The top designer Tricia Guild tells Christopher Middleton how an inspired interior can sell your home
It’s official. Never in British property history has it been harder to sell your house at the price that you’re asking.
According to the latest report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, property values are set to fall by 4.5 per cent this year, and 10.5 per cent in real terms by the end of 2015. This could be the longest period of falling house prices ever seen in this country.
Clearly then, over the coming months, it’s going to need a lot more than the waft of freshly brewed coffee and baking bread to persuade purchasers to part with their money. So what’s the average vendor to do, in order to persuade buyers to view their property not through cold, hard, logical lenses, but through rose-tinted glasses?
How, in short, can you get someone to fall in love with your house? Well, who better to ask than Tricia Guild, OBE? She started her company, Designers Guild, in a tiny shop on the King’s Road, London in 1970. Today, she runs a worldwide £50 million-a-year business.
Tricia takes on large-scale redesign projects, working her makeover magic on everything from City penthouses to lakeside pavilions. And the secret of getting buyers’ hearts to beat a little faster, she says, is not to go for demureness and inoffensive colours, but to pull out the stops when it comes to expressing your personality.
“There is a school of thought which says you should make the place as anonymous as possible, so as not to put people off. But I find that way of thinking uncreative, unimaginative and, in the long run, unattractive to a potential buyer,” she explains.
“I believe there’s a happy medium whereby you can enhance the look of your home without making it off-putting.
“There is nothing more exciting than creating your own home, in your own style. Apart from anything else, it’s a good way of making money.”
That’s always provided you can get someone to buy the place. Here, then, are Tricia’s 10 tips on how to get people to fall for your home, or failing that, how to rekindle your own relationship with it.
1 Be bold
I think it’s important when you’re creating a style for your home, to listen to your aspirations rather than your fears. I often hear people say: 'Oh, I would never dare use such-and-such a colour, I think I’ll stick with beige.’ To my mind, if you really love something, it can’t be wrong. And if you really do love beige, so be it.
2 Camouflage the defects
If a room has low ceilings, fill it with long, low-level furniture. If a room is a bit small, fill it with see-through furniture: wirework dining chairs; glass-top tables.
3 Rein in those rafters
If you’ve got big, Tudor beams in your ceiling, paint the space between them a pale shade of pink. It creates warmth and softness.
4 Don’t be ageist
You can give a modern interior an additional layer of individuality by adding the odd antique to the mix. Just as you can give period rooms an extra edginess with a few modern pieces. Bright, vivid, contemporary colours can bring fresh life to an old-fashioned building. Georgian houses were often painted in strong yellows, reds, blues and greens, particularly in Ireland.
5 Get out more
If you’re looking for inspiration, you can’t underestimate the value of going out. I’m always getting ideas, not just from going to design shows in Italy, but from going to the theatre, to the opera and to museums. You need to broaden your horizons, see what other people are doing differently. You can’t be lazy about it.
6 Give corridors a chance
They don’t just have to be functional walkways. They can be painted in great colours, and given their own personality.
7 Can the cliché
If you want to sell a loft apartment, don’t put a black leather sofa in there. It is not only a cliché, but it dominates the space, and creates a heavy, overtly masculine feel. Why not make it orange instead (dynamic, without being feminine)?
8 Take the indoors outdoors
It’s all part of the house. A good way of building an extra (albeit outdoor and temporary) room, is to erect a simple, metal frame and hang banners of linen from it. With very little effort, you’ve created a clearly defined, separate space, with an intimate atmosphere.
9 Bring the outdoors indoors
By using wallpaper with a leaf print, or yellow and green colours, in rooms overlooking the garden.
10 Dare to discard
If you have a sofa or a piece of furniture you can’t stand, throw it out. There’s no point spending money on making your home look better, when you’re having to work around something you don’t like.
Tricia Guild gives you ten more tips for transforming a home
“There is a school of thought which says you should make the place as anonymous as possible, so as not to put people off. But I find that way of thinking uncreative, unimaginative and, in the long run, unattractive to a potential buyer,” she explains.
“I believe there’s a happy medium whereby you can enhance the look of your home without making it off-putting.
“There is nothing more exciting than creating your own home, in your own style. Apart from anything else, it’s a good way of making money.”
That’s always provided you can get someone to buy the place. Here, then, are Tricia’s 10 tips on how to get people to fall for your home, or failing that, how to rekindle your own relationship with it.
1 Be bold
I think it’s important when you’re creating a style for your home, to listen to your aspirations rather than your fears. I often hear people say: 'Oh, I would never dare use such-and-such a colour, I think I’ll stick with beige.’ To my mind, if you really love something, it can’t be wrong. And if you really do love beige, so be it.
2 Camouflage the defects
If a room has low ceilings, fill it with long, low-level furniture. If a room is a bit small, fill it with see-through furniture: wirework dining chairs; glass-top tables.
3 Rein in those rafters
If you’ve got big, Tudor beams in your ceiling, paint the space between them a pale shade of pink. It creates warmth and softness.
4 Don’t be ageist
You can give a modern interior an additional layer of individuality by adding the odd antique to the mix. Just as you can give period rooms an extra edginess with a few modern pieces. Bright, vivid, contemporary colours can bring fresh life to an old-fashioned building. Georgian houses were often painted in strong yellows, reds, blues and greens, particularly in Ireland.
5 Get out more
If you’re looking for inspiration, you can’t underestimate the value of going out. I’m always getting ideas, not just from going to design shows in Italy, but from going to the theatre, to the opera and to museums. You need to broaden your horizons, see what other people are doing differently. You can’t be lazy about it.
6 Give corridors a chance
They don’t just have to be functional walkways. They can be painted in great colours, and given their own personality.
7 Can the cliché
If you want to sell a loft apartment, don’t put a black leather sofa in there. It is not only a cliché, but it dominates the space, and creates a heavy, overtly masculine feel. Why not make it orange instead (dynamic, without being feminine)?
8 Take the indoors outdoors
It’s all part of the house. A good way of building an extra (albeit outdoor and temporary) room, is to erect a simple, metal frame and hang banners of linen from it. With very little effort, you’ve created a clearly defined, separate space, with an intimate atmosphere.
9 Bring the outdoors indoors
By using wallpaper with a leaf print, or yellow and green colours, in rooms overlooking the garden.
10 Dare to discard
If you have a sofa or a piece of furniture you can’t stand, throw it out. There’s no point spending money on making your home look better, when you’re having to work around something you don’t like.
Tricia Guild gives you ten more tips for transforming a home
- Tricia Guild’s book A Certain Style is available from Telegraph Books at £36 plus £1.25 p&p. Call 0844 871 1515 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk. The Designers Guild (020 7351 5775; www.designersguild.com) Source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
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