Are you hosting the holidays this year at your Central California home? Are out-of-town family members or friends coming to stay with you? As your Central California real estate agent, I’d like to offer you some tips and suggestions for preparing your home for guests!

Here are some tips for getting your home ready for the holidays from HGTV:

• Decorate a living room and adjoining dining room with red and soft green tones. Consider red dishware, or candles, along with a poinsettia centerpiece or evergreen branches in a vase.  Gold or silver decorations can also add a nice holiday pizazz.
• Add a warmth and coziness to any room by integrating area rugs, displaying throw blankets and pillows on the furniture, or layering window treatments. Light some candles, and if you have a fireplace, keep a fire burning!
• Display the holiday cards that you received in the mail with a card holder. If your guests sent you cards, this will make them feel special. Another great way to make your guests feel special is to create personalized place cards at the dinner table made out of ornaments that they can take home.
• Display a Christmas tree in the main room of your house. Decorate it with lights, garland and ornaments. If you don’t have a tree, hang a strand of lights on your potted plants that are already in the room. Or. replace some wall art with a holiday wreath.

If you have overnight guests staying, here are some quick tips to prepare the guest room from Realty Times:

• Wash and replace the sheets, pillowslips and blankets on the bed. Consider throwing the comforter in the dryer with some fabric softener sheets to make it smell good and feel nice and fluffy.
• Add fresh flowers to the room for visual appeal and fresh scents. A few fluffy pillows and a lush throw are great additional items to add as well.
• Upgrade your lampshades and bulbs. Make sure all of the lights work in your guest bedroom, and if you want to spruce up the décor a bit, just add fun new lampshades to your current lamps.
• Add some new wall art to the room. Shop locally and purchase a piece from a local artist shop or craft fair. This is a great conversation piece as well!
• Create a care package for your guests, complete with a toothbrush, toothpaste, hairspray, Q-tips, cotton balls, a sleeping mask, hand lotion or whatever else you’d like to include.

Enjoy your holiday guests this weekend or next week in Central California! If they decide they’d like to relocate to Central California, have them contact me, your Central California real estate agent!

From Grace Borzini
grace@oakshoresrealty.com