Did you get a chance to attend our HOME Schooled Mini Design Session with Flipping Boston Stars Peter & Desi Souhleris? If you didn’t have a chance to attend their Q&A session, have no fear, we took good notes! Here are our highlights:
You don’t have to spend a lot of money for good design
For a home transformation, where do you get the biggest bang for your buck?
Lighting, lighting, lighting! For Pete, lighting is a must. Pete said that you have to think of lighting first, and Desi pointed out that you have to think of lighting like you would in a museum. You can wash the walls in a living room with light or draw attention to your favorite pieces of art! The right lighting creates the perfect ambiance in a home.
- lighting is a must
- you have to think of lighting first – wish i had a light here to wash this wall down
- it’s like a museum – the right lighting creates he ambiance
- wash the walls in the living room – want it to look like a museum
- outdoor lighting – run low voltage lighting
The best way to select siding colors – don’t reinvent the wheel!
When it comes to selecting siding it’s important to remember that a palette color sample will look very different from the color that you might see on a home when you drive by. For example, we’re up on the north shore, so you might drive by a coastal home and LOVE its bluey-green color. You go to Home Depot to pick out a paint color, or you work with us to pick out a vinyl siding or James Hardie siding color that looks just like the color you saw on that inspirational coastal home. But you don’t have a coastal home, and once the siding is up on your home, it turns out way greener than you originally envisioned! 🙁 Pete’s advice? If you see a color that you love on a home, don’t reinvent the wheel – color match to the exact siding that you’re inspired by!
Once you’ve selected siding colors, what about the entry door?
Pete & Desi openly shared that they don’t agree on this topic 😉 Pete’s favorite color is a reddish maroon, for our ProVia entry doors, he picked out Mountain Berry. Other options if you don’t want to go with a red? Charcoal – it goes very well with gray. And last, but not least, a seafoam green.
Desi also likes the seafoam green, she shared that it goes nicely with grey, white, and taupe. And everybody wants grey right now! Desi’s other choices? Inviting colors! But she also said it depends on your choice of color on your siding. While green looks great with grey, she also loves entry doors that are colored a little bit darker than a rich mocha brown.
Did you know Pete & Desi are currently redoing their home? On their house, they have charcoal shingles and a light mist colored door!
When you’re updating sections of wood flooring…
Pete is a fan of dark floors personally, but he pointed out that if you want to go with dark flooring, you MUST be a clean freak or else you’ll see everything (yikes!).
Otherwise, if you’re replacing sections of wooding floor but not an entire floor, you have to be mindful of your stain and poly. With oak, Pete shared, you can see the difference in age. How can you overcome that? With a stain, first, to get a consistent look, and then a polyurethane on top. If you like a yellower look, an oil based polyurethane will achieve that for you. If you like the simple, natural color of the wood you’re working with, then go with a water based polyurethane.
