Home Selling Tips—What do Sponge Painting and SpongeBob Have in Common?

Home Selling Tips Sponge/Textured Painting

Both SpongeBob and sponge painting were hugely popular and trendy a decade ago but are now passé. I know some people will argue that SpongeBob is still your kid’s favorite television show, heck the show was renewed for 9^th season in 2011. And, some people still love their sponge painted walls as much as the yellow cartoon character with the square pants. But if you want to sell your house in 2012, the sponge painting and faux texturing techniques that were very popular in the late 1990’s, must go!

My family does not have our Ham Lake home on the real estate market. However, after a decade of looking at rag rolled, sponged and textured walls, it was time to take down the dated wallpaper borders and paint our interior walls a neural, warm tone. We updated the kitchen and had new flooring put in a year ago and decided it was time to add a more trendy hip interior style to our home.  My husband and I are discussing a move in the next few years and we don’t want to have to update everything at one time. So in the same way teens across Minnesota kicked old SpongeBob SquarePants to the curb with like likes of Barney and the Power Rangers, sponge painting was out of the house.

I must admit when we began the project, I had a bit of trouble painting over all the sponging in my living room, laundry room, ½ bath and hallways. After all I had painstakingly selected the perfect two, sometimes three shades of paint to achieve the perfect look and match the wallpaper border. There was the neutral basecoat and then a light blue and tan for the laundry room. In the living room I used a special texture tool that looked like a dust mop to add a pale green texture to the taupe base. Every room was a thing of beauty when I finished it. Yet, that was well over a decade ago when my son started kindergarten. Since he is graduating and no longer wears cartoon characters on his t-shirts, it was time to have a different more up-to-date look to our house too.

One of a homebuyer’s biggest objections to this style of painting is the texture. Homebuyers will look at that bumpy surface and think that repainting will not be easy. Sure, it may take more than one coat of paint to cover over the myriad of shades that the multiple layers of sponge application provided, but it isn’t a huge project. However to a new homebuyer, getting rid of the sponge look will seem like a time consuming project.

I was very freeing to finally let go of the sponge-look….but I have a confession to make. The photo is from our master bath. It’s still stuck in the ninties but like I said we aren’t selling this year. But I guarantee that every trace of pink, gray and white will be long gone before the first potential buyer steps over the threshold!

Quick tips for selling your home

1. Paint over dated texturing and remove wallpaper.
2. Make any major/minor repairs.
3. Clean EVERYTHING!
4. Declutter and get rid of junk.
5. Can’t afford new kitchen appliances? Provide a home warranty. 

Copyright 2012 www.terieckholm.com