In the exploding rental market for vacations, many investors or second-home owners want cash at competitive rates that these properties can command, especially when compared to an unfurnished long-term rental market. Reservations only during Christmas can equal the amount purchased during the whole month for the same unfurnished property. In some parts of the country, such as Palm Springs California, the abundance of houses in the middle of the century, usually between the early 1950s and the early 1960s, causes investors to panic and update these homes during this period and post listings on such sites like HomeAway or Flipkey. Here are some tips from a homeowner who has just gone through the process of renovating and equipping a mid-century house, when we found that it works well and that we will do differently for the next property.
Choose your color theme and stick to it.
The mid-century color scheme is a largely soft, muffled tone. Because it can get a bit boring, a modern interpretation of a mid-century design often includes an accent color that stands out, for example, burnt orange or green green. Our choice was burnt orange, and we use it in some houses, such as kitchen tiles for underground tiles, tiles with an accent in the pool and the front door, and also discretely turned it into the house to maintain a sense of continuity. Calm your color palette and you will burn the flow of the house. This design style is pure lines and harmony.
Mid-century beauty balance with modern comfort
The biggest mistake I see in the pictures and descriptions of the properties of competitiveness for ours is the choice of the owner, who turned the house into a museum, and not into a desired rental. The use of period furniture, for example, an old Danish wooden bed frame for a day bed, often evokes a reaction: “Mid-century!” As in not particularly comfortable. Recognizing this stigma, many owners prefer to use a modern, comfortable sofa with clean lines and complement it with a vintage item, such as the Isamu Noguchi coffee table. We decided to put a modern modular section made of white leather along with a low birch coffee table and an old arc lamp. We had several orders in which the guest noted that he chose our house to perceive the level of comfort as compared to any other houses of the mid-century. One guest admitted the section was the same as her home, but in a completely different color.
Use mid-century armrests and used market, but be careful with IKEA
We quickly determined if we were trying to overtake our homes with all the “Design in Reach” furniture ... we would miss the budget that we set to provide our 3 bedrooms with 2 bathrooms. Compromises are needed. We found that the stock exchange, a large online discount company, was an excellent source for mid-century reproductions. Iconic items such as the Eileen Gray table, the Wassily tubular steel chair, the Panton Ess chairs and the modern Louis Ghost armchair can be found here at an amazingly good level of quality and at a fraction of the cost of a real McCoy. In addition, a delivery of $ 2.99 cannot be beaten. On EBay, we found several chrome walnut chairs that perfectly matched our kitchen cabinets for $ 99, including shipping. We think it is, however, the first items to wear, and we will probably go in a different direction when it is time to replace.
And I do not exclude that they bought used. While the economy is still trying to recover, consumers are unloading luxuries into what they paid for for many reasons. We collected several large pieces of furniture in the Palm Springs area through Craigslist wiring. The leather section, as an example, came from another house of the middle of the century and was only 3 months old. The reason why another homeowner sold it? My wife was only 5 feet 2 inches tall, and they did not understand how strong the seats were - she could not bend her legs. We bought it for 1/3 of the retail price plus no state tax. Our truck U-Haul provided delivery. The best find we provided was a bed with short dark wooden platforms with Italian orange glass as a headboard. The initial cost of the most plush mattress was more than twice our budget. The family used the house as a second home and moved throughout the country. They did not want to deal with moving a piece. We have raised a bed, a mattress and side tables less than the cost of an IKEA kit. We also took from them some great contemporary original art for less than 1/5 of what they paid.
Perhaps our only regret was the purchase of IKEA bedroom sets for the second and third bedrooms. Although functional and attractive guests, the reaction may be: “Oh, IKEA furniture”. One guest even called our house in the review “Beautiful IKEA House”. While the bedroom sets were the only furniture that we purchased from a large Swedish retailer, the presence of furniture may lead some guests to assume that we bought large furniture there, and this is not the message we want to convey. If you want to use IKEA, and you are in a community that actively uses Craigslist, I recommend looking at the end of the month. In the San Francisco Bay area where we live, I can pick up IKEA furniture for twenty cents per dollar, because the transition population (college students, tenants, relocated technology workers) want to quickly sell their furniture. Often people want to sell the entire contents of an apartment that was furnished less than a year before. For the next property, I will look for great purchases from retailers such as West Elm and Room & Board, using this buying strategy at the end of the month.
We are in the process of closing our second property, and we have already placed a deposit on the gorgeous white pit we bought from Craigslist. A lovely couple selling a piece holds it and other furniture for us while we wait to close. They simply moved to the desert and found that the furniture did not match the style of their new home. They are happy because their interior designer must order new furniture with a six-week lead time. When buying furniture, this way can bring more work, we know that it pays off in reducing our costs of acquiring and creating a modern mid-century environment that a potential cashier sees, and immediately appear before her in search of a wonderful holiday in Palm Springs.
