Hi, I would add a piece of art to the fireplace wall to draw the attention rather than reflect as it's doing. Bring in more of the blue by adding more pillows ... ( it's lack oomph. Switch the carpet for the one in the dinning area. In the kitchen the fabric is bold ... work with it.! Add a bold arrangement with red ... even a couple of wine glasses and a bottle of wine or 2 coffee mugs and muffins. red cloth napkins? Maybe another piece of art ... try switching things around from another part of your home. ( think I would remove a stool) Dinning area: switch out the carpet with the one in the living room, pair down the items in the shelving ... leaving the red if it's connected to the kitchen area. Family room: pair down the items in the shelving by about 1/2. Try turning the sofa on the angle to face the stairs and creating a conversations area with the chairs. It's hard to tell the size of the room and what's to the left but from what I can see it might work I included a photo of a recent staging I did ... the colour scheme is what I was suggesting as well as something similar in art ... it would really warm that living room space. Good Luck! Liz Home Harmony - Montreal

I think you've done a great job of de-cluttering the space. I agree with maggicoast. Don't buy stools or other appliances. Your kitchen just needs cosmetic changes, and if anyone moves in and wants to update it, I'm sure they'll appreciate that that is all they need to do, and not have to worry about structural items, like bad pipes or something like that. The only thing I would do is to put a nice bowl of fruit on the counter and let the realtor know that any prospective buyer is welcome to have a free apple or banana, courtesy of the present owner. You know your kitchen is a bit outdated, and I'm assuming that redoing it to sell it isn't an option since you haven't done it already. It looks very neat and clean and functional. I think you should leave it at that. The kitchen looks like an "open book" where everything-both the good and the "needs improvement" is right out there to be seen, and I think prospective buyers will appreciate that-the ones that are worth dealing with, anyway.

In keeping with the principles of feng shui, fresh flowers are auspicious and enhance oxygen in a space. Consider the art of Ikebana. This is a very simplistic design approach that can easily be achieved with a few freshly cut flowers. You would place an odd numbers of flowers i.e. 3-5-7 of varying heights, arranged and anchored with a small comb-like tool called a frog. The arrangement is set in a low Ikebana vase half filled with water which lends a peaceful illusion to the design. There you have it. You will enjoy the simplicity of Ikebana as it will harmonize with any design theme. With frequent change of water, Ikebana will last up to 2-3 weeks and can be invited into your decor for daily lifespace revitalization, seasonal change and other special occasions.

I know this is an old thread but for those with a similar dilemma in the future, I just want to chime in with my own anecdote. We recently sold a duplex condo. Our neighbors were also selling at the exact same time. Our condo was slightly smaller and less desirable unit as half the living space was below grade (finished basement). It also had pink kitchen cabinets where the other unit had much more appealing cream cabinets, and our condo had a small deck and the other had a mongo-sized deck. What's more, we had painted the entire house in lively, bold & rich colors. Got a little carried away with it, but it suited us over the years. In fact, the whole house was a riot of color -- yellow, orange, green, and lots of red. Each room was different, in fact, though all the colors did work together. We painted it this way because the condo had a PINK kitchen and PINK marble baths... I hated the pink so much. The color scheme made you not notice the pink so much. I was worried it would turn off buyers and impact our selling price. We debated painting it all neutral before listing it, but our realtor said not to bother, and instead helped us stage it to work with the colors. The realtor did a fantastic job with the staging. Meanwhile the other condo had someone come in and professionally paint the entire place white, and paid for a professional stager as well. We had simultaneous open houses and a lot of traffic. We rec'd 3 offers within a week, all around asking price. We took the one that had no contingencies. The other unit languished for 6 weeks more without a nibble and minimal traffic. They dropped their price. Then finally received a low-ball offer with every contingency you can imagine. We were told by all the realtors that walked through both units that despite ours having less desirable features, it showed far better than the bland all-white, blank-slate unit... which effectively looked like a rental not a home, with all the personality stripped out of it. Ultimately we sold ours for $386/sf and the other unit went for $285/sf with an additional $20,000 cash to the buyers, i.e., we cleared $180K profit and the other unit barely broke even (we'd both bought around the same time). What's more the new owners of our place have not re-painted and don't expect to. You just never know what will appeal to a buyer! Meanwhile on the flip side, the place we bought has a white kitchen and I hate it. It's getting ripped and replaced. There was another identical unit for sale at same time, in which the owner had put in $85K of renovations. We did not care for their renovations so we bought the property that hasn't been touched in 20 years, because we want to do our own renovations.