10 Interior Design Trends That Turn Off Home Buyers

There are some pretty crazy interior design trends going on right now. Found mostly in highly populated metropolitan areas, and considered to be “sophisticated” or “trendy”. But the average home buyer today doesn’t really want the glitz and glamour or the facade of what high end interior designers find attractive.

The average home buyer doesn’t want colors like hot pink, solid black, or anything else that is overly shiny. We like comfort, we like calming environments, and we actually like to feel like it’s home.

So if you are someone who made a drastic change to your home during your ownership, and are trying to resell it. You may want to think about the possibility of reverting back to its normal state or if your in the process of possibly taking on one of these projects, think twice.

People are going to want to picture themselves living in your home, and they may not be able to do that if you turned your home inside out to stay with a “trend”.

Brick laying, has become a widely popular and attractive look for interior and exterior walls, some areas of flooring, back-yards, and walk-ways. A high quality masonry can give you added value, without turning away buyers!

But let’s take a look at some of the mistakes people have been making on their home renovations, that is turning away buyers left and right.

Here are 10 Interior Design Trends That Turn Off Home Buyers.

1. Boldly Painted Walls

A common trend now found in just about every area of your home, painting with bold colors such as black or dark blue. Home buyers are going to have a hard time picturing themselves living in something as bland and confined as black painting can be.

Not only does black painted walls and cabinets lack any character, but if your potential buyer doesn’t like it, they aren’t going to buy. Nobody wants to hassle with the pain of having to paint over solid black.

Attempt a much more comforting and welcoming color to go over the black, and buyers will start to move towards to a favorable decision.

If you want to give your house an eye popping look for its upcoming or future sale, than hiring a professional masonry contractor in Chicago to give you a brick layered wall can make buyers chomping at the bit to bid on your home.

2. Extravagant Wallpaper

People everyone are throwing up wild and different wallpapers, believing that that give their room that extra spark of energy. But in reality, it is you who chose that wallpaper because you like it, not necessarily everyone else.

To you, the wallpaper may be a perfect expression of who you are, while your list of buyers find it to be a deal-breaker.

Try to stick to the basics, or at least a wallpaper that is somewhat neutral. Replacing wallpaper can be extremely difficult, and depending on how wild your wallpaper really is, can difficult to paint over.

Again, instead of using wallpaper to create a fake looking design or atmosphere you should look to give your interior walls some character with a layered brick look. It is starting to become a new trend that home buyers are simply loving.

3. Lavishing Light Fixtures

The right light fixture can be the perfect compliment to your room. Shining down perfectly on areas that bring life to the area, and welcome visitors and occupants alive.
But be careful of how to handle this.

Lavishing light fixtures can sometimes stick out like a sore thumb, and be the only thing that your potential buyer remembers from looking at your home.

4. Gleaming Gold

Gold is supposed to invoke royalty, and class. But in today’s modern interior design it seems to just look fairly tacky. The gold gleams and pops out of the room, but not in a good way to perspective buyers.

This may be something that turns them away almost immediately, and should be avoided at all costs. Gold in small amounts can look great, on faucets and other pieces of that nature. But anything bigger such as the picture above, is just unacceptable.

5. Converted Garages

Converting your garage parking area into a space of living has become a huge trend over the past decade. Men are creating their own personal “man-cave” and knocking out walls to add more space to their home.

This may seems like a fun idea to you, but what works for you just might not work for your perspective buyers. You may love to watch sports on Sunday’s in your garages that is now covered in sports memorabilia, but your list of buyers may not share that same taste, and may find it to be “wasted space”.

It’s best to try and not do anything too drastic like knocking down walls, having a secured parking area for your cars and vehicles is a huge selling point for buyers. Try to avoid the big renovations and keep your garage—a garage.

6. Converted Bedrooms

Turning an unused bedroom into your own personal game room is no crime. It’s a good project to invest in if you have nobody to occupy the room. The game room conversion in the picture above is understandable, and can be reverted back into a normal bedroom for future buyers.

It’s when you start to renovate and change things too much, to the point that the room can only act as a game room or walk-in closet that is going to turn away buyers.

By all means convert spaces that you may find better uses for, just be careful about the extent that you take it, or you may lose a potential buyer right away.

7. Carpets

Carpet can be a very welcoming and comforting look that buyers may fall in love with. But nowadays the extravagant and odd seems to take over designers, and we are seeing things like “shag” carpet re-appearing. This retro look may give your home a trendy look but buyers today may just not want anything to do with it.

Carpets are looked at as more of a chore than anything else, people don’t want to worry about getting them steam cleaned, vacuuming, or collecting germs or dirt.

That is why you are finding hardwood floors to be a more popular option. Hardwood floors are easy to maintain, they have a great modern and classy look to them, and they appeal to potential buyers. Plus, you can always just throw down your own personal rug while your living there, and leave the open space up to your buyer to decide.

Tearing up the carpet after buying a home is not something home buyers are going to do after they just laid down a huge down payment. But some builders, may be your answer for a great service and renovation of your interior floors where bricks make a lot of sense—like the kitchen.

8. Over The Top Landscaping

Beautiful and elegant landscaping can really bring your home together. It’s the first thing that your potential buyer is going to see when they walk up to your home. When it is done correctly it will appeal to a large audience, and your buyers will revel in its beauty.

But for some reason home-owners are trying to be a little bit exuberant with their landscaping, with over he top flowering arranges and hedge cuttings that just look silly.

Stick to the basics, and don’t do anything that will be a long process to change. A beautifully done brick walkway and porch done by a professional, IL is the perfect way to create a generally pleasing and value adding look to your home.

9. Pools and Hot Tubs

A pool or a hot tub seems like a luxurious thing to have at your home, but in the grand scheme of things—it might turn away a buyer.

Both of these are definitely luxurious and can add value to your home, but it might be value that your buyers do not share. They can be perceived as overly expensive to maintain, or unpractical to a lot of people who may never use them.

It is best to avoid fully installed hot-tubs and pools, because once these are installed anyone would have to be crazy to want to buy a home only to take on the project of removing them, why would anyone even bother?

There is one trick that you could use, if you have an outdated looking pool and your home has been stuck on the market for quite some time. Hiring a good contractor to come and fill in an existing pool or hot-tub with a beautiful brick layered top finish could turn an unnecessary pool area into a beautiful back yard lounge and BBQ area.

10. Fancy Pet Products

This is one of the easier problems you can fix as most of the fancy pet products you may own can be removed with ease.

It is just important to understand that when you are taking photos and listing your home, to remove these out of the shot. As anyone who ever started out renting knows, it can be difficult to find places that accept pets. This is for good reason too, as landlords don’t want their homes soiled and ruined by animals.

Having your pet’s toys or house laying about, may give the impression that your home is damaged somewhat, and it can turn off a buyer the second they see a chew toy.

Just Remember

Renovating your home to increase the value is a wonderful and exciting thing to do. Most of us buy old homes cheap just so that we can renovate them and flip the cost for profit. But before you do those kind of things you need to take into consideration these 10 Interior Design Trends That Turn Off Buyers before you perform them.

To give your home a classic and sophisticated look done by some of the most masterful masonries.