If you've just bought a new home, chances are good that you are looking to change up your decor style. Not everyone is a savvy interior designer, but we all want a space we can be proud of! The many options out there can make it hard to settle on a decor theme or style for your new house, but here are 5 things anyone (whether you love interior design or just wish you do), can do to elevate the decor in their space!
1. Peel and Stick Wallpaper
Michelle Drewes Photography
Accent walls aren't new in the game - they are an easy way to make a home feel more elegant. But if you're a person who doesn't like to paint, this might seem daunting for you. Moving the furniture, covering everything up, painting, letting the paint dry, moving everything back when you finish... it is very labor intensive. 
Traditional wallpaper is also labor intensive and is generally frowned upon due to it's difficulty to change or remove. 
That is where Peel and Stick wallpaper comes in! It offers a c ...

Should I Move or Refinance?


The level of equity homeowners have is at an all-time high. According to the U.S. Census, over 38% of owner-occupied homes are owned free and clear, meaning they don’t have a mortgage. Those with a mortgage are seeing their equity skyrocket too. Every time real estate values increase, homeowners get a dollar-for-dollar gain in their home equity.

According to the first-quarter 2021 U.S. Home Equity Report from ATTOM Data Solutions:


“17.8 million residential properties in the United States were considered equity-rich, meaning that the combined estimated amount of loans secured by those properties was 50 percent or less of their estimated market value.

The count of equity-rich properties in the first quarter of 2021 represented 31.9 percent, or about one in three, of the 55.8 million mortgaged homes in the United States. That was up from 30.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020, 28.3 percent in the thi ...

Homeownership is a foundational part of the American Dream. As we look back on more than a year of sheltering in our homes, having a place of our own is more important than ever. While financial benefits are always a key aspect of homeownership, today, homeowners rank the nonfinancial and personal benefits with even higher value.

Recently, two national surveys revealed the reasons homeownership is such an important part of life. The top three personal benefits of homeownership noted by respondents in Unison’s 2021 report on The State of the American Homeowner are:


91% - feel secure, stable, or successful owning a home



70% - feel emotionally attached to the homes that have kept them safe over the past year



51% - call homeownership a "key part of their life”


These sentiments were supported by the most recent National Housing Survey from Fannie Mae, which also shows that the top three reasons Am ...

Where Have All the Houses Gone?


In today’s housing market, it seems harder than ever to find a home to buy. Before the health crisis hit us a year ago, there was already a shortage of homes for sale. When many homeowners delayed their plans to sell at the same time that more buyers aimed to take advantage of record-low mortgage rates and purchase a home, housing inventory dropped even further. Experts consider this to be the biggest challenge facing an otherwise hot market while buyers continue to compete for homes. As Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at realtor.com, explains:


“With buyers active in the market and seller participation lagging, homes are selling quickly and the total number available for sale at any point in time continues to drop lower. In January as a whole, the number of for sale homes dropped below 600,000.”

Every month, realtor.com releases new data showing the year-over-y ...

Over the past year, we’ve had plenty of opportunities to reflect on what we consider most important in our lives. The place we call home is one of the biggest things many of us are reevaluating. George Ratiu, Senior Economist at realtor.com, shares:


“The very nature of the pandemic, through the health implications, social distancing, and need to isolate, has really brought a central focus on the importance of home for most Americans…In a sense, it has elevated real estate markets as a centerpiece of our lives.”

For some, this has spurred an interest in making a move to a home that better suits our changing needs. In a recent study on today’s homebuyer preferences, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) states:


“When asked more specifically how the pandemic may have impacted their preference for home size…21% or about 1 out of every 5 buyers, do want a larger home n ...