Staging Made Such a Huge Difference

As soon as I walked into this charming townhouse, I could see the potential and knew it would be an easy transformation.  The walls were a neutral colour, they had nice crown mouldings and buyers want hard wood floors. 

More Colour

The fastest way to give a room personality is by adding some colour through accessories.

Bringing in a new colour palette that flowed throughout the whole main floor was the start.  I found the red a bit bold with all the soft colours so I went with a mid-tone teal colour to make the space feel calm and large.  We also brought in more furniture.  The matching end tables and lamps give the room symmetry which is very important in staging but NOT in decorating. Moving the chair to the other corner made a big difference. Now, the chair is the first thing you see as you enter the house  It says ‘come in and sit down’. It also doesn’t make the TV the focal point of the room.  It’s now set up for conversation.

The homeowners didn’t have a love seat but by moving the bookcases to this wall, it shows the scale to buyers that they could easily fit more seating if they wanted to. The bookcases were just in the hallway before without any purpose anyway.  Notice how much larger the artwork is.  People always think that large artwork will make a room feel smaller but it fact it’s the opposite.  For staging, you are always better to have one large picture than several smaller ones.  You also see colours more in larger pictures.  Since all the furniture, walls and wood flooring were a similar colour, bringing in the ivory shag carpet broke up the ‘sameness’ and it also made it feel cozy.

When you have an L-shape living/dining room, you want the colours to flow.  I hung the same drapes in both rooms for a cohesive look.  The whole back wall now has the same drapes.The room instantly felt more inviting and the windows looked much larger. We brought in the 4 brown leather parson chairs to make it look more polished.  I like how the dark chairs and the dark end tables in the living room ground the spaces a bit. The light fixture also looked better with the darker chairs.

Sometimes, it’s the little accessories that can make a big difference.  People don’t just buy a house, they buy a “perceived” lifestyle.

Selling Features

You want to highlight every selling feature of your home.  For many families, having an eat-in kitchen is very important. Even if it’s just enough for two people to have a bowl of cereal or a cup of tea without having to sit in the ‘formal’ dining room.

This microwave stand gives the impression that there isn’t enough storage in the cupboards or a place for the microwave.  It had to go!

For staging purposes, we often have to improvise.  We didn’t have a table and chairs, but the homeowners brought in their outdoor set.  It worked just fine! 

You can always ‘dress-up’ a table with a few nice accessories in the same colour scheme. 

The kitchen clearly had enough storage for the size of the house.

Add Luxury

Master Bedrooms are always important.  Buyers need to see the scale of rooms to know where they would put their furniture.

The homeowners agreed to buy new linens so once they did, I was able to accessorize and add more colour.  I can’t stress enough how much drapes improve a room for the photos.  Bringing in larger lamps made it feel more ‘grown-up’.  They were also a better scale for the bed. I used their smaller lamps in the two other bedrooms. Notice that the TV stand now matches the bed.  We switched it with one that was in another room. 

If possible, it’s always good to show bedrooms with beds in them to make each room memorable. This dark storage unit from the master bedroom now looks perfect in this room.  One of my favourite things about Staging is rearranging furniture to enhance each room. This mattress was brought in from the 3rd bedroom since this was the larger of the 2 kid’s room.  I wanted this room to appeal to a young teenager. Always consider who your buyers will be. The window now looks so much larger with the drapes.

After moving the mattress to the other room, this 2nd kid’s room was empty.  We brought up the dresser which was in the basement storage and then we brought in a bed and all the linens, art, drapes and accessories. 

Freshen it Up

People always think it costs of lot of money to decorate their home.  This powder room literally only need some colour through a few accessories. 

A few new towels, shower curtain and artwork really freshened up the room and gave it some personality.  Now both bathrooms are memorable for buyers and it was so easy and quick to do.