Home Staging: Before and After ~ Week 2

Thanks so much for all of your wonderful comments 

on my Home Staging post last week.  

It is hard sometimes for me to put that kind of post out 

because it is not what I think if as true decorating.  

Real decorating is planning and selecting furniture, 

accessories, paint colors etc. 

over a period of time for and with the homeowner. 

Staging is more like problem solving to me.  

I go in, I go out, I only have a certain amount of time 

and I usually never interact with the homeowners much.  

In this particular staging job I did go in and take pictures beforehand 

and I generated a report listing all of the things that they should do before 

listing the home.  

Let's get started.

The homeowner was the nicest lady! 

She needed to downsize because her last son was headed to college.  

I feel that pain right now!  

It is a four bedroom home with a living room, dining room, kitchen on the main floor 

and all of the bedrooms upstairs.  

The basement was unfinished which will hurt the sale in my opinion.  

The school district is excellent and it is in a very desirable area.  

The entry was small 

but it was two stories which makes it look bigger.  

The light fixture was outdated and I suggested that it be replaced.  

She was planning on painting and replacing the carpet 

so I brought along my paint decks 

to look at some possible color choices.

She didn't replace the light...

but with a fresh coat of paint and new carpet 

it looked fresh and updated.  

The dining room to the left of the entry was problematic.  

The bottom half is painted bright yellow/gold 

and the chair railing is falling down.  

The ceiling fan was hung in the middle of the ceiling old school style 

with the chain dangling down the wall.  

On the plus side, the french doors are pretty 

and the ceilings are nice and high. 

I wasn't sure why she had this glass table here 

and trust me if I am confused then potential buyers will be very confused!  

I suggested that she put the original dining room table back in its place 

and remove the hutch altogether 

to make the room look larger. 

When I am taking pictures I am not thinking about blogging it afterwards apparently.   

I am usually walking around trying 

not to be obtrusive 

and snapping photos of things 

that I want to remember.  

 Here is the After photo.   

I brought in a lot of my own accessories for this job.  

She didn't have any large items that were usable 

so it was just easier to go into my storage and gather what I needed.  

The buffet was moved from the family room 

and I placed matching floral pictures above it.  

I wanted it to look simple and elegant.  

I removed the blue drapes to show the 

pretty arched window off.  

Remember that you are selling real estate not decor.  

The attributes of the house have to stand out and not be hidden.  

This room is to the right of the entry.  

They were using it as a sort of den area. 

Again, it is confusing for buyers 

when there are too many purposes for one room.  

My suggestion was to paint, remove most of the furniture 

and stage it as a music room.  

You will see why 

when we go into the family room and kitchen area.  

You can see lots of cords and wires dangling everywhere.  

This has to be fixed because it is distracting to buyers.  

All the see is "Danger" when they see lots of cords and wires.

And After!  

It is always amazing to me what a little paint can do!  

The mirror was eventually hung up 

but it was heavy and the realtors were going to do it for me.  

The basket under the table 

is hiding the router and a bunch of cords.  

See, no one would ever suspect!  

This room was also a real problem room.  

It is off of the kitchen 

and was packed with furniture.  

In this picture you can see the layout of the home.  

In this one room she had a sofa, 

two chairs, two ottomans, a piano, 

a buffet, a cocktail table and another smaller chest/buffet.  

Wayyyyyyyy too much furniture!  

Buyers are buying space!  

We relocated the buffet to the dining room 

and the piano to the "Music Room" 

and rearranged the furniture for a better traffic flow.  

The cocktail table was too large 

so we tried a couple of different pieces 

before deciding on this end table.  

I threw a couple of my pillows on the sofa 

because I felt like the floral chairs were overwhelming the space.  

 Painting the bookcases and the insets over the bookcases 

helps to neutralize the space 

and make the fireplace a focal point again.  

Now it looks very spacious and light and bright.  

Overall the kitchen was looking pretty good .  

Painting and decluttering will snap it back into shape.  

It was the same yellow/gold color that was used thru out the home.  

Here you can see the formal dining room table 

and some ladder back chairs.  

 Lots of clutter on the top of the cabinets 

and on the counters.  

My rule of thumb is no more than three appliances 

on the counters and preferably only two.  

Refrigerators always need to be decluttered!  

 Now doesn't that look like a great kitchen?  

All we did was paint and declutter.  

Most of the time that is all that a space needs to be show ready!  

Remember that most people look on the internet first 

when choosing which homes to visit.  

If this is the photo you saw wouldn't you put it on your list?  

Of course a little greenery goes a long way 

in freshening up a room.  

Let's take a look upstairs.

Bedroom number one.

 Bedroom number two.

Transformed 

by removing the drapes 

and folding down the comforter.  

It was too dark with the comforter pulled up 

and in pictures it makes it look like a dark hole in the room.  

Bedroom number two got a little rearranging.  

It looks so much larger now.  

The bed looks a little messy to me... 

I remember now 

that we were in a hurry to finish 

because there was a showing in the afternoon. 

The master bedroom had some challenges.  

Lots of dated furniture and lots of clutter.

The mirror over the dresser was actually broken.  

This sets off warning bells in a prospective buyers mind.  

When something is broken 

they see the home as not well cared for 

and it scares them.

The homeowner didn't have the budget to paint upstairs so 

we had to make do.  

The bedding set is mine.  

I keep four or five of the 

"bed-in-a-bag" 

sets handy to use for staging.  

We brought up one of the dining room chairs 

to place at the writing desk.  

 The Master Bath was in the process of being re-tiled.  

She had the most interesting closet.  

Those two sets of mirrored doors that you see 

are one closet that goes 

all the way behind the tub.  

Lots of storage!  

 I didn't do a thing but hang this picture.  

Simple and clean is always a winner.

The other bathroom all staged.  

Again, simple and clean is what people want to see.  

I would show you the before picture 

but that wouldn't be fair to the homeowner.  

I have a feeling that she told her college son 

to clean up before I came over 

and like most boys that age 

their idea of clean and ours are vastly different!

I am happy to report 

that this house had not one but TWO offers 

on the very day that I was there to do the final staging touches!  

The moral of this story is neutral and light and bright sells homes!  

I hope you are still enjoying this series!  

I'll be back next week with another fun one!  

Until Next Time,

Beaux R'eves

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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,

Sharing at:

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A Stroll Thru Life

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Savvy Southern Style

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