Sheen level refers to the degree of shininess that a paint takes on when dry.
The right sheen level has been customarily decided on based on four factors:
The purpose of the room
The preference of the painter
The condition of the walls.
The price of the paint
I say PHOOEY on all four.
The walls of your home should look as fabulous and well-maintained as possible to create as much perceived value as you can. This means creamy and free of blemishes. Walls that show damage and wear make your house look cheaply made and shoddily painted. Savvy renovating means knowing where to splurge and knowing where to save. The smart choice is the one that, for a only few bucks more per can, will increase the perceived value of your entire home, increasing it's resale value.
One should endeavor to buy the paint that works the hardest for one's investment of time and money.
There is only ONE sheen level that will do this for the walls.
Before I reveal this design secret, let's talk about your face, (or your wife's face if applicable).
Have you ever had or seen a greasy or sweaty face? Does it turn you on when you do? I didn't think so. When skin is sweaty or greasy, you can see every pore, bump, pimple, and hair, because they shine in the light. They also reveal a shadow near the blemish, heightening this crater effect. Shine makes things stand out and come toward.
When make-up is applied to the face, the goal is to minimize flaws and add shine to key areas, such as the lips and eyes. This makes the most of the assets of the face. Women powder-down the face to detract attention to the flaws. They add irridescence to eyes and gloss to lips. The skin becomes a smooth, shadow & shine reduced backdrop so these other features can take center stage.
In one's home, shiny walls come toward, visually shrinking the space. They distract from other elements of the room, such as gleaming granite,hardwood floors and wonderful light fixtures. One would never see diamonds displayed on aluminum foil in a jewelry store. The fathomless velvety backdrops serve a definite purpose of making the diamonds sparkle and dance.
The only sheen level that works 100% of the time is a flat or matte sheen. Back in the day, flat paint was the least expensive and least washable. Today, matte paint is equally as washable, and in some of the better brands, it is actually THE MOST cleanable, touting the ability to actually be "scrubbable."
Implementing this sheen level on walls throughout the home, even in bathrooms and kitchens, is the best way to make your home look bigger, more well-built, and showcase your other design choices and furnishings.
Semi-Gloss vs. Mattes
Some people just don't like the look of flat paint. People can paint their walls any way they want, but when selling, always make the choice that pays.
Color Shock Definition: A state of distress and trauma directly resulting from a recent paint color change regarding a space or area inside or outside your home.
Who is susceptible to Color Shock? Anyone who has lived in their home for some time and has grown very used to seeing and living with their former paint color.
What are the symptoms of someone afflicted with Color Shock?The first sign of an oncoming attack of color shock is evident by a firm denial that the paint in the can or on the chip is the same color that has been painted on the walls. The afflicted person will dig the color chip (that they chose from the paint store display) out of their car or purse, swearing the color is wrong, only to place it against the fresh paint and become baffled at how it blends right in. Often, they will insist that the room needs to be repainted.
Persons suspected to be in the throes of Color Shock are often seen repeatedly going into paint stores all over town collecting numerous paint chips and small cans of paint and bringing them home. They often harass friends, neighbors, and family for their opinions, but can't make a final decision.
What is the Prognosis for people who suspect they, or their loved ones, are battling a case of Color Shock? The prognosis for Color Shock is actually pretty good. All symptoms (including the denial, compulsive behaviors, and mild to moderate dementia) slowly subside without treatment of any kind. The vast majority of cases resolve on their own within 10-14 days. In almost every known case, all symptoms are completely gone within 30 days.
Why do so many people worldwide suffer from this alarming condition? Initially, researchers thought is was some additive or chemical in the paint, because it is so pervasive, and each documented case followed such a similar and predictable pattern of symptoms and behaviors, Another archaic theory was that it was bacterial or viral in origin, because sometimes, entire households have been affected. Today, however, it is widely accepted that Color Shock is neither caused by a a chemical reaction, allergic reaction, nor is it a communicable pathogen.
