@Joblue: True and hopefully there are many home buyers out there that either will appreciate your style or can look beyond the surface and realize the potential.
I absolutely cannot warm to the gray trend, especially in wood furniture. I love gray clothing, especially when paired with oranges and aquas. But gray is just too cold for my Pacific Northwest house.
I used colors from Sherwin Williams Arts & Crafts palette downstairs in my house, and my exterior colors are along the same lines. Upstairs is mostly painted in warm, light colors.
Although I prefer warm colors in my home, I detest brass fixtures, door knobs, and pulls and removed them all that came with our house when they wore out.
My immediate thought was grey walls.
I redid my kitchen over 12 years ago. The cabinets are quarter sawn oak, with brushed granite light colored counters (unpolished and rough.) The island is cream painted wood with original butcher block counter. I still think it looks nice. I had to laugh though when I had friends over and a woman I didnāt know well commented on how kitchen looks very similar to mine were passĆ©. Oh well, soon enough it will be time to renovate I guess.
@Lindagaf, I think Iād feel at home in your kitchen. Nice acquaintance!
It looks like weāre going to be trying to sell one of our rental houses - tenants leave the end of the month and the realtor tells me houses are selling quickly around here.
Now Iām mulling whether or not we should do anything inside other than fixing things that are broken. If we put something in buyers donāt want itās a waste of money.
Do you think if we allow X dollars at closing for upgrades (flooring comes to mind) that would be attractive?
If houses are selling as quickly as Iām led to believe, thereās no way weāre replacing appliances/cabinets or upgrading the bathrooms, etc.
The tenant told us they were repainting the inside. We had told them they could paint whatever they wanted as long as when they left it was neutral for the next person. It makes me wonder what they chose!
I have strong opinions on this. 
I donāt mind grey painted walls - there are ALOT of varying degrees of grey. I also like it when paired with a good white so it is not dull but BRIGHT.
I detest the gray āwoodā floors. I totally, totally donāt get this. Wood isnāt gray is it? RIGHT.
Not a Tuscan person. LOVE new brass fixtures - different than the brass of the 80ās. Again, depends how you pair the fixtures.
Some designers are doing a lot of dark moody colors for paint. Itās not my choice but it can look cool.
Iām sure I am in the minority but I canāt stand stainless steel appliances (bring on the plain white) and I also canāt deal with open shelving in the kitchen. I love things looking, and being, clean so no fingerprints on the fridge and no dust on my dishes please.
As many of you have stated, I donāt like the gray trend, although I like to wear gray. My hair is gray. The interior of my car is gray. When my parents sold their house last year, the realtor advised them to paint everything gray, put down gray carpet, and put that gray (fake) wood floor in the kitchen. OMG. Too much gray.
I am currently shopping for a new kitchen countertop and backsplash. I want it as neutral as possible and as classic as possible without being solid white. Maybe Iām boring. Yep, Iāll admit it.
Also donāt like open shelves and glass cabinet doors. I want to store my stuff in them, not display it.
I donāt hate carpet.
I really like French door fridges , especially with the extra drawer.
So interesting, Iāve seen 2 neighborsā kitchens that were redone. So very different from mine. A Tuscan, a shiny white( she took out space to build an island, but left the fridge in the corner so canāt open one side fully). Only my cousin redid her kitchen in a fabulous way that I think will appeal to any buyer. She gutted and modernized: tile floors that have the woody grain, quartz countertops, white wood cabinets, updated appliances, microwave drawer, etc.
I donāt care for the gold/brass look that is very popular.
I love stainless appliances.
I love gray walls. I prefer the warmer gray, but depending on other factors might not be averse to cool gray if other aspects of the room are used to give it a calm, warm feeling.
Imo, much of beautiful decor comes down to the art on the walls, lighting (both natural and artificial), rugs, and furnishings. A nice view to the outside also contributes. I think you can make most neutral wall colors look very beautiful if these other elements are well done.
Weathered wood is definitely gray. Maybe thatās the thought.
In our remodel project, we have wide white oak floors. I think we are going to seal them in their light, natural tone. No hint of yellow whatsoever. The wall color I am leaning towards is called a āgreige,ā which when you look at the card looks almost beige, but when paired with white trim, does show a hint of gray. Iām still undecided though. Our new (25 years old) house is considered to be a modern take on a Texas Hill Country look. I favor a transitional yet very warm and welcoming vibe. Nothing too traditional but not sterile contemporary. At least thatās the hope!
