Alise O'Brien
Memo from the "overstating the obvious" department: It's still not time to put your house on the selling block. Yes, yes, we know you hate your too-low ceilings, outdated maple cabinetry, tiny closets and asterisk-patterned counters that date back to the era of Princess phones and electric typewriters. But until the housing market bottoms out (and it's anyone's guess when that'll be), your best bet is to sit tight.
Of course, only a couple of years ago, it seemed incomprehensible that we'd ever have a problem selling our houses; American families moved, on average, every seven years. But as recently as the 1980s, people remodeled more often than they relocated. Since then, we've forgotten that maple cabinets can be painted. Ceilings can be raised. Formica counters can be literally kicked (or, well, schlepped) to the curb. Whatever your budget, from funds for a simple coat of paint to enough for a pneumatically powered, self-concealing plasma TV, here's a guide to remaking — and falling back in love with — the house you're in.
under $500
Go Pro
Hire a designer to do a "pouf"
Remodeling's fine, you say, for those who know the art of rearranging furniture or how to judge the way that sage green paint chip will translate to an entire wall. But what about the rest of us? No problem: You can hire a professional interior designer for an hour or two. Small suggestions like paint colors or furniture placement can rejuvenate a space, and designers can point out where fabrics are clashing, color's not serving you well, furniture is badly arranged or you just need a slipcover for that formal sofa (at least till the kids are grown).
"A lot of times, it's the common-sense things," says Tim Rohan of T. Rohan Designs. "They just need a fresh pair of eyes — from a seasoned person who knows how to fix it."
Consultation costs range from $50 to $200 an hour for "poufing," (rearranging furniture, reworking shelves, moving art pieces around) planning or putting it all into motion. Dana King of Dana's Design Studio has been "poufing" houses for the past six years. "Poufing houses is the most fun and rewarding work," she says. "I would never give it up." She charges $50 an hour with no minimum or a predetermined flat rate for the job.
"The least expensive thing, I suggest, is to move the furniture around in the room, or mix up the furniture from one room to the next," Caryn Burstein, Allied ASID, president of CLB Interiors, says. "This immediately moves the energy around and spiritually gives them a lift about their space. It actually makes the old furniture look new when it's moved from room to room."
If you want the designer to take the reins on the redecoration, costs go up, but even at Mr. Rohan's $145 per hour, two-hour minimum, you'll save in the long run with the designer discounts. Plus, the designer will oversee it all, protecting you from the stress and strain of the project.
"Many people can do it on their own and spend less money if they have the resources," Mr. Rohan says. "You're as good as your resources whether you're doing it professionally or not, but it's even more crucial for the novice."
And you don't have to do the whole shebang at once. According to Ms. King, Carol Bridges of Kirkwood hires her when "she has the budget and time to tackle a new project. We are on our fifth room!"
Recast the Familiar
Reshade and rearrange
Tom Manche, Allied ASID, of Tom Manche Interiors, suggests switching around artwork or even jazzing up the lampshades. "Most people have lampshades that look very tired; you put a new shade on the lamp, and it can really freshen things up," he says. "Always take the lamp with you when you go shopping because you need to try the lampshade on to get the proper height in proportion to the lamp."
Beth Kavanagh of Weldon Spring was up to her armpits in accessories, but when she placed them in her family room, all jumbled together, they just looked like clutter. That's when she called in J.R. Zachary, a designer with Three French Hens.
"J.R. made it cute, cute, cute, and it was amazing the way he could combine many of my own items with just one or two new anchor pieces to bring it together," Ms. Kavanagh says. Mr. Zachary used an old willow wagon as a centerpiece on top of the entertainment center, integrated some floral arrangements and even had Ms. Kavanagh dig old accessories out of storage. The final result was the perfect "pouf." If, unlike Ms. Kavanagh, you need to install new lighting fixtures or add area rugs or accessories, Three French Hens can counsel you on what to add to your space.
Dump the Old, the Tired
Silk flowers do not last forever
Those silk flowers may have been gorgeous when you bought them. But if it was years ago, take our word for it — the bloom is off the fake rose. "A lot of people have silk flower arrangements," Mr. Manche says. "They've had them for years, and they become very tired-looking. They don't look tired to the owners because they see them every day. It is a good idea to replace those. But when you do that, you should never, ever use any flowers other than flowers that look completely natural. Roses don't come in blue or brown. Don't ever use flowers that don't look perfectly real."