What is the cause of Color Shock and how can It be prevented? Color Shock occurs when the human brain has acclimated mentally to the way a space appears to the human eye. This happens when someone lives with a wall color for a long time. A mental snapshot of the room is retained deep within the tissue of the memory centers on the brain. When fresh paint in a different color is introduced to the space, some brains cannot reconcile the old color, in their memory, with the new color on the wall. Every time they walk into the freshly painted space, they are re-traumatized with this mental expectation to see the "old" color, but instead experience a new and different color. It happens most often with vast color changes, but even small variations can cause a reaction of disdain.
I think I am Suffering a From a Form of Color Shock. What Do I Do? The best way to determine if you are a victim of color shock is to invite a person into the space that has never been to your home or who visits infrequently. If they walk into the offending space and their jaw doesn't drop, they do not gasp in horror, they do not physically recoil away from the walls, and they continue chatting and behaving in a socially acceptable manner, you can pretty much bet that you are simply a victim of Color Shock.
As a stager, I have to make important calls all the time when counseling people how to best showcase a room for the least expenditure of time and money.
The solutions vary, but the one thing that doesn't is the introduction of CONTRAST to make the featurable elements stand out in the memory of buyers.
Nice Medium-dark stained cabinets don't stand out on a red wall, no matter how talented you are as a stager with accessories. A gallon of paint for $35 will to the trick, however.
The nicest flooring in the in the world won't do squat for an all-panel dining room with stained wood built-ins. But, a 69 cent maple laminate floor and another one of those $35 gallons cans of paint in a nice, light color WILL.
Neither of these rooms were staged, as it was not in either budget to do so, but the agents involved were smart enough to consult a professional stager for advice ANYWAY on what they COULD do with their budgets that they did have.
I don't tow the party-line that every house needs "staging", but I do wholeheartedly believe that every house going to market needs to consult a stager!
Michelle Molinari
Co-Owner, Feature This... Real Estate Staging, www.FeatureThisDotDotDot.com
Certified Property Consultant (CPC) & Certified Staging Professional (CSP)
SAR Staging Instructor, Staging and Redesign, www.StagingAndRedesign.com
Lead Conceptual Designer, www.CurbAppealConcepts.com
Vice- President of Acadiana Real Estate Staging Association, www.AcadianaRESA.com
Ugly ceramic birds can be had birds can be had all day long at flea markets, garage sales, and thirft stores for anywhere from 25 cents to 2 bucks.
I love to snatch them up and spend two minutes repainting them with black Ceramicoat craft paint.
Birds belong in the Pefect Accessory Catagory. They are gender-neutral, age-neutral, and work in EVERY ROOM!
They look great in:
Bathrooms
Bedrooms
Kitchens
Offices
Living Rooms
Guest Rooms
Hallways
and so forth.
They also go with every style and era - from Victorian to Contemporary! And, the wrought iron look great with any kind of metal - brushed nickel, chrome, copper, and even brass.
So, if you are in a design pinch, and have a really "poultry" budget to work with, GO TO THE BIRDS!
Michelle Molinari
Co-Owner, Feature This... Real Estate Staging, www.FeatureThisDotDotDot.com
Certified Property Consultant (CPC) & Certified Staging Professional (CSP)
SAR Staging Instructor, Staging and Redesign, www.StagingAndRedesign.com
Lead Conceptual Designer, www.CurbAppealConcepts.com
Vice- President of Acadiana Real Estate Staging Association, www.AcadianaRESA.com
Thousands of people lost everything they had Sept. 12th, 2008 in a shockingly powerful storm called Hurricane Ike, which made landfall in Galveston Texas. 112 people were killed, and 23 still missing to this day. Damages from Ike in U.S. coastal and inland areas are estimated at $29.6 billion.
