A couple of weeks ago this Atlanta, GA home stager began a series on updating my own home.  If you need to catch up, here are the two previous posts:

1. Please Don't Tell My Husband, But We're Moving
2. Decorating, Updating and Staging, What's the Difference?

Today we're going to focus on dated bathrooms and I'm going to show you some pretty tacky pictures.  Although other stagers may not be willing to show you how they live at home, I have no shame and am going to toss it out there for all the world to see.  Are you ready?  Here is the before shot of my son's basement bathroom:

Is this frightening, or what?  (This photo was taken two years ago and for some reason I didn't see the need to "tidy up" before taking it.)  The lovely paisley wallpaper was actually the ORIGINAL paper we had hung when the house was built 19 years ago.  The blue shower curtain may be the original as well.  So what needed to be done if we weren't willing to strike a match?  First, get rid of the EXTREMELY DATED paper and paint the room a neutral color.  Next, update the brass light fixture and hardware.  Then, reaccessorize with something that might actually be appealing to buyers.  Here is the after:

 Better?  Okay, I think someone might actually go for this.  Now, for the discriminating viewers I have a question.  Why do you sometimes see home stagers leave the shower curtains partially opened?  The first and most logical reason is that it makes the room look so much bigger!  Notice the difference in the photo above with the shower curtain closed and the one to the right with it left open.  We have just picked up 3 feet of space!  (Of course, using a wide-angle lens helps, too.)

Now, what might be the second reason for leaving the shower curtain open?  (Hint - refer to the title of this post.)  We all know that the bathrooms and kitchen are the most important rooms of the