Staging Before & Afters

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend.  It’s almost April but can you believe we have snow on the ground?? It started snowing last night. The good news is that it’s supposed to be near 60 tomorrow so the snow should disappear for good (we hope!)

I wanted to share some before and after photos of a house I’ve recently finished staging. The  house has been on the market for nearly TWO YEARS! As you can imagine, the home owners are very frustrated. I was called in by their new realtor to see if I could help. The house is on the market for $169,900 and is a mile or so from Lake Erie.

We had an extremely tight budget but the home owners realized changes needed to be made. The house could not continue to stay in its current condition but yeild a  different result. So, creativity and some elbow grease was needed!

This first before photo (above) was taken at the front door.  The dark brick of the fireplace acted like a black hole. The striped valance over the sliding glass door was very nice but the burgundy color scheme created a dated feel with the blue throughout the rest of the house. The huge brass dining room ceiling fan was one of FOUR between the entry/living room/kitchen/dining room. Here are a few more “before” photos:

Because they thought the house would sell quickly,  the owners got rid of all the furniture they wouldn’t be taking with them. That meant we didn’t have much furniture to work with (usually people have too much stuff!)

In these photos you can see we are dealing with all white walls (the owners removed wall paper [a very good thing] but then “neutralized” by painting everything white [NOT a good thing]).  They were not going to paint them again, so we had to work with the white.

STAGING TIP:  WHITE walls DO NOT add value to a home in most cases. They are NOT warm and welcoming. If your realtor tells you to “neutralize” he/she is NOT saying to paint your walls white. You should select warm, neutral colors that cozy up a space! A professional home stager can help you select colors that will ADD VALUE to your home. I create a comprehensive design plan to update rooms for all my clients.  

You can also see we are working with dated window treatments. The blue/hunter green/burgundy color scheme was dated – very 1978. We have lots of oak pieces (I have never seen so much oak as in NE Ohio! I think there was a major sale on it during the 15 years I was out of state!)

Although we did not have a large budget to work with, my sellers were willing and able to do the work. He’s a very handy guy and she’s the little engine that could. They are in their 60s and want to get the house sold so they can retire to Florida.

We had one week to turn things around. I created a design plan for the home owners to implement, I went shopping for them and brought in accessories from my staging inventory. I even picked up a small recliner FOR FREE on Freecycle.com from someone selling their house! Here’s what we did:

I selected paint for the fireplace and had them paint the brick. At first she balked but I told her it was non-negotiable – it HAD to be done.  In this after photo, just look at what a HUGE difference painting the brick fireplace has made! I changed out the dining room ceiling fan for an oil rubbed bronze fixture (we also replaced the entry ceiling fan with a coordinating flush mount fixture.) I had them remove the vertical blinds from the slider and we updated all the window treatments. I found beautiful striped valances in a white, cream, brown and blue at Lowes. I used these in the dining room and kitchen. You can see in the after photos how the valances help to update and lighten up the rooms.

I found a canvas blue, cream, white drape at Wal-Mart and coordinating valances at Garbiel Brothers for just $3.00 each! By using these colors in all our public spaces, I was able to create  visual connection and “flow” to the rooms. The drapes also helped to soften the white walls and added a bit of drama to the room. All the colors reinforced our seaside cottage theme.

I also repositioned the furniture. Some people may think that stagers are just glorifed “furniture movers” but they are sadly mistaken. The power of placement is critical in every room in a house. When you are staging a house, you are selling square footage. Furniture needs to be placed in a way that showcases square footage.

Because I had to work with the existing blue carpet and blue sectional, I selected a color scheme that would create a “seaside cottage” feel to the home which capitalized on their close proximity to Lake Erie. I used striped tab-top drapes in the living room.  I pulled living room furniture away from the walls – the gentle angles invite people into the space. Artwork and accessories that reflect our seaside feel were placed in the spaces.

When we were done, the home owners were amazed at their redesigned and staged rooms.  They told me they wished they would have met me two years earlier because they’re confident we would have better directed their efforts and the money they spent updating and that they’d be happily living in Florida already.

I wish staging in the real world was like it is on TV – do you know how much I could have done with a $2,000 budget and free carpentry labor??? But, this is real life and while there is much more we could do to the house, our budget contraints have limited us to focusing on the most important rooms that are critical to obtaining a sale. Our hope is that the changes will be enough to sell the house in the upcoming weeks as the warmer weather appears and selling season in NE Ohio starts in earnest!

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