5 Easy Home Improvements That Add Instant Curb Appeal

It is a truth universally acknowledged—by real-estate brokers and home improvement sites alike—that anyone looking to increase the property value of a home on the market need only renovate their kitchen or baths to see maximum results. But the real truth is that, short of a major overhaul, there are lots of smaller, less time-consuming—not to mention more affordable—things you can do to guarantee your house makes an impact on potential buyers. “Did you know that the front door and surrounding details can make or break a first impression?” says Annie Hoover, an associate broker at ERA Reardon Realty in Jackson, Michigan, who has seen firsthand what a difference a little paint can make. We asked her to share five easy fixes that will transform your home’s exterior without breaking the bank (or your back). Some of them will surprise you.

Consider the front door. “If you’re on a budget, give doors a face-lift with a fresh coat of paint and a new or recently polished handle and door knocker from your local or online hardware store,” Hoover says. “Paint can be bought for less than $200 depending on the brand, and a really elegant door knocker or handle starts at $45.” Of course, you could replace the door altogether with something more dramatic. “An arched distinctive door with side lights will knock the socks off any buyer.”

Grab the gardening tools. “If you have the room, anchor each side of the door with potted plants,” she says. “Potted plants are an efficient, fragrant, and inexpensive way to add a pop of color, which is important to buyers. Also, avoid plastic containers and be sure to use ceramic or terra-cotta pots to add a touch of subtle opulence.”

Walk this way. “Create an inviting walkway to your front door with beautiful blooms or shrubs,” she says. Among Hoover’s personal favorites: hydrangeas. “Depending on your preference, many can be found for under $30 and are easy to plant. If you have an area along a walkway leading up to your front door, go for bright blue and pink colors—they have a huge impact and are typically very low maintenance and cost efficient.”

Mask with mulch. “A few bags or small truckload of mulch can turn dry or imperfect soil into a rich and striking border along walkways and around trees and foliage,” she says. “Depending on how much you need, you can find it for as little as $3 to $10 per bag.”

Make it inviting. “To add character and warmth to your exterior entryway, purchase a new (read: clean) welcome mat and hang an elegant outdoor wreath (these can be as low as $40),” says Hoover. “Nothing says ‘curb appeal’ like a welcoming and warm entryway.”

5 Nontacky Ways to Do Beach Home Decor

Among interior design styles, few can go wrong faster than the coastal trend. A few sand dollars here, a pile of seashells there, and suddenly your house is festooned with a flotilla of decorative fishing nets (shudder) and oversize life preservers and comes way closer to evoking “Gilligan’s Island” than Architectural Digest.

But coastal can be classy. Really! We’ve compiled five decidedly untacky tips to help your beach home (or any home) evoke a vibe that’s carefree, cool, and easy-breezy—whether you’re landlocked or have an ocean view. Either way: Surf’s up! In a tasteful way, that is.

1. All white, all the time

The best coastal interiors we’ve seen are built with a healthy dose of crisp, cottony white. Slipcover your dining room chairs and sofa in a light, airy fabric, or paint beadboard or wainscoting in a glossy white hue. (If you live with infants and young children, try a tan- or sand-colored sofa in a durable outdoor fabric instead.) To create a blank canvas for displaying art and other objects, paint your fireplace and surrounding walls in a light shade.

2. Choose a neutral palette

Think steel grays, crisp whites, pale greens, and sea blues. To add a muted splash of color to walls, try blue-grays like Krypton by Sherwin-Williams or Drenched Rain by Dunn-Edwards—both are great alternatives to the oh-so-predictable taupe or beige. Throw in dark blue or aqua stripes on walls or floors for an unexpected accent.

Whitney Parrott, lead designer at Everything Creative Designs in San Diego, recommends using gold and metallic tones in accent pieces to contrast a navy and white color scheme. And for a pop of color in the bathroom or kitchen, choose coral or aqua tiles. The key, according to Parrott, is to keep the look clean, sophisticated, and streamlined.

3. Let the sunshine in

Keep the look bright with windows dressed in light and airy coverings in materials such as muslin. If your budget allows, amplify existing light and maximize your outdoor view by adding a set of sliding doors or a skylight, or widening or lengthening existing windows (or all of the above).

Toss your dark furniture and weave in driftwood gray and light brown pieces instead—or give existing pieces an update with a coat of paint in a white or linen shade.

4. Embrace natural textures and fibers

Pair distressed or reclaimed wood coffee and end tables with a slipcovered sofa, and contrast a smooth-finish dining table with textured open-weave, wicker, or rattan chairs. (If you must hang on to your beloved leather couch, brighten it up with oversize throw pillows in white, aqua, or nautical blue.)

For rugs, choose durable materials such as sisal or jute, and check out rope accents to add a funky nautical twist to any room. In the kitchen, consider nontraditional cabinet materials like acacia wood.

This concept applies to accessories, too.

“Instead of heading to a big-box home goods store, take a look at your natural surroundings for inspiration,” Parrott says. “Often beautiful palms, driftwood, or even sea glass can be used sparingly to achieve that beach vibe. I’m all about bringing the outdoors in!”

5. Skip the elaborate shell display

Instead, create a sea-themed gallery wall on the cheap. Use a service like Social Print Studio or PostalPix to easily print your own photos straight from your smartphone, or peruse one of the well-curated collections at online art retailer Minted for inspiration.

Not the DIY type? Pick up frames at flea markets or consignment stores and paint or lime-wash them to display your favorite prints. If you’re a surfer, your longboard can double as art, too—just mount hooks horizontally on a wall and hang it up or prop it against a wall for an easy, instant decor refresh. And if you simply must throw in a seashell or two, place them in a sweet glass terrarium with a bit of seagrass for a modern, clean look.

