roof, which is going to be pricey. But if you can add the bathroom without putting on an addition, you can cut that cost in half. If you can find a way to use a spare room, walk-in closet, or under-the-staircase storage area, you could save more still. Also, try to locate it close to existing plumbing lines.

Here are a few tips:

1. Make the shower & tub more inviting
2. Brighten & enlarge the bathroom using sunlight, lighting, paint, glass, mirrors, and window treatments
3. Modernize cabinets by replacing, refinishing, or refacing
4. Upgrade surfaces, fixtures, and toilets (and maybe the water heater)

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!

We can’t make them all into gourmet kitchens, but we can do a lot to spruce them up. A typical kitchen upgrade project might involve replacing the laminate countertops, sink and faucet; leaving cabinets in place but replacing fronts with new raised-panel wood doors and drawers (and perhaps some glass-inlay doors); painting or staining the cabinets; and adding new hardware. It might also include replacing the wall oven and cook top with new energy-efficient models, repainting trim, replacing wallpaper with paint, and replacing the flooring with something both durable and aesthetic.

Here are a few tips:

1. Remove obstructions to vision and movement
2. Brighten & enlarge the kitchen using sunlight, lighting, paint
3. Modernize cabinets by replacing, refinishing, or refacing
4. Upgrade surfaces & appliances (stainless always works well), and create plenty of workspace

Seek simplicity, comfort and value!