The One Secret Designers Use to Transform Any House!
- Molly Ishmael
- May 7, 2022
- 7 min read
Updated: May 7, 2022
A few months ago, my parents put their condo in South Florida on the market with the goal of moving up here to our neck of the woods. It seems Central Florida is the place to be these days! When they were prepping for their photos and open house, I gave them a tip to really make their listing stand out.
My mom agreed as she liked the idea especially for the listing pictures. Fast forward, the photos looked great and they had a fantastic open house followed by a successful sale!
Pops of royal blue in the last house we sold.
Here's what I advised my parents to do when listing their house for sale:
Color Coordinate Everything!
Seriously. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.
Color coordinate the entire place! In my parents's case, that didn't mean they had to buy all new decor, simply place consistent color pops in each room to create a color scheme throughout. This makes the whole home seem designed as opposed to just decorated. Inside and out, the entire place is tied together by color.
I did the same thing in our home that we sold last year, using royal blue to tie every room together. Of course, you can tie in more than one color. too! Having any consistent color scheme will achieve that "model home" feeling! Plus, it photographs really nicely.
The easiest way to pull together every space in your home is to choose ONE color, any color you like, and stick to it. Additionally, you can tie in coordinating hues that are close to your chosen one on the color wheel. For instance, in our last house, I chose to run Royal Blue throughout, flanked by other shades of blue, green, and teal. Of course, with a skilled hand, you can also tie in color wheel opposites for even more visual impact. But for "beginners level" decorating, just stick to a few shades that are neighbors on the wheel. Even experienced designers sometimes keep it simple when creating a minimalistic look.
The coordination didn't stop inside! Royal blue was consistently used including outside on our patio courtyard.
Reasons to Color Coordinate... Everything!
1. It Instantly Makes Your House Appear Neater. Color coordination is a visual trick that makes your home seem orderly and neat no matter what is laying around. Picture it: It's a normal day in Orderly Land until someone leaves a dish rag and a pair of scissors laying out on the counter - the horror! But wait, there's more! In a twist, it turns out the room still appears neat and nothing looks out of place at a glance because the dish rag and scissors match the decor and therefore practically appear decorative.
Confession: I even color coordinate my cooking utensils and craft supplies. Maybe it's an addiction. Whatever it is, things look neater than if they're a mish-mash of motley colors. Who cares if the throw blanket is not on its usual chair; as long as it coordinates with everything else, it will look good wherever it ends up.
Speaking of matching chip clips...
When I had a dog, his toys were blue, green or neutral. If someone gave him a red toy, he enjoyed it but eventually it migrated its way out of major sight lines. A red dog toy in the middle of my blue rug would stand out, looking "out of place" and messy. But a blue toy in the middle of a blue rug doesn't look bad at all. The blue dog toy simply looks like it's intended to be in the house, as opposed to the red dog toy which looks like a random item left there by an animal (which it was - what can I say, dogs are colorblind.)
Of course, we're not talking about literally camouflaging your belongings, that would be pretty strange. And no, this isn't intended to facilitate collecting "matching clutter"... haha! The goal of this visual trick is simply to highlight that everything in your home was carefully chosen and belongs there.
Notice in the background, the blue soap in the bottle and green apples on the counter. When we listed the house, I decreed that we were only allowed to eat Granny Smith until the house sold. I'm fun to live with.
2. It Creates a Feeling of Completion. Have you ever toured a home done by a professional designer? There's something about it that seems "done." It's not that everything exactly matches but the spaces seem well thought out, executed by someone with a plan. It's fascinating to me how much of our own stuff we seem to accumulate by accident: something on sale, or a gift, or a yard sale find... And don't get me wrong I love all of the above, but there should still be an over-arching plan when deciding what to bring home.
Yes, you've heard designers say "NO matchy-matchy decor." But that doesn't mean avoiding a color scheme - professionals use this technique all the time! Again, think about the last model home you saw - I would almost bet it had a color theme throughout. Pros simply avoid being too one-note. The key is to have a color plan without literally making every single thing the exact same shade. That said, unless you've got multiple art and design classes under your belt (and even if you do), you may find it tricky to achieve balance visually. Sometimes, having a few fool-proof rules to follow can be the easiest way to take. So here's one: Go ahead and be matchy-matchy if it works for you! (It's better than no design plan at all.)
