PAINT IT BLACK AND YOU WON'T GO BACK!

I met with a lovely woman this morning who is desperate to sell her beautiful home in this ugly market. High atop a hill overlooking the Hudson River, buried under nine-snowstorms worth of white, she cringed when I suggested we change the purple front door to today's trend setting color; BLACK. Black is not back because it hasn't gone anywhere! While Lady GaGa arrived at the Grammy's last night in an Egg, Katy Perry was draped in pink and white and every other performer looked like the cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, black and grey are still, and always will be, trending. So to spice things up in this big, cold house, I decided to pepper my trendy color all over the house. Take, for example, a 700 square foot family room, located on the lower level of this 6,000 square foot home. The walls are painted a light green, carpet is tan and all of the furniture is a mismatched bundle of clearance items (so admits the owner) purchased at places like Pier 1, Home Goods and Target. Nothing wrong with that at all, but as I explained to this homeowner, to awe perspective buyers in this rocky market, rooms need to shine, dark corners need to pop. While I will certainly hit Home Goods and other similar stores for accessories, new lamp shades, bedding (if it's cheap and looks good, who cares if it isn't Neiman Marcus quality), I started shopping at my favorite store...the basement of this clients home. There I found these fabulous discarded chairs (I then went to the local antique store where I found two more for $6/each). Metropolitan Home features "going black" this month (while the cover actually talks about going PINK, inside are great before/after shots of furniture pieces, including these exact chairs). So, I ran to the Home Depot and purchased glossy black spray paint, came back to the top of the world and took a half hour to turn these boring cast-offs into the newest cast members of this house. Let's hope little touches like this will help sell it!
TIME TO COMPLETE TASK: Thirty minutes
COST: $21 for four cans of Rustoleum spray paint in black gloss
STRESS LEVEL: Betting on black: LOW