This is my Grandmother’s Story…
She rode out many floods and storms in her house Bridge City, Texas for over 34 years, never seeing so much as an inch of water dare to creep inside her door. So, when the enormous Hurricane Ike was threatening her neighborhood, she packed a little suitcase and went to her daughter Carol’s home to ride out yet another of her life’s storms, only to come back and find her house had gone under water to the ceiling in the surge.
Her house was as magical as any grandma’s house ever was, redolent with the smells of chicken gumbo and lemon cake. Dazzling collections of colored glassware lined every inch of the windows on specially made shelves. The garden was a wonderland for the senses and imagination, full of fruit trees that made marvelous jams, and strange creatures that fascinated. She would slowly and quietly escort her grandchildren through it, barefoot, pointing out each leaf and blossom, telling us where she collected the seeds or cuttings from. She had morning glories from our very first California house in 1969, geraniums from a second house we had in 1976, and ginger plant grown from a root we gave her from a Hawaiian vacation we took in 1982. Her garden was where our memories lived.
She would ask if we wanted to see a frog, and then she’d turn a rock with her toe and lo and behold, there one would be. She was fast as lightning, snatching chameleon-like anole lizard from a branch, and bringing it down to our eye level. The slender lizard changing the color of it’s skin from bright green to dark rust, angry at it’s own self for underestimating the sharpness of her crinkled eyes and the swiftness of her wrinkled hand. She also had a big gun to shoot her enemies ... the dastardly armadillos that would tear up her garden at night.
We took her back to her house two weeks after the storm had passed, to see what could be saved of her life there. Baby alligators slithered and flopped helplessly in what was left of her living room, poisoned by therainbow-hued mud laced with toxins that coated everything in sight. The house and yard were nearly unrecognizable. Most of the plants and even the trees were dead and dying. The entire neighborhood stank of the swamp, death, and fear. No house escaped the 15 foot surge. TV crews were still patrolling the streets, looking for a good story in the aftermath.
We found some of things we came for: a picture appliquéd to wood of my Uncle Johnny, who drowned when he was a child, a couple of statues of the Virgin Mary and Christ, a few intact pieces of my grandmother’s colored glass, and the dog-eared recipe for her famous lemon cake, all buried in mud somehow miraculously undamaged. We marveled at the way her belongings had been displaced. A dining room chair was hung up near the top of an old pole lamp that used to shine down on the sewing machine that had made generations of our family's clothes. A book about Texas was still exactly where it belonged, on the up-ended coffee table.
After half an hour of digging, the mud seemed to be eating at us, and made our skin burn. Everything made of metal was etched and stained beyond salvation. After only a few hours, we left, realizing our work crew of four women armed with gloves and shovels were worthless against such destruction. The trailer we had brought was empty. Only a quarter-full full trash bag of soggy items were retrieved.
The house was deemed a total loss, and as my Grandmother had recently canceled her insurance, so that was that. Her equity and nearly everything she’s ever owned was gone forever. We had to put plan “B” into effect much sooner than we ever thought we would have to.
Plan “B” has been around for a while in our family. Everyone who has living parents who are getting-on in age has one. You know, the Just-In-Case-Momma-or-Daddy-Get-Sick Plan. Ours was, in case Grandma got sick or needed care, that we would turn the front half of my mom’s farmhouse (which used to be my great-grandparent’s farm) into an efficiency apartment. We never used that part of the house anyway. It was just a garage and a couple of catch-all rooms we utilized to work on projects in the winter when our workshop was too cold.
So while Grandma cried on the front steps, we attacked the neglected rooms with a vengeance and determination that only designers can muster that it would be a palace someday, even if it killed us, and it would be her tiny slice of heaven. She’d be happy again.
We put our all into creating miracles on our shoestring budget. Hers wasn’t the only residence destroyed in our family on the Texas Coast. I lost a vacation house that my sister and her husband lived in and my dad also lost his house, so money was a big issue. Our main décor resource was the local church-owned thrift store, and we sifted through that shop with a fine-toothed comb, juicing our budget for all it was worth.
