Agree with "remove all of the toppers". The floral and lace can look girly or give a country vibe to the house. You have nice big windows so show them off. It will be a cleaner, more spacious, brighter look. I like the greenish color in the kitchen, but then in one of the photos of the eat-in breakfast area it looks like a blueish color. I'd take that photo out. It doesn't represent the true color if someone is flipping through the photos quickly they will think there are too many paint colors shared in one space-kitchen, family room, breakfast area. You have a lot of different paint colors in the house and not everyone likes that, so adding a new paint color that's not really there doesn't help. The dusty rose color in the dining room and master bedroom bothers me. If I was someone who wanted move-in ready and did not want to repaint, I would pass on the house. If the pool is in good condition I would love it, but the yard doesn't appear to be fenced in. That would make it a liability issue for me. If it is fenced in make sure you show that in the photos. Remove the clock over the door. It drawers the eye there and makes the room look shorter. You have lots of family photos. At least remove the ones in the dinning room. It seems like an odd place to display them. Others may disagree, but the nice wedding one over the fireplace doesn't bother me. If you have time repaint the kids room to match the family room. Not everyone will have a boy and a girl and so these will be rooms that buyers will need to potentially repaint. Everything looks clean and in good repair. You were brave to put it on here for scrutiny so I hope it pays off. You've gotten some good advice with several easy, cheap, quick, changes that would make a big difference. If it helps your comps have some things they could do to improve as well, so decor wise I think you are all pretty equal. Best of luck for a quick sale. This post was edited by Homeblessings on Tue, Mar 26, 13 at 0:41

I don't think it's weird or silly to want to be your own person, to feel that your home is decorated in a way that is unique to YOU....rather than following the trends. But in our mass-produced society, it's probably pretty difficult to really achieve that. In the 'olden days' you were not influenced by television living rooms and movie sets. You probably didn't even own a decorating magazine---I know my Mother didn't. So, whatever you did had more to do with what you saw in friend's homes or what you created or what you could afford. Those days are gone. And I don't think Dixie has any problem at all with having a normal sofa.......something like a media center or armoire or stand to place her t.v. on..........or bedside tables/nightstands for her cuppa tea and book and lamp. We all live much the same in that respect. And while some guy out there has deep purple carpet with a T.V. coming down on a chain from the ceiling........Dixie doesn't want that. But some of us who are addicted to decorating and don't necessarily want to copy the best friend's house or the neighbor's house.........want to have something.......maybe a cool light fixture, perhaps an arrangement of vintage bride photos, maybe an original piece of art or an antique Persian rug........that elevates our room out of the mundane and expected, into something that totally looks like "Us". Any girl with a credit card or an HELOC can walk into Ethan Allen and buy a furniture suite. Or wander into Bed Bath & Beyond and get a complete matched set of new bedding to orchestrate her master bedroom redo. Nothing wrong with that. (which reminds me, I need new sheets!) But while it may take much longer to find an original 1920's chandelier on Ebay to finish out your dining room remodel, or hit 15 different estate sales to find a rustic walnut farm table for your kitchen redo, or even rewire/rework something to repurpose it as the centerpiece of your Backyard Makeover, it can be the one thing that really makes you happy about your house---the piece that friends never fail to comment on when they walk into your room. Nobody's gonna say, "Wow! you have a sofa!" But if you have an intricately carved antique sofa that you have had reupholstered beautifully, you will probably get a surprised compliment now and again. In my home, I have the requisite t.v. in an armoire, the sofa, the recliner, the lamps and the lamp tables, in my living room. But two of my chairs are very old and no one I know has anything like them. I have an antique barnwood cabinet that holds my china and have never seen one exactly like it. Even my run-of-the-mill rattan sofa (you can get these sofa with rattan tables on Craigslist by the hundreds) is upholstered in a more unusual fabric choice--bronzey chenille--and has a vintage mirror hanging above........rather than the pastel chintz fabric they usually have. And most people put theirs in a sunroom. So I smile to myself when I look at it, because it doesn't look just exactly like something I could walk into Pier One and buy. If you are getting something just because you need it, like replacing an ugly lightbox in the bathroom or getting a new faucet to replace the old leaky one, it is pretty simple to just head into Lamps Plus or Home depot or Lowes and do what you need to do. We all do that. But sometimes, when something really catches your eye and strikes you as different, as unusual, as unique........and that's the thing that moves you........it can really be a disappointment to find that those "Uniquenesses" are being featured on HGTV and in the room settings at the J.C.Penney Home Store. Yes Dixie. I am long-winded, but I feel like you do. Red

