Interior Design
Austin's Home Improvement Guide
Beauty Inside
When talking about interior design or renovation/resporations, you are likely doing it for one of two reasons: 1) to improve your enjoyment of your home or 2) to increase resale value.
If you are doing interior design in order to increase sale value of your property, don't. As a rule you will probably not make your money back on costly, furnishings and refinishings. Some things like basic painting of walls can help. But increasing the value of your home to a buyer, usually means cleaning and minimizing.
Cleaning is self-explanatory, but amazingly often over-looked. Selling is often about overall impressions and you would not want to spend $100,000 or more on a place that seemed dirty or cluttered. You may assume you potential buyers feel the same.
By minimizing we mean, reducing clutter and furnishings to increase the perceived size of a given room or view. Arrange furnishings to benefit flow and feel. Send your extra stuff to storage or your new home. Don't feel possessive of the house. Remember, you're trying to get rid of it.
As far as renovations are concerned, bathrooms and
kitchens are the only interior renovations that consistently
come near giving the investor a return on his money.
Often, a modest kitchen remodeling can provide a
90 to 95 percent return if you sell during a three
to five year period. With a bathroom remodeling,
the return is often close to 90 percent. Notice you
are not necessarily making a profit. Also notice
we are talking about modest renovations and not top
end remodelings which will not likely make you money
on your investment. So marble countertops and $10,000
ranges are likely out if you're in it for the profit.
However, if you are looking to maximize your enjoyment of a newly purchased home, especially one that is several decades old or older, more can definitely be better, depending on taste.
Below you will find some resources to help you with your work ahead:
Green building and energy efficiency resources (including
rebates from the city!):
Austin
Energy
Color visualizer and other selection tools:
Sherwin-Williams
Color Guide
Locally-made custom metal art, accents and furnishings:
Steel Living
Crown moldings for walls:
First Class
Building Products, Inc
Columns to enhance galleries and large rooms:
Arch Columns