Designing For Resale Vs. Designing For Life
Let's weigh the pros and cons of styling your home for yourself or your hypothetical future buyers.
I think we’ve all heard that it’s important to value the eventual resale of your home when making design decisions. “Don’t go too bold with your paint color choices because your future buyer may prefer neutral tones.” “Don’t get rid of an extra bedroom because the next homeowner will definitely want as many bedrooms as possible.” The list goes on and on, and I was just wondering the other day how much weight this concept actually deserves.
As a fairly head-strong and stubborn homemaker, I’m sure you can guess where I stand on the idea of designing with future resale in mind. While I certainly think there are some things that are important to consider before putting your home on the market (like neutralizing bold paint colors), I definitely don’t think you need to worry about that while actually living in your home and not thinking of selling. Enjoy every inch of your space while you’re there in it, I say! You can always repaint right before you list the house! I’m firmly in the camp that life’s too short to worry about future homeowners way off in the distance.
The reason this thought even came to my mind recently was because I’ve been considering restyling our guest room as a sofa lounge. We did this in our last house (pictured above/below) and we used the room so much more afterward. As I explained in this old blog post, our guest bed had been left unused for years, and it just felt silly to have no reason to go into that chunk of square footage in our home. So, I went against tradition and created a cozy seating area, which, as I said, became one of our favorite hang-out spaces. So, why not do the same thing in the unused guest room here at our current house?
For whatever reason, my first thought was resale. Would future buyers not like to see a bedroom styled as a living room? We have three bedrooms in our current home and I was proposing to use only one of them as a bedroom, just like at our last house (the third bedroom in both homes has been designated as my home office).
It took just a few moments to decide that, frankly, I didn’t care! We were able to sell our last house without having to restyle the lounge back into a guest room, so who’s to say that we couldn’t eventually do it here? Plus, I had no reason to even be thinking about resale since we have no plans to sell this house any time soon (hopefully, never).
This entire mental exchange happened in less than a few minutes, and confirmed to me that I’m just not one of those people who values putting thought into resale when it comes to design decisions. I also kind of resent the fact that society puts that kind of pressure on us as homeowners. It makes us overthink the personal touches that each of us are drawn to making in our spaces, and I think there’s just no place for that in our lives.
The moral of the story (in my, apparently, heated opinion)? Do what makes you happy and design your home to bring you joy—whether that’s with bright colors or minimalist ones. Hesitation is one of the most frequent admissions I hear from homemakers who are struggling to design their homes on their own, and I place a lot of blame on society for that.
Well, gosh…I didn’t realize I felt so strongly about this topic! I definitely think it’s important to tone down your home a little bit before resale, but I personally feel like that’s not something you need to do until it actually comes time to sell.
And don’t feel like you need to do a complete 180 on your design either. I left our two extra bedrooms at the old house styled as anything but bedrooms, and I don’t think I painted over any of the bold paint colors I had chosen. Our home still sold as is within a week because we found buyers who appreciated the one-of-a-kind character we had added to the house. You’ll find someone who is drawn to your unique style, too.
Let me know your own thoughts on this topic in the comments, or give this post a “like” if you agree with me!
Things worth mentioning this week…
New On The Blog: Take the tour of our completely revamped laundry closet! The colorful results of this before/after genuinely make me giddy with joy. Read the tutorial here, including paint color info and the peel-and-stick wallpaper pattern we chose to put between the shelves.
What I’m Watching: John and I restarted The Lord of the Rings series last week, going all the way back to the first Hobbit movie, so we’ll be stuck on that for the next few weeks (or months, haha). I generally dive into this series once a year, along with Harry Potter and Star Wars, watching each one in order from start to finish. I love my tried-and-true series, I guess!
What I’m Reading: I finished The Assassin’s Blade and am breaking into the next Throne of Glass book tonight—Heir of Fire. Have you read anything by Sarah J. Maas? Comment and let me know. I find her stories to be so addictive…Oh, and I also finished Things I learned From Falling, which earned a surprising 5-star review from me (I don’t generally like memoirs, but this one was really gripping and felt strangely relatable).
Noteworthy Substack: This post all about the Three Biggest Weight Loss Mistakes that many of us make was eye-opening. I like how the writer points out that, even with all of the miracle weight loss drugs on the market right now, nutrition still matters. The concepts explained felt really kind and gentle to me. As someone who has struggled to reign in an obsession with weight loss, I discovered lots of thoughtful reminders in the post.
Favorite Recent Purchase: I added these bluetooth wireless earbuds to my collection last month so I could listen to my Calm app meditations while walking, and love them! The sound is incredible and the noise-canceling effect is really amazing. My dream self was wearing them last night during my unconscious adventures, so that really proves that they’re good, right?
Looking Forward To: New furniture! I’ve got two sofas coming, a brand new bedroom suite to share, and a swivel chair that I have yet to unbox in the garage. It’s going to be a fun spring of rearranging and revamping the spaces in our home…
A few favorite posts from the Dream Green DIY archives in case you’re new here:
DIY Dowel Rod Face Mask Holder (ahhh…the surreal days of lockdown…)
Weekly editorial notes and requests…
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Totally agree! I’d rather design my home to enjoy rather than considering what a future buyer would appreciate. Great post! Btw, if you’re looking for something to add to your “things to watch” list, I’d recommend Severance on Apple TV