Oh, mtn I agree completely--- that's almost exactly what I said to our ID when he sent me to the tk collections site for kitchen chairs. Luckily my mother came up with 4 French ladderbacks and I filled in with parsons chairs at the ends. But I spent a good deal of time playing with the weaves and colors--- this was about four or five years ago at the very beginning of the trend. We ended up putting four bistro type chairs on our screened porch that are all weather aluminum but look remarkably like rattan, which I got as a close out from a furniture supply company for practically the cost of the shipping! And the ability to take a hosing and not lose your stomach for continued renovation seems to be a required trait in a homeowner :-)

I am slow too : ) . In both senses from the blog post you linked to, Holly, the speed and the prioritising, and also in terms of saving up to spend -- really what the term ‘slow decorating’ is talking about isn’t the speed at which something gets done, but the intention and purpose behind your choices and decisions. It’s about prioritising the long term rather than the short term. Buying pieces of furniture that will last, instead of following a fashion led impulse buy, that you might go off in 6 months. Picking quality over quantity, and knowing confidently that the choices you are making will work for your family in the foreseeable future. And I come by it honestly and easily because my parents were like that too, in all three senses. Of course, it helps here in the back of beyond in a very rural area six hours north of the US border, having to wait for just the right piece to present itself. For years I'd been looking for a large Chinese blue and white fish bowl planter; my parents had one at their vacation home, but there was no way to get it back here from there, at least not in one piece. I couldn't find anything with reasonable shipping. Then I went to a neighbor's garage sale, and lo and behold she had a pair. Not only am I a slow decorator, but we're also slow builders, since it took us four years to complete our new house, which we built ourselves. There were times, though, where I had to be fast in sourcing and getting things, which I often found nerve-wracking. There were a few misfires, especially with light fixtures, where I thought I found something but then ended up finding something better later on. We moved into the house in June, and most of the rooms are "mostly" finished. I'm still waiting for a number of things -- for blinds dot ca to bring in a nice blue and white printed fabric for reasonably priced Roman shades (I bought them in June for my bedroom and bathroom, and they day after they arrived and we installed them, I went online to order more for the dining room and the fabric was gone. Argh.). I have pictures to hang, and others that need framing. I just found a small rattan coffee table I needed for an area of the living room, and now I'm going to keep my eyes open for a round tray to go on top. There are some more lamp shades I'd like switch out -- I found someone on Etsy who made some lovely William Morris shades for the sconces in the unpowder room on the main floor, and think I'd like to get her to make some more for the sconces in the foyer. And there is a plain beige shade on the living room floor lamp I'd like to replace with a pleated block print shade. I still have to decide on, and order, blue and white backsplash tiles for the kitchen. I will say that for me an important element is that I have always loved the hunt : ) , even when it means just window shopping instead of actually shopping. The best thing about this approach is that a slowly decorated room is never dated because everything comes from different time periods. Of course the room may never look good either but that's a different issue. I think for those of us who are interested in design, who are interested in a particular style, whether it's English country or Ben Pentreath's eclectic English or MCM, we do tend to stick to furnishings that fit that style, so that rooms do end up looking good. And I think the oddball items that don't fit are often what gives a room personality, that sense that everything wasn't bought in one feel swoop from HomeSense or Ethan Allen. One of the things I love best about English country/eclectic English is that rooms in that style often look comfortable and well-used. Which I know is anathema to the North America highly styled look that blogs, Instagram, and HGTV push. april, I like unfinishedness in my home but not at all in books or movies. I've never liked an unclear ending. All that said, if one of my dream designers (Ben Pentreath, Schuyler Samperton, Robert Kime, Tom Scheerer) turned up at the front door and offered to do the house, I'd be willing to risk the "all at once" look. Though at this point, I'd have to ask them to use some of my existing furnishings lol. Fun topic, Holly, thank you!