When in Doubt ... Paint
Change the shade of the wall
Any interior designer will tell you: The fastest — and cheapest — way to change a room or a piece of furniture is to apply a coat of paint. Emily Castle, ASID, of Castle Design, is big on Benjamin Moore's Aura, a new long-lasting, eco-friendly paint. David Faulstich, paint manager at Cooper's Paint and Decorating, is also a fan.
"Even the dark colors cover in one coat," he says, "and the paint molecule is embedded with the color to give a tighter paint film and smoother finish."
Ms. Castle says it's a bit expensive ($54.99 per gallon retail) but saves dramatically on labor costs, and its durability means painting less frequently with fewer coats. Aura also offers an "Affinity Color fan deck" that helps homeowners choose a harmonized palette from the line's 144 colors.
"It depends on the room, but often you get the most bang for your buck by painting deeper tones," Ms. Castle says. "Often people are surprised that a deeper tone doesn't make it darker — it gives it more warmth."
Ms. Castle says currently her favorite Aura colors are Etruscan (an orange-brown) and Farm Fresh (a warm light brown). "There are a lot of things on the market, accessory-wise, that blend with those warmer brown/orange colors," she notes.
Again, painting parts of the room — rather than the whole — may be all you need. "If you don't want to paint the whole room, you might want to accent the fireplace or bookcases by painting the fireplace or the insides of the bookcases," Mr. Manche says.
Pillow Talk
Throw in new, recover old
While we'll concede that just throwing a pillow on your couch won't change the look of your house, you'd be surprised at how one or two decorative pillows can uplift, change or subdue the mood of a room.
LuLu Belles creates custom-made 20-inch pillow covers ($34 to $44 labor), which include self-corded edging and zippers. The shop offers more than 600 bolts of fabric and even more decorative trim, from simple lip cord to silk tassel fringe, with costs ranging from $5 to $200 per yard, plus $10 labor to attach. (Note that self-corded pillows require about 1.5 yards of fabric and 1 yard of fringe.) Manager Elizabeth Durham says coordinating fabric inserts and needlepoint projects are popular; pillow forms ($23, duck and down fill) are also available.
Hardware = Easy Transformation
Swap knobs and pulls
Leslie Gentry, sales specialist in décor at Expo Design Center, says paint is the easiest fix for a tiresome space, but changing or adding hardware to cabinets, dressers and armoires is yet another inexpensive but often dramatic way to change up a look.
"If they want to go outside the box, do it with hardware," Ms. Gentry says. "A little novelty is fun, but it depends on the style."
If you don't believe her, imagine those blah old stainless-steel pulls replaced with oil-rubbed bronze knobs with leather inlay by Laurey ($12 each), black fleur-de-lis knobs ($3.78 each), copper roosters ($6 each), decorated porcelain knobs ($3 to $6 each) or even granite pulls ($16). To add whimsy to a child's bath, try brushed-nickel conch, starfish and seahorse knobs ($4 to $5).
And arty traditionalists should check out Charles Schaub's line (schaubhardware.com). They'll love it.
under $1,000
Light Changes
Switch out fixtures
Rather than remodel a bathroom, add new lighting fixtures over the vanity; you can do this without altering the electrical setup. This is also a good way to give your kitchen an inexpensive makeover, says Sheri Ray, a lighting consultant with Metro Lighting.
"The big rooms to look at are kitchens and bathrooms, because you spend a lot of time in those areas," Ms. Ray says. "There are so many options to make it warm — like using dimmers and under-cabinet lighting — and you don't have to spend a fortune to do it."
Dimmers with halogen light bulbs brighten a room and make it more cheerful. There are linkable under-cabinet lighting systems that plug into one outlet, avoiding the need for pricey electrical work. (They cost about $350 per 6-foot length.) Adding pendants ($75 to $300 each) to track-lighting systems is easy, but be sure you know the brand and wattage of the system before buying. A wax-candle chandelier ($300 to $800) can give a room a warm, romantic feel.
"A typical problem is selecting light with inadequate brightness," Ms. Ray observes. "A chandelier often needs more lighting — like a portable lamp — but there are no strict rules. Anything goes, and installation can usually be done yourself."
under $5,000
Stay Flexible
Make rooms multi-task
For the past year, Tim Rohan says, his customers have been asking for help designing rooms that serve multiple purposes.
