The word ‘outdated’ is so…judgmental. Coming off a rather frugal few years, it sounds flip and cavalier. If it’s perfectly fine, still usable, maybe we even still like it, why change it?  Well, if you’re staying, and are happy with your house, no reason at all-   keep  it and enjoy.

But if you’re selling, trust this Westchester County Home Stager:  outdated aesthetics will hurt you.

Fresh and reasonably current decor tends to draw better qualified buyers, while soothing and settling the skittish ones. The flip side is they’re both likely to draw the same, semi-logical conclusion that old decor =old other things, like appliances, and other expensive elements of infrastructure. Things that will be due for big-ticket repair or replacements in very short order.

LOOK>I’m not saying it’s a correct conclusion, but like it or not, it’s the takeaway buyers have from the 5-8 seconds they will invest in scrutinizing your online listing photos before deciding to stick around, or CLICK! move on.

Your house has mere seconds in the spotlight when buyers are looking at listings online: remember, they’re looking on their phones while waiting at the deli counter, sneaking peeks at work, or at home at night in their bunny slippers after a long day.

Getting your house sold is a high-stakes game, and The Refreshed Home plays to win. Here in two parts are the most dating elements, and how to fix them

Wallpaper Walls are the biggest surface area in any room, and make the most statement. Wallpaper does not age well, it’s your personality, glued to the wall. Powder rooms, because they’re small, singular and private spaces are really the only rooms I let stand with wallpaper.

Paneling Wood tone or painted, veneer or real, in this market wood on the wall will hurt you. It reads cute or rustic, and again leads the viewer to question what else is old. Either remove it, or sheet rock over it; your contractor can advise you of your best option.

Big honking “decorator” ceiling fans are bad enough, but if they are the main source of light in a room, you are shooting yourself in both feet. An over-sized fan will overwhelm the room, and skew the proportions of photos. Ceiling light tends to be glaring, and creates hot spots in photos. Lighted fans hang about 18″ into the room,  so in a room with eight foot ceilings, they’d be six and a half feet off the floor, dominating the room/photos even more.

If you must have a fan, get a close to the ceiling (low-profile) sleek white fan to disappear into the ceiling. And buy lamps for your lighting needs.

Wide grout lines usually go hand in hand with white tile and cabinetry, with black counter tops. Simple fix: snap your kitchen/bath out of the 80’s mausoleum look into this millennium with big bold color on the walls.  Consider a granny smith green….pomegranate red….school bus yellow. The white and black will pop, and since there’s usually little wall space in these rooms to start with, the risk is low and the impact is BIG!

NEXT: Dated color schemes, and replacing the builders’ basics.