Tidy away various sundries in this expandable drawer organizer. It's not just for silverware!
3. It's Good Feng Shui. The idea is that you are connecting your entire home (and everyone in it) in a peaceful, logical, and cheerful way. This can have the mental effect of making you feel more harmonious with everyone in the house. The mind is a powerful thing! While incorporating a variety of colors is beautiful and can represent different feng shui elements, you can still have a consistent scheme throughout your home with one or two predominate colors pulling everything else together.
4. It Photographs Really Well. Yasss sister, it's just "sooo instagrammable..." Okay I'm pretty sure I'm past the age cutt-off to say ALL of those words. Truth nonetheless, there's something about a color repeater that catches the eye. Imagine scrolling someone's profile and all the photos seem to work together. Sometimes, I check my own profile just to be sure nothing looks too out of place. As a designer, I want to show that I have an eye for beauty even in my online posts, and I would show the same attention to detail when it comes to a client's home.
While a simple color scheme may not be the most complex design plan, it does create a peaceful effect.
5. It's Easier to Do than You Think! This trick works for everyone and the process is really not hard at all.
A. Make a short list of colors; 3 is best plus neutrals and wood and metal tones (sometimes it helps to write down your scheme).
B. Choose one predominant color to lead them all to victory.
C. Finally, edit the general shades of color to coordinate cool or warm tones.
Then simply make sure everything visible falls into the color scheme you chose. If you want to get really crazy, continue this scheme to the "hidden" items such as things in drawers.
As an example, everything in our last house was done in jewel tones plus neutral cool tones: royal blue, forest green, light teal, plus neutrals (black, white, gray, silver), and of course variations on all of those colors. From the dish towels to my bed linens to my soup ladle, and even my spatula and hand mixers... yep, blue or teal. Please note it DOESN'T matter what colors you choose, those just happen to be the colors I did. From my lamps to my pens, everything coordinated. It may sound extreme, but it works.
In fact, when you embark on this endeavor, you may be pleasantly surprised that the majority of your things already match! That's because you are naturally drawn to your go-to colors when buying anything. Yes, a few small items may need to be replaced or discarded. For example, I kept my blue and green chip clips, but gave away the yellow and orange clips that came in the same packet (I gave them to my mom who loves warm colors). Is this just an OCD fantasy? Maybe! But it also WORKS to make everything in the entire house appear orderly, therefore never seeming out of place.
My husband's home office looked tidy despite lots of electronics and practical items, due to a few bold pops of color that catch the eye and trick us into seeing the color first!
Reality Check: Realistically, there WILL be a few mismatched things the house - for example, kids' toys and crafts. However, there is still a way to keep things looking neat: all you have to do is provide an attractive storage solution to tidy away such items when the kids aren't actively playing with them, of course.
A storage box or bench can match the rest of your decor even if the toys inside don't. The same goes for collections of movies or games or craft kits which come in random colorful packaging; store these in an ottoman or even a shoe box you can paint or wrap to match your decor. Easy fix! You can still keep all the items your family needs and loves in an attractive way.
These clever foldable baskets come in 10 colors!
Budget-Friendly Tip: You don't necessarily need to spend much money to accomplish total coordination; many existing items in your home can simply be painted or stashed away and voilà! Everything suddenly appears more orderly. That old can of spray paint in the garage can finally be put to good use. I've even repainted picture frames to make random artwork appear to coordinate.
However, as you work toward this goal, you may love the outcome so much that you decide to spend a few dollars taking it even further. Over time, you can replace small items from dish towels and coasters to rugs and even the smallest sundries, but until then, tidy mismatched items away in a drawer or cabinet, so you can achieve visible success even before ever spending a penny.
Sometimes a girl just wants to feel the blues!
This is also a good trick to be able to prep the house for company in only a few minutes at any given time. It usually works for me unless my child just got into the yogurt, or as she believes it to be, paint. Unless that.
There's no need to worry about things being too much out of place when:
1. There's no clutter, and
2. The things that are there all coordinate, so...
How bad can the place ever look, right?
And that's my busy-mom trick for maintaining order in your home no matter what. Try out this trick to see how it may transform your home and let me know what you think about the results!
With Love,
Molly
P.S. If you need any help with the ideas above, just contact me anytime & book a virtual interior design session:
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