While staging and re-design have much in common; working with smaller budgets, editing, and organizing, there are a couple of major differences. Namely with a staging job your are creating a look for a stranger. The perfect stranger, a ready willing and able buyer. It also needs to be done in a very short period of time.
With re-design you have a lot more time but you are creating a more personal look, often for two people who may have very different taste. That was certainly the case with my last re-design. He wanted a clean, contemporary, cohesive, space. She on the other hand, loved anything whimsical, eclectic and was drawn to bold colors.
Like many couples they had he stuff, she stuff, their stuff (hand-me-downs) and some good stuff. They needed four rooms done and they had a budget of $20,000. This is how we (it's definitely a collaborative effort) did it for $13,000. 7k under budget! And that includes my fee.
Since she had just re-painted the house in her favorite colors and they were not planning on selling, I decided to go with it. And as you can see from the before picture on the left they had too much furniture and it was very dark and antiquish.
We took almost everything out and replaced it with light contemporary pieces. Working with neutrals; ivory, taupe, black and gold, the blue walls settled right down and actually became quite soothing.
For this room I purchased the following:1 sofa, 2 chairs, a mirror, artwork, a custom cut rug, 2 side tables, 1 sofa table, 3 lamps, a dozen pillows, accessories and a mid century coffee table. The coffee table is a nod to her whimsical side and it was actually a nice counterpoint to the contemporary upholstered pieces.
We were able to re-use the rug in the family room and I re-matted a couple of bird prints (compliments of his mom). They worked just fine with the new blue heron printed on linen.
The dining room just needed a little accessorizing. I changed the buffet mirror from a portrait to a landscape placement, re-placed the red Victorian chandelier with a silk drum shade, added candles and sconces and more candles. Throw in a runner, a few extra table linens and some wooden balls and they were good to go
For the bedroom I took artwork that had previously been languishing in the living room. It made a great statement over the bed and that little bit of orange became a jumping off point for an accent color amidst all the taupe. It was just enough to satisfy her love of bold color.
A bamboo duvet cover and 600 thread count sheets made the most of this elegant bed. As you can see from the before picture the bedside lighting was wimpy to say the least. These gorgeous glass lamps brightened everything up and gave balance to the bed.
A throw, candles, silk pillows and a handful of accessories in the orange family completed the look.
In addition to everything you see here, we were able to purchase extra linens, a sectional couch for the family room and still stay 7k under budget.
With staging, your goal is to de-personalize where with Re-design your goal is to re-personalize.
A couple of hours with your favorite stager makes a great housewarming gift for your buyers!
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This is one of the best little interior design shops in Seattle. They have fabulous accessories and if you are looking for smaller-scale "bungalow-sized" furniture, this is the place to go.
If you are going to have a piece of pie, Shoofly Pie is the place to have it. If you want to make your own pie but don't want to mess with the dough, buy some fresh Shoofly dough and knock yourself out!
