Home Staging: Before and After Series

I was busy this past Spring and Summer working on a lot of Home Staging projects 

not only for my own home but for my good friend who is a Realtor.  

As a certified Home Stager I have learned many tricks of the trade over the years.  

I thought it would be fun to do a weekly series of my "Before and Afters" 

and pass some tips to my readers.  

If you are considering putting your home up for sale 

this is a great time to start working on your house 

and getting it ready before the Springtime.  

As you might remember, we put our home on the market last Spring.  

Long story short, we took it off after three months.  

 There were only positive comments about our home but there were some external things 

beyond our control that were hurting our chances for a quick sale.  

There is currently a lot of construction in our area that is not very attractive.  

We knew that our home would sell eventually but we didn't want to disrupt 

our daughters Senior Year in High School having to move etc...  

I think it was a good choice for us 

and when the time comes around 

we will evaluate whether we want to list again.  

Anyway, back to the Home Staging!  

This particular home was fun because my mom was in town 

and she came along and helped me out.  

I wasn't able to see the home before we staged it.  

It's not ideal for me to stage a home without seeing it first 

and taking pictures but sometimes that is just the way it is.  

The realtor sent me some photos from his phone 

so I did have some idea of what I was walking into.  

Each staging job is different...  

Sometimes I bring a carload of my own accessories with me 

and sometimes I only use what the homeowner has on hand.  

In this case I used all of the homeowners things without supplementing. 

Let's take a look!

You can see from the outside of the home that it is a "Split Level" home.  

When you walk in the Living Room is on one level 

and the Kitchen, dining room and bedrooms are on another level up.  

The walkout basement is on the bottom level.  

This is the Before picture that the Realtor took.  

The room is cluttered with family photos and little nick-knacks.  

It looks like they were also using this room as a pseudo office.  

It confuses buyers when you have more than one purpose for a room.  

The room just looked a little tired 

and like they had thrown their "Left over" furniture into it. 

Unfortunately, we were unable to move the roll top desk.  

It was just too heavy and the homeowner's computer 

and printer were all hooked up. 

So we did the best we could with what we had to work with!  

I angled the sofa to give the room some interest 

and replaced the palm tree pillows with some more current pillows 

that I found downstairs.  

They  really seemed to brighten up the space.  

De-cluttering and removing family photos 

is always on my list of things to do!  

 I stole the palm print from the bathroom (which you will see later) 

 and centered it over the antique sewing machine that was previously in the kitchen.  

 The roll top desk got moved over (as far as we could) to the corner and closed for 

showings.   I placed the greenery around the room so your eye would follow from the 

lowest to the highest point.  It helps your brain to make sense of a space when you do that.  

Your eyes will follow the path which is what I want you to do.  

 I kept the mantle simple with three glass candle holders stolen from another room.  

  Shield your eyes!  

This is the kitchen!  

It was a VERY bright apple green with a LOT of clutter.  

This is the only "Before" picture that I have but I am sure you get the idea.  

My mom and I got to de-cluttering this room right away!  

My method is to take every accessory and put it in a central place, 

usually the kitchen table, 

and then use what we want to stage and pack up the rest.  

WOW!  

What do you think?  

Now it is a nice bright kitchen with beautiful cabinets and clean white counters.  

A lot of you might think that this is TOO sparse and simple 

but you have to remember that putting your house up for sale 

is different than living in your home.  

Staging is not the same as decorating...  

Decorating is personal 

and staging is removing the personal 

so that others can imagine living in your home.  

I kept only a few accessories out on the counters.  

My rule of thumb is three appliances max out on the counters.  

 I used the cobalt blue grouping because I felt that back splash and counters were blending 

together too much and they needed to be broken up.

Isn't this a cute space?  

I gathered a small checked tablecloth and placed the ceramic grass plant on top.  

I always try to think of who my target market is when I am staging.  

I was thinking that a younger couple 

would be looking at this house so I wanted to add some modern elements.

The Master Bedroom had some challenges; 

boring bedding, dark curtains, too much furniture and more clutter.

Sorry about the blurriness of this photo but I am sure you get the idea here...  

I found a new set of bedding that had never been opened in the garage 

and we asked the homeowners if we could use it.  

A coordinated set like this always looks more like a "model home".  

I switched the candles and picture over the bed with one from the hallway.  

The restfulness of the flowers works better and flows with the drapes.  

I tied the drapes back (with hair bands and a small nail) 

to let in more light.  

Soooooooooo much better!

I moved the end table from the left side to the right.  

It seems like a small change but it made the room look so much bigger.  

Of course I de-cluttered the dresser and placed a few candlesticks there.

Please put your sunglasses on for the master bathroom!  

Yes, it is bright orange!  

And there was no painting it!  

This is what I had to deal with!

Yikes!  

Even the ceiling is orange!  

Of course my recommendation would be to paint but people don't always listen to me 

Sigh!

or the realtors... 

So how would you deal with this?  

What would you do?  

I decided to use the "white out" method.  

I used a large white shower curtain over the shower 

and white towels on the towel rack.  

I kept pictures and accessories to a minimum.  

Green always neutralizes a space 

so I placed the greens on the counter and on the back of the loo.  

It was actually tolerable when it was all staged.  

The little girls room.

I would say that this is a typical little girls room.  

Coordinating bedding and drapes, stuffed animals, 

little nick-knacks in her favorite colors.  

Just a little tweaking will fix this room.

I removed a lot of the little items in the room because they are distracting.  

One of my favorite tricks is to use all white bedding 

and place the comforter at the end of the bed.  

Since I didn't have a budget for this house I turned down the bedding 

with just the sheets exposed.  

A prospective buyer can only tolerate so much pattern.  

It is much more soothing to see the pattern at the end of the bed. 

Clean, organized and cute!  

The powder room/kids bathroom. 

Not much to do in here but take the kid stuff away and clean up.  

I wanted to pull the shower curtain to the side but it was better left closed.  

The basement area.  

Lots of family photos on the two bookshelves flanking the sofa.  

The view as you come down the stairs.  

The coat rack full of coats is the first thing you run into.

Another view...  

Behind that door is a powder room and a door to the outside.

Staged, 

the bookshelves have been de-personalized 

and the golf print from the living room was placed here.  

It is more in scale than the smaller print that was previously there.  

I removed the green swag from the windows 

because I thought it wasn't substantial enough to go over the windows. 

Now it looks like a spacious basement or entertainment room.  

Done!  And in under three hours!

This house was not on the market very long before it sold!  

I know that it was less than 30 days.  

So are you interested in this series?  

If so, come back next week!

Until then,

Beaux R'eves,

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