"We work with the client, looking at their wants and needs, and then massage them at both levels," Mr. Rohan says. For instance, he suggests transforming a plain-Jane family room by adding open bookcases with closed cabinets at the bottom (for storing children's games and projects) for a combination family room/library. Or as Mr. Rohan did in the home of a voracious reader, you can convert an underutilized dining room by adding bookcases and window seats with hidden storage. Mr. Rohan advises flanking the windows with bookcases and extending existing crown molding around them to make it seem as if they have always been there. Add some attractive seat cushions and a few down throw pillows, and you've got a place to read and relax. Take the formal window treatments down a few notches, and in just a couple of weeks, you'll have a new comfort zone.
Trim Is In
Add moldings
Even if the old Victorian house where you now live is festooned with lots of molding, you can always add more to create a more elaborate look, Mr. Rohan says. On the flip side, if your domicile is molding-free, add it now. There are plenty of places to put it. For example: Add molding farther down the wall or along the ceiling, leaving space to give the illusion of more elegant crown molding, or install "picture molding" above the base molding. Create square details up a staircase, or use molding to make rectangles under chair rails in a dining room.
"There are ways to enhance what you have, versus tearing out and going bolder, and it can be done in stages," Mr. Rohan says. "Instead of thinking, 'What can I do over?' look at what you can do to enhance existing molding. It's sometimes more effective ... and always cheaper.
"Sometimes it just takes a professional eye to come up with options — things the average Joe isn't trained to see."
Refinish, Restore, Rebuild
Fix frumpy furniture
Zollinger Furniture will hand-sand, buff and bring your wooden furniture back to life. If the piece is in fairly good shape, it might need only a French polish ($500), which involves applying several coats of shellac to restore it to its original luster. If it's a ramshackle wreck, owner Tom Junker will hand-strip, hand-sand and refinish the piece using a multistep process that includes at least five coats of lacquer (which can cost up to $5,000 for larger pieces).
"Furniture restoration is the core of our business, the heart and soul of our business," says Mr. Junker. "People always seem to have pieces that are worth restoring — and people with really fine things want them restored well."
Zollinger has been rubbing, buffing and sewing since 1893; the Junker family has owned the business for the last
80 years. They can also reupholster your old wing chair ($1,000 to $1,500 plus cost of fabric) or build replicas of antique pieces to complete a set.
under $10,000
Keep the Home Fires Burning
Spruce up the fireplace
If your 1970s brick fireplace surround makes you feel as if you're living on the set of The Brady Bunch, opt for a new stone or tile surround ($1,500 up to $10,000). Richard Reilly, chief operating officer of BOA Construction, suggests adding a three-sided marble face to take your hearth from plain to formal; you can also install a cherry, oak or walnut wood surround that matches your home's existing woodwork or mix it up with a marble/fine wood surround. It may take a good craftsman four to six hours to finish a three-sided marble surround and mantel, but it will make no difference in the functioning of the fireplace, Mr. Reilly says. "It's not difficult to pick up an antique mantel or make aesthetic changes, but be careful," he adds. "Anyone with a bit of design sense should work with you to stretch beyond selecting what is pleasing to the eye."
A custom hardwood surround can run between $2,500 and $5,000. In the case of a custom fit, if the old oak mantel doesn't match the new profile, the gaps must be filled with drywall or plasterwork. Time for completion depends on the amount of work, but usually less than a week will do it.
If you want to add a new fireplace, the most economical way is with a prefab firebox. Then, Mr. Reilly says, it's all about how you want it to look in the end. Many fireboxes of this type sit off the floor — a dead giveaway that it's not full masonry. However, there are ways of masking this. "We recently had a client with a prefab fireplace budget, who wanted the old masonry look. We built a 17-inch raised hearth at chair level and sunk the prefab fireplace in it. The whole thing ended up looking like authentic brick," Mr. Reilly says. "Prefabs don't have to come flopping out of the box looking like they do in the picture."
Flat 'n' Fabulous
Pop for a plasma TV
On the high end, flat-panel plasma TVs can look like works of art. And you get what you pay for; the cost of a set alone ranges from $1,000 to $5,000. Wiring runs an additional $2,000 to $3,000, and custom mechanical devices that raise a panel or artwork to cover the screen (when not in use) can push the final bill to $10,000.
When the TV is installed in conjunction with a new fireplace, the model chosen depends on how much room is available, Mr. Reilly says. Robert Puthoff, sales representative at The Screening Room, steers those seeking high-end plasma TVs toward brands like Runco, NuVision and the Sharp Aquos.
