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