Her bedroom was top priority. We still had my grandmother’s childhood bedroom set, and we chose to paint it, as well as the paneled walls. We added crown moldings and new lighting, and splurged on decadent bedding. A clever and cheap ceiling treatment of landscaping reed fencing gave the room an entirely different ambiance. The micro-tiny living room is open to the world’s tiniest, but prettiest kitchenette, complete with concealed appliances behind salvaged & drastically shortened plantation shutters. We chopped up unusable furniture and turned them into perfect pieces for our purposes. We know what Dr. Frankenstein must have felt like.
Once those areas were under our belt, we split the one car garage and made a brand new bathroom with all the amenities, from scratch. We hit up every favor that was ever owed by friends and family, and soon enough, it was framed. Doors went into place, and plumbing and electrical got laid. We hit estate sales for some of the art, and searched old family photos of her former garden, blowing up the photos and framing them ourselves.
We transformed the potato house into a greenhouse with loads of old salvaged windows so she could entertain there in the spring, and keep her plants warm in the winter. Old metal chairs and the original front screen door went to the autobody shop for a makeover to dress up her front porch. Outside her front door she now has a gated patio garden sheltered by a custom-designed pergola where we once parked our cars.
It is a fraction of the space she once had, but it is just for her, to sip her coffee, tend her flowers,walk around in her bare feet, and to impress the heck out her great and great-great grandchildren.
Art for staging houses to sell, for the most part, should be simple, clean-looking, and pleasant. After all, stagers want to give an area life, but just enough to bring attention to an area's purpose and highlight desirable features. I find that large abstracts, landscapes, and pieces very little detail look best in the MLS photographs.
However, art can be very expensive to accumulate, frame, and store properly. So, why not make your own easy-to-make art that takes up hardly any space and is just the right colors for any job?
Spend this fall and winter doing something that will be tax-deductible, fun, and income-generating!
My secrets include NOT USING EXPENSIVE ART PAINT.
I prefer to use regular interior latax paint from leftover projects, in a satin finish. Sometimes I do buy paint but I buy basic colors by the gallon and mix the right color as I go along.
Use Regular House Painting Brushes
I hardly ever break out my art brushes for staging art. Think big in scale and use a big brushes for a bold, gutsy painting.
Don't Buy Canvas!
I use 4 x 8 premium hardboard from home Depot. It costs $13.48 and I cut them on a table saw with a fine blade into LOTS of sizes. One board gets me 3-10 paintings depending on the sizes I want.
Paint FAST!
I spend 10 minutes or less making these, because latex paint dries FAST. Don't overthink them. Just do it!
I Frame Them
Buy frames at thrift stores for a buck or two, paint them, and cut your board to fit the dimensions.
Or Don't Frame Them AT ALL
For casual artsy-fartsy charm, just prop them up againt the wall, mantle, or on easels. Place a mason jar full of used art brushes near them and you have an instant hobby/lifestyle vignette!
SIGN THEM!
Be proud of yourself for beign so clever and put your John Hancock on them!
SELL THEM!
Put a reasonable price on them and if someone falls in love, be ready to sell those puppies!
To store them, place the smaller ones in their own thrift-store pillowcases. Sew large flat sheets together to make larger cases. Then, stack them till you need them!
Most of the pieces I make cost between $4-18 for materials. I sell them framed for anywhere from $40-$300. I rent them for 25% of my selling price.
Best of all, making my own art keeps me outta trouble & off the streets.
Michelle Molinari
Award-Winning Stager, Conceptual Staging Innovator, and Staging Instructor
Stainless Steel sinks are beautiful to look at in the showroom, but very hard to keep beautiful in the home.
My default plan when confronted by a stained, scratched sink of this type has been to attack it with a soft cloth loaded with a thick paste mixture of baking soda and a little bleach and a whole lot of rubbing, followed by a coat of Pledge, and death threats to all who dared to even consider using the sink after my efforts.
