White Elephant house - what to do?

[charmed59]

I think that the curves between the tile and carpet scream 1980s. Replacing the floors would do the most to update the space. Florida tends to be humid. Often that means the carpets always feels damp, especially when it is near the pool. I'd go with travertine, slate, ceramic wood tile, or bamboo in the living room dining room and kitchen.

I agree with losing the stairs and weird oval sofit in the kitchen. Your color pallette looks like it would be very pleasing in that house.

[golfgal]

I like the house overall--sure some updating is nice. Get rid of the red carpets, put in wood or bamboo flooring, make a couple seating arrangements in the living space, stop trying to decorate a room around a tv, change out some colors on the walls. I like the stairway, it adds some character. It's not like it's taking up space.

It's a light and breezy house, decorate it as such and you will be much happier.

[Rogarven]

The drapes are what are a big distraction to the big windows. As far as the stairs, you need to have a good plan to make it look like nothing was there before. You have got some great suggestions. This is a very nice house and adding some color will really bring out the best. Best of luck!!

[silibran]

Originally Posted by Californianz

Based on our own thoughts and the comments so far, we will start with -

Replace red carpet in family room with a sand tone
Remove valances/cornices
Remove stairs
Remove wallpaper
Replace fridge with counter depth
Replace kitchen pendant lights with cans
Remove mirrors on walls
Add walls to dining room, change to wood floors
Paint - add some subtle colors throughout, and remove baby poo orange.
Bring in large green plants

Probably not going to go all Miami Vice on the general motif or wall colors, but more like this -

Kids are grown and gone - we have a golden retriever - golf is the only main lifestyle - we're going for a warm, refined look - more classic and less trendy. Ultimately we want it to be able to show like a model home in the end - but one step at a time... We can't afford to do major demolition/construction - or not move in until it's done. If we could, we would be ripping out all the flooring, bathrooms, kitchen island soffit and art deco elements - starting over from scratch.

We never seem to stay in one place very long, (10 different houses in the last 15 years) so with that in mind - we're on a house flipping type of budget - not dropping $50K+ into it in personally preferred cosmetics which do not add hardly any resale value. Price per square foot in any given area doesn't change much, even if you line your walls with solid gold - that's just reality. In my experience, most "improvements" people do to their homes see way less than 50 cents on the dollar in actual return - especially on big ticket items like kitchen and baths. We saw a lot of other houses listed in this area that needed whole new kitchens, which made this one all the more attractive, mostly - except a few poor choices they made. Granite alone in a kitchen like this had to be crazy expensive!

Thanks to all for the input!

I like your colors. Very pretty!