Sonos’ First Store Is Designed To Feel And Sound Like Your Home

Sonos is opening its first store in New York City, which embodies the brand’s belief that better sound makes a better home. It provides customers with a place to experience sound that actually feels like their home, building the retail space so it seems similar to a friend’s house instead of a traditional store.

The listening experience is at the core of the Soho store, with Sonos’ Sound Experience Leader, Giles Martin, sonically tuning every inch of the space for maximum sound quality. There are seven central listening rooms covered in thousands of pounds of sheetrock and custom-beveled glass. These are soundproof, acoustically perfect, and arranged so they’re similar to the way people listen to music at home. The rooms have been designed with studies, kitchens and living rooms, letting visitors hear great sound on devices such as home theater systems and turntables in the right context.

Each unique listening room also boasts custom furniture, visual art and lighting design that reflects some of the brand’s favorite styles and periods from the past century. Legendary illustrators and painters like Mark Stamaty, Thibaud Herem and Mark Chamberlain designed and hand-painted the wallpaper, while Thurston Moore has lent them a selection of his cassette tapes from the golden age of NYC cassette trading.

Sonos aims to inspire people with home audio, designing its first tore to be a great place to hear music in the home rather than the recording studio. They used the tools of home design to get the best possible audio, filling the space with bookshelves and woven rugs—their favorite pieces for improving acoustics in any home.

Those who visit the store can get a real feel for how physical space enhances sound, boosted by the surrounding materials and furniture.

Six Secrets to Great Interior Lighting for Your Home

You can't touch it, smell it, taste it or hear it, and you can see right through it. Yet this one design component is the most important element in any room.

It's the magic and the mystery, the secret in the sauce. It can make you feel awake or relaxed, industrious or romantic, older or younger. And, yet, it is the most underappreciated tool in the design box.

"Lighting is the last thing many home decorators consider, and it makes the biggest difference," said Michael Murphy, interior designer and lighting expert for Lamps Plus, a Los Angeles-based lighting retail chain.

Over the past several weeks, many of you followed along as I gave my happy yellow house a lighting makeover. Murphy helped light my way, and I wrote columns about choosing new fixtures, accenting artwork with spotlights and coming out of the dark ages of incandescent bulbs into the enlightened era of LEDs.

My lighting makeover included a couple other moves. For instance, I removed two ghastly fluorescent light fixtures, one from my walk-in closet, the other from my laundry room, and donated them to the nearest police station to use in their interrogation center.

I replaced the closet monstrosity with an elegant chandelier that sports an orange silk drum shade. The laundry room now has two recessed LED canned lights.
Murphy approved. "People skimp in areas like the closet and laundry room, where good lighting is critical," he said. You know what he means if you have ever left the house wearing one navy sock and one black one.

I also gained control of my moods. And, no, I'm not talking about taking hormone replacement therapy. I put almost every switch in the house on a dimmer. I'm not sure why this isn't the standard. Not having a dimmer switch on your lights is like not having volume control on your radio.

Beyond what I've shared in previous columns, here are six more residential lighting secrets I learned along the way:

• Light in Layers: In addition to natural light, every room should have three kinds of light, ambient, task and accent, Murphy said. Many homeowners throw a couple lights on the ceiling and call it enough. It's not. Ambient light is your all-around light. It often comes from recessed cans or ceiling fixtures. Task lighting is dedicated to a space where you work or read; think of desk lamps, lamps by reading areas or under-cabinet lighting over kitchen counters. Accent lighting highlights artwork, accessories or architectural features like the fireplace. The magic happens in the layering. "When these three layers work together with natural light, you have the perfect scenario."


• Go big or don't go: Choosing fixtures that are too small is the most common mistake homeowners make, Murphy said. "Most customers need to scale up." When picking fixtures to go beside the front door, or to flank the garage, for example, fixtures should be one third the height of the door. If the door is 9 feet tall, the fixture should be 3 feet. When choosing a chandelier, use this formula: add the length and width of the room in feet, then convert to inches. That's how big you want your fixture. So a 12-foot-by-14-foot dining room should have a 26-inch wide chandelier. Ideally, this fixture also is about 12 inches narrower than the width of the table and allows at least 4 feet of clearance from walls.


• Get the height right: Another common mistake is hanging a fixture too high, which can look like flood-water pants. Over dining tables or kitchen islands, chandeliers or pendant lights can hang lower than fixtures over traffic areas, like entryways or living rooms. Over a dining table, the bottom of a chandelier should hang 30 inches to 34 inches from the table. In a living room or entry, chandeliers should have at least 7.5 feet of clearance. When in doubt, drop the fixture an inch.


• Match your temperatures: Lights come in different colors, ranging from warm to cool. These are called color temperatures. Yours all need to match. I know. Go pour a drink. Most light bulbs now post their color temperature on the packaging. If your temperatures don't match, say you have a warm incandescent light on your ceiling and a cool CFL bulb in your lamp, something will feel off in the space, you just might not know what. Most people, including me, like warmer light in their homes. Some like pure white, others like a cool spectrum. Whatever your fancy, pick a temperature and stick with it. Incandescent lights typically have a color temperature of around 2700k (or Kelvins). All the lights in my house are now 2700k LED.


• Practice shade consistency: Similarly, your lampshades should match. Most shades are white or cream because those colors let the most light through. In the same room, the lampshades should be all white or all cream, but not both. The exception is if you have a dramatic colored shade, say black or leopard print, that acts like an accessory.


• Dim it: Installing dimmer switches on your lights not only lets you control a room's mood, it also helps you control costs. Dimming your lights — even your energy efficient LEDS — saves energy. Plus, dimming makes lights run cooler, which extends their life. Try it. You'll never go back.