HGTV Stars Say to Design Your Home Based on Personal Taste

One of the most common questions that homeowners face when renovating is whether their design choices will be palatable to potential future buyers. Is this wall color too dark? Are those fixtures too flashy? Style decisions often become about other people, even for homeowners who have no immediate plans to put their houses on the market.

Christina Valencia and Kele Dobrinski — stars of HGTV’s new series “Mash-Up Our Home” — believe that it’s important to design your home based on your own tastes, even if you think you might end up selling the house down the line. 

“Design it for you, because you are the person that is living in that space,” Valencia said. It’s best to spend time exploring what you personally like, even if it’s a bit different from what fits into a traditional design category. “It’s not about what other people are telling you,” she shared.

“I think from an investment standpoint, for a homeowner, there’s a lot of conversations about what you can do that is the most bang for your buck when you go to sell,” Dobrinski said. “And I think the best thing you can do is something that is going to make you love your home and stay in it for another two or three years.”

In “Mash-Up Our Home,” Valencia and Dobrinski help couples identify their specific tastes and design their homes in ways that are pleasing to both people. The challenge sometimes makes for a very unique space, but those are often the most interesting projects to work on.

“Home value continues to rise around the country,” Dobrinski added. “And I think that if there’s something you can do that’s really going to make you love your home, you’re going to love your space [and] you’re going to want to stay there longer, and ultimately there’s value in that.” 

So if you’re thinking about trying out a funky new paint color or a unique tile pattern, it might be just the thing that your home needs.