One of my regular readers sent in her son’s first home purchase for some advice on an update. How exciting!

I can make some suggestions to fit with a cooler, more masculine look and suggest some color changes for the exterior that aren’t quite so “peachy”.

Let’s start with the exterior.

First of all, the peach has to go. It’s giving grandma vibes and that is last thing a young man wants in his first home.

I’m also not so thrilled with the bright white garage door and trim. It just looks a little plain.

Garage doors cover such a large expanse on the exterior of a home, it is nice to do something a little different.

I took a look around the neighbor’s properties, via google maps, and many had houses with reddish brown trim and garage doors, that look a little dated. The white does look fresh and clean, but I think we can do better.

I have a similar brick color on my house, a terracotta color. I want a stucco color that will work with that. I want to lean more neutral beige and I think the color I have for the trim on my house, SW Accessible Beige, will work well on this stucco too.

Trim and garage door are SW Accessible Beige.

Now, I think we need to create a contrast and add a dark tone to the trim, front door and the garage door. SW Gauntlet Gray will do the trick. I think this will look masculine and more up to date.

I recommended Gauntlet Gray for the garage door on this flip house and it looked great!

I can’t wait to see the new look on the exterior.

Living Room Furnishings

They also wanted some ideas for the living room. He is going to be updating the flooring to all one material, a gray tile. This is Florida, so tile does make sense as a cool material.

Here’s the living room and adjacent dining room.

Here is the gray tile he is using. A reclining sectional has also already been chosen, along with an orange tone leather lounge chair.

1) First, let’s talk furniture arrangement.

Because there will be a big tv in here, we have to place it on the largest wall, the one over by the dining area, with the adjacent windows.

That means the sectional needs to be in that corner over by the front door. The tv can be mounted on the wall with an adjustable bracket, so that can angle it toward the front of the house where the seating will be.

Remember, there will be all one flooring material, which will help a lot here.

2) Paint the Walls

I would love to see the living room get new paint here. If he doesn’t want to do all of it, the two window walls are more important here.

I’m a fan of SW Gauntlet Gray, it will bring that exterior color inside and make this room feel more masculine.

3) Additional Furnishings

I do like the warm tone of the Eames lounge chair dupe, since we’ve got gray elsewhere. I want to bring in warm wood tones now to mix things up.

This tv cabinet is my pick for the tv wall, I like the slatted look of the front and the warm wood.

This end table next to the sofa would be nice.

I love a cool arc lamp and this one has a modern appeal, for behind the corner of the sofa. It has a smart switch, so he doesn’t even have to lean over or scramble around on the floor to find the switch, he can just use his phone to dial up some ambience. :-)

This round table by the lounge chair works well and echoes the shape of the floor lamp. I love the idea of that chair in the window corner, along with this very cool plant stand. I always like to have some greenery in a room.