"It used to be that customers looked for familiar names like Sony and Panasonic, but now they want to see what the best looks like, versus those in a big-box store," Mr. Puthoff says. "Runco is the absolute pinnacle of plasma TVs; it's our Ferrari of televisions. The picture quality is spectacular, it's built like a tank and it comes in a variety of size ranges." The smallest Runco, a 42-inch, sells for about $2,600.
Sheer Energy
Update appliances
If your fridge works, keeping it around till the end of its life is the greenest thing to do (after all, it will be going to a landfill). If your appliances date back to the era of the manual defrost, however, replacing them will give you an opportunity to improve your kitchen or laundry room both aesthetically (stainless vs. avocado: no contest!) and effectively.
Remember that a new appliance has two price tags: what you pay to take it home and what you pay for the energy and water it takes to operate. Today the lion's share of washers, dryers, refrigerators, dishwashers, air conditioners and dehumidifiers are manufactured to be ENERGY STAR compliant, which means they are 10 to 50 times more efficient than standard models. That can save homeowners $75 per year, per appliance. And that cash, of course, can go toward other home-improvement projects.
under $30,000
Seeking Warmth
Go green — and get more energy efficient
As any heartbroken, sentimental poet will tell you, beauty and chilliness are a terrible combination. Mr. Reilly says cultivating a deeper affection for your house can be as simple as patching up the drafts (which will save you money, too). Though masonry homes built in the '20s and '30s are quite solid, they have one of the lowest R-values around,
R-5. (The R-value measures an insulation material's ability to trap heat). You can improve your home's energy efficiency the old-fashioned way by rolling down the pink fiberglass in your attic, or you can go further and add closed-cell insulation (which has an R-value of 6 for every inch of thickness) inside the walls and then clad your exterior with an insulating material like EIFS (Exterior Insulation and Finish System).
Before you begin, check with an organization like the Earthways Center to get a home energy audit to help you discover where your house is leaking energy. Unless your home is extremely inefficient, dramatic projects like furring out walls (that is, gutting and then filling walls with insulating material) are best done when extensive remodeling is being done, Mr. Reilly says. Exterior insulation, on the other hand, provides "a new look to the exterior and increased energy performance," he notes. "You'll feel the benefit when Laclede Gas comes knocking."
Let the Sunshine In
Add a sunroom
If you're sick of fishing heliotropes out of your sangria and battling with bugs while trying to get a little outdoor R&R or you want the sun in winter but prefer not to bundle up and shiver outside, a sunroom or solarium can transform your patio into a year-round living space.
Kevin Moloney, regional manager of Patriot Sunrooms, says that a significant improvement like a sunroom is a safe investment in a down economy.
"A sunroom gives you the opportunity to enjoy new space, and you're adding to resale value for when markets rebound," Mr. Moloney says.
Patriot has 14 designs that can be modified to maintain the architectural integrity of the house; for instance, brick for the base walls can be chosen to match the home's exterior. All styles can be built for $30,000 or less and feature high-performance, double-pane, low-e glass; construction usually takes two to four weeks.
Cathedral-ceilinged great rooms, which are most often a 12 by 16-foot structure, attach to the side of a house via a sliding-glass door and feature a shingled roof and a full wall of glass in the front gable. All have functional windows with lifetime screen replacement,
French doors, heating, air conditioning and an electrical package.
"People are looking for space where they can bring the outdoors in," Mr. Maloney says. "They want to enjoy the pool, the trees or maybe watch birds" — without, of course, having to withstand freezing or boiling temperatures or deal with a half-dozen new mosquito bites.
under $50,000
Far, Far Away ... Not
Build a getaway room
And if all else fails, you can create a second home ... in your back yard. Wildwood residents Shirley and David Bachman added a freestanding, screened-in porch that connects to their home by a platform deck and functions like a miniature summerhouse. The porch was built by Art Gebel Construction and designed by Mr. Bachman; professional landscaping was installed by Doug Zick of Zick's Great Outdoors.
On mild evenings, the Bachmans and their friends head out back, having drinks around the 19th-century French pastry table under the golden light of Charleston-style gas lanterns (which they added as a fond reminder of that South Carolina city, where they've vacationed every year for the past two decades).
"We wanted to make it an oasis away from the house, a reminder of an old Southern home site," says Mrs. Bachman. "It was inspired by a home we saw in Connecticut. It became an amalgamation of the North and South. My husband is from Connecticut, and I'm from South Carolina, where we still spend a considerable amount of time. And as soon as April hits, we're out there."
