What home buyers want
Homeowners more educated than ever on the latest decor and trends
Excerpt from an article by Tracy Hanes - Toronto Star
To keep new homebuyers happy, banish “builder’s beige” paint, say “no” to natural-coloured oak cabinets, forgo corner fireplaces and stop stippling ceilings.
Those were some of the words of wisdom that fashion/decor stylist Lynn Spence and interior designer Ramsin Khachi of Khachi Interiors (both regulars on Citytv’s CityLine) offered to home builders at a seminar at the recent Ontario Home Builders’ Association Renovation and Building Forum in Markham.
Spence says more homeowners are reading magazines and watching television shows dedicated to renovation and decor, so they are very educated about what they want and the latest trends.
“We go into some new homes after the fact (already built and finishes chosen) where we have to work miracles, at times,” Spence says. “It’s advantageous for you to know some of the struggles we face. I’m going to give you insider information that will make you better builders in a small or large way.”
Spence says most people hate bland “builder’s beige” paint commonly used in new houses and will paint over it within months.
Another trend that emerged last year was using the ceiling – “the sixth wall” as Spence calls it – as a design element using paint, coffers, panelling or moulding to create effects like baffles or honeycombs.Spence and Khachi say the dining and living room, the great room and the powder room are the best rooms to create “designer ceilings.” They advise painting the ceiling and the architectural feature used on it, like moulding or trim, in whites and off-whites: “Don’t try to do it with colours.”
Khachi and Spence also say that while soaring cathedral and two-storey ceilings are a popular feature in great rooms these days, “people love them at first, then two days later, ask ‘what can I do for artwork? Nothing’s big enough!’”
Bringing the outdoors inside remains a huge trend, “and people are embracing natural elements like stone and wood,” Khachi says.
The new generation of hardwood floors is “phenomenal,” they say, with exotic and recycled looking woods being popular, as well as detailing like herringbone patterns.
This desire for natural elements is extending to furniture and decor elements, such as antler chandeliers, rough-hewn wood bowls and driftwood as sculpture. Even modern homes are using barn beams to create roughness in too-sterile, too clean environments, Khachi says.
On the most-loathed list? Those natural-coloured oak kitchen cabinets with big, open grain.
Spence says natural oak flooring should also be banished because its yellow cast makes it difficult to decorate around and creates “a very cocoony, cave-like atmosphere.”
And those natural oak spindles that are a staple on many builders’ list of standards? Away with them too, as “most clients want dark-stained banisters, white spindles, dark treads and white risers,” like they are seeing in decor magazines and on TV.
One of the most common homeowner headaches is the brick fireplace and the design issues it presents.
The pair also urge builders not to steal space from the foyer, as homeowners hate having to step right into the living room from the front entrance.
Other often-seen new home features the pair frown on:
* Archways in doorways, especially in small 30-inch openings.
* Wall and art niches.
* Rounded drywall corners.
* Too many unnecessary doorways.
* Arched or rounded-top windows.
* Not enough space for furnishings.
Sectional sofas are “coming back with a vengeance,” as well as large armoires and coffee tables and five or six-piece bedroom sets. Rooms must be large enough to accommodate these beloved pieces, she says.
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