I may have inhaled too much bleach, because I just installed a Franke Stainless Steel Sink in my own kitchen. But I have a better plan now thanks to this product, which I recently used and am blown away with the results! Check it out:
That is basically what people are saying when they
tell me when their market doesn't require the
services of a stager.
In a town full of ugly girls, what happens when a pretty gal shows up in the neighborhood?
In a location that doesn't use real estate staging, this proven marketing technique becomes even MORE effective! The pretty gal has no other lovely ladies to compete with.
So, if one is not utilizing the skillset of a professional stager, simply because no one else has in one's market, perhaps one's logic is in need of re-evaluation.
All those unattractive listings will only help sell your staged listing faster, without the disappointing price reductions.
Call a local professional stager and make a lunch appointment TODAY!
Describing color is such a integral part of any designer's job. As a color consultant, I learned that some color names can be a turnoff, and so I found ways around them to get my clientele to accept what was the right color that they needed, but perhaps has a less-than impressive general description of the color name.
BEIGE
Beige is a color family that can be easiest described as a very light brown. Some tired standbys that have been used when referring to beige include:
Beige
Neutral
Oatmeal
Khaki
Tan
Some More Descriptive words with a fresher connotation that describe this type of shade include:
Almondine
Buff
Biscuit
Café Au Lait
Chamois
Desert Sand
Dune
Fawn
Ginger
Irish Cream
Macadamia
Mushroom
Beach Sand
Sepia
When advising on paint color, suggesting a "lovely wall color reminiscent of Irish Cream," the color sounds so much more delicious and exciting than suggesting a "neutral beige paint".
Consider your audience also when choosing color descriptions. Use the right word that, based on the client's personality, age, decor style, and location.
Use food type descriptives when speaking with people with gourmet-style kitchens or a wine cellar.
Use animal- or environmental- type descriptives when speaking to folks who reside in a wildlife area or who exhibit a "green" lifestyle.
Customizing your color approach wiith better descriptions can lead to better rapport and acceptance of your advice.
Some of our most suggested colors in this family include:
Even the names of colors themselves as assigned by the manufacturer can be a turn-off, so we show our clients color chips with the names cut off. For example, Deer Path 1047 is a Benjamin Moore shade that is the identical color and formula as Benjamin Moore's Decatur Buff HC-38. I found in my area that Decatur didn't mean much (we are pretty far from both Decatur Illinois and Decatur, Georgia). But as Louisiana is literally known as "Sportsman's Paradise," Deer Path 1047 was much preferred, even when clients were shown the identical paint chips (again, the colors are not just close, but exactly the same, they just has two different names).This was a big clue to me that what the color was called was a big influence regarding choice.
Another great color, but one that has a negative connotation for some people, is Wilmington Tan HC-36. While I am sure Wilminton, Delaware, and Wilmington, North Carolina are lovely places, I can assure everyone that Wilmington, California is one of the most dangerous and uncomfortable areas in the Los Angeles basin. It's not a big seller, but it is a very flexible, warm, rich shade, verging on a creamy caramel.
So, prescribe your colors with aplomb, know them well, and describe them with words that are carefully chosen to persuade today's sellers.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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Even the names of colors themselves as assigned by the manufacturer can be a turn-off, so we show our clients color chips with the names cut off. For example, Deer Path 1047 is a Benjamin Moore shade that is the identical color and formula as Benjamin Moore's Decatur Buff HC-38. I found in my area that Decatur didn't mean much (we are pretty far from both Decatur Illinois and Decatur, Georgia). But as Louisiana is literally known as "Sportsman's Paradise," Deer Path 1047 was much preferred, even when clients were shown the identical paint chips (again, the colors are not just close, but exactly the same, they just has two different names).This was a big clue to me that what the color was called was a big influence regarding choice.
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