They do turn yellow overtime. Thatās the problem. My guys are putting in just a hint of driftwood color to compensate.
I had no idea those things were called vessel sinks, but, nope, donāt like them. Or brass fixtures.
Ds1 loves to look at real estate, and we were talking about hardwoods. He said, āThey never go out of style.ā I reminded him how on the HGTV shows they always are delighted to find hardwoods under carpet so every one on those homeowners tired of their hardwoods at some point and carpeted over them! My hope is that some of our stuff will come back in style.
Every ten years they change the decorating fads in order to get people to spend money. One thing I try to avoid is any trend that resembles a chain hotel.
We renovated our kitchen in 2006 with cherry cabinets, granite, stainless etc. Itās quite dated now but I actually like it. I am not a big fan of white kitchensāthey feel lab-like to me, not warm.
Our appliances are going kaput in a predictable way (they are 14 years old) and we have replaced the dishwasher and stove with āblack stainless.ā (dark grey). I like it because itās easy to keep clean, unlike regular stainless. You just wipe it off with an e-cloth and itās fine. I also agree with @bookworm about the French door fridges. Love ours.
I am so behind the times that I have not even updated my paneled family room with wooden built-in bookshelves. I like wood, as long as itās good quality and not the cheap pine paneling stuff. When we sell the house Iām sure the paneling will be ditched. But I like it! I feel like Mr. Bennet in his library.
@Creekland you have to be careful about offering $X toward remodeling costs at closing because your buyerās mortgage company might not allow that. You should talk with your local realtor to find out what the current common $ limitations are in your area.
Allegedly the new water based sealers do not yellow. The older kinds (I forget what they are called) did yellow over time. I guess time will tellā¦
I hate vessel sinks.
Iām not a fan of the looks of barn doors, but sometimes you donāt have clearance for a regular swing door, and pocket doors can sometimes be hard to use.
Iām not a fan of brass.
I kind of resent that there are trends, such that your house becomes dated. It seems like such a waste of materials (so contributes to too much mining, or destruction of forest land, and too much landfill) and a waste of money. As long as the layout is well thought out and the work is skillfully done, Iām usually happy with it. Well, harvest gold and avacado green were the exceptions., and Iām glad to see those go. It seems like tile is the biggest offender for the must-update group.
Interesting. We havenāt done a lot of sales - and none yet in PA - but we havenāt run into trouble at all with it before, including a sale this year of my momās house in NY. (Iām her executrix. Offering money was easier than updating.) Iāll see what the realtor says. If the market is hot enough it seems we wouldnāt even have to offer $$.
Anything in need of replacement due to wear and tear will have something done to it. Style is one thing. Broken things, tears, or excessive wear on flooring is another.
ETA Weād have done that to re-rent it as well. Itās easy between tenants and these have been there for years.
Several have mentioned French-door refrigerators. When I replace my current one, I am wanting a french-door, but my fridge is in a corner. There is no other place to put it. There are cabinets on one side and a wall on the other. Would the doors not open?
Weāre in the same boat, musicmom. Weād have to knock out a wall in our kitchen to get a fridge bigger than 30" wide, much less a French door, and then the fridge would poke into the living room. Our neighbors have the same house and they extended the kitchen into the dining room, which bought them space for a bigger fridge, an island and more cabinets.
We have white cabinets (circa 1992 ā previous owners) and I hate them. They are grease and grime magnets. They are also cheap and showing their age, but weāre not ready to renovate. I think weāll have to do so before we can sell, though.
I donāt like kitchen islands. I donāt like a kitchen that opens into the living area. We live in the kitchen, cook a lot and we get messy.
Gray and white are the big thing for houses turning over in our neighborhood ā mid-60s houses. We talked about renovating our bathroom seven years ago and DH wanted cherry cabinets. The designer thought we were nuts. We never did the project and now cherry is getting more popular. Procrastination pays!
I can deal with gray if I temper it with blues. All the main rooms in our house are a warm light beige, so repainting all of that has kept me from jumping in with the roller and doing it. Itās been 15+ years, though, so touch-ups arenāt going to fly. The other reason not to go gray is that we have original hardwood floors and they are very yellow.
I also look at HGTV and predict the shelf life of one trend or the other, and how we bought a 30+ yo house without thinking we needed to gut it.
What is a french-door refrigerator? Is it different than a side-by-side?