Friday, September 28, 2018

Staging A Slightly Dated Home

Last weekend I was brought in to stage a 21 year old house that had been on the market for a couple weeks with no offers. The house did not look old by any means, but the furniture the homeowners had in it, while perfect for them, was not conducive to showing off how great the house actually is.



So I came in, working with some of their existing furniture, and made the rooms feel as modern and spacious as they actually are. (Note: oversized furniture, while comfortable, makes a room look small. Also, paisley or flower patterned material a la the 90s, while make your home look older than it is.)


I stupidly did not take any before photos on the consultation day, so I can't show you what the room above looked like before, but imagine an oversize paisley-patterned loveseat with a matching oversize ottoman. Together they took up two-thirds of the living room. The couch above is plush and comfortable, but ends up making this room feel a whole lot bigger than before. And as I've mentioned before, items that you can see through (the coffee table as opposed to an ottoman), also help trick the eye into thinking the space is bigger.



In the space above, there had originally been a matching chair and ottoman of the paisley pattern. It blocked entry into the room quite a bit so that was removed and I went with this console table instead. The phone was the homeowners' and I love it. So classic and it works!


What's really cool about this house is that there are two living spaces next to each other, spanning one side of the house. The homeowners had left one room empty but when selling a house you need to show potential buyers what they could do with a space. I have a colleague who has admitted to me that when he looks at a house he cannot even fathom what to do with a certain space. So the job of a stager is to show the buyer the potential for each space.


 Up in the master bedroom, the homeowners had a trellis set up as a bedframe and had woven faux vines and flowers into it. I had them remove the flowers and asked them to put a new coat of paint on the trellis and it made for a great headboard. See, not everything has to be new and expensive, you just have to make what you already have work for everyone.


The dining room, I've noticed in a few homes, had a dining table and chairs in matching wood tones. It also happened to match the wood of the window trim, so there needed to be a new color introduced. The color red was also a prominent accent color in the adjoining kitchen, so with that in mind I used a neutral runner with a bit of red and brought in black chairs to contrast. I love black and I wont apologize for it. I think a little black works in nearly every house - whether it's chairs or pillows (the plaid pillows are also black, you might have noticed) or a railing - whatever. "Light and bright" doesn't mean everything has to be white and grey tones. It's nice to have something to break it up, whether a contrasting color on hardware or décor.


So that's it for this house. There were other rooms I staged in the house - two other bedrooms, the attic, a bathroom, but these photos were my favorite and worth mentioning. I loved staging this house because it's a great house, it just needed a little fine tuning. Dakota (below) was a great help (and distraction). And hopefully someone will fall in love with this home and its gorgeous backyard. Personally, I would die for this back patio alone, but there's also space for a hot tub while not taking away from the lawn that would be perfect for young kids to play in. Dakota sadly does not come with the house, but a dog would love this house.


~ Stephanie
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1 comment

  1. You are a magician! So cool to see how you update and refresh these homes. Loving all your pro tips!

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