The house I’m staging right now is coming along nicely…would you like to take a peek?

The offer was accepted on the new house and it passed inspection with flying colors, so John and Sue are racing at breakneck speed to get theirs on the market. With 4 bedrooms and nice chunk of land located in a good school district their current house is ideal for families – and families will want to close and get settled in before school starts.

Bob and I have been over there helping for the last couple weeks. We’re making great progress, but their Realtor has set their first open house for this Sunday. Oh, and by the way – the Realtor caravan is Thursday. THIS Thursday. No pressure. Ack!

Don’t get me wrong – their house is beautiful and well maintained. But there were a few areas that needed a little attention to get it in tip top shape.

John is one of those guys who can fix or renovate just about anything, and he’s been working his way through the house making improvements. The 2 full baths and the 1/2 bath have all been completely remodeled with new cabinets, fixtures and granite counter tops:

All were neutral and clutter free, so I didn’t have to touch them.

The kitchen was also recently remodeled:

All we needed to do in here was de-clutter a little. We removed the small appliances and some cookbooks and it was ready to go. The beautiful cabinets, granite counter top, stainless steel appliances and glass mosaic back splash are the stars in here.

This house was a dream to stage. All the rooms have freshly painted neutral wall colors with crisp white trim. The couple favors clean contemporary styles in furniture, they aren’t big on knick-knacks, and most of their artwork is very neutral as well. Usually when you’re staging a house you’re dealing with busy patterns, intense colors, collections and clutter. Here it was mostly a matter of packing away extra accessories and lowering the art which was hung a little too high. In a few places we had to work to bring color IN rather than out because everything was a little too neutral.

The dining room only took about 15 minutes to whip into shape. Here is where we started:

Neutral walls, sheer curtains and a simple dining room set made a great base.

We cleared away the 2 extra chairs which were placed around the perimeter of the room, got rid of a wine rack/console table, some extra accessories, and work related clutter that had found it’s way in there. I took everything out except for the console table in front of the window, which made the room look much bigger and will allow prospective buyers to walk around freely.

I took everything off the console table except one large arrangement then replaced the placements, dark napkins and wintery looking candle on the big table with a brighter runner and a seasonal candle.

Done! Now you can really see the molding on the walls and it’s obvious how elegant the dining room really is. We didn’t have to spend any money at all.

The front sitting room wasn’t really used much…it looked like kind of like an afterthought. The furniture arrangement was awkward and it didn’t look inviting at all:

We got rid of the TV and stand, rearranged the furniture and pulled in artwork from other places in the house.

We didn’t have to buy anything in here either…we used things they already owned.

The living room off the kitchen didn’t need much - we removed some small side tables and a few of the plants and added a couple of new throw pillows ($14)  to bring in a little pattern:

The most dramatic change so far is the sun room and I’m totally thrilled with the way it came out. This is where we started:

The room was kind of a catch-all, functioning as a large mudroom. Doggie gear, Harley Davidson memorabilia, large signed pictures from their wedding and miscellaneous clutter really hid the potential of this room, which is completely open to the beautiful kitchen and leads out onto the deck.

We cleared out the water cooler, extra fridge, dog toys and clutter. I moved the little bistro set off to the side between the 2 windows, brought in a pair of wicker chairs and anchored them with the coffee table that was already in there. The only things we bought were the inexpensive curtain rods ($24) and panels ($56) and a set of clearance pictures ($16) that picked up the warm colors in the area rug, but they really went a long way to warming up the space:

I hung the panels on the outside of the windows so we wouldn’t obstruct the great view or block the light. Now the room is fabulous, and since it’s connected to the kitchen and the living room, it makes an awesome, inviting space for entertaining.

The peninsula is not really bright orange – it’s actually terra cotta.

We have a few more projects to tackle – we are painting the dark cave of a basement right now and staging it a guest bedroom suite. More to come!

I’m linking up to these parties:

Tags: Home Staging
Filed under: Frugal & Fab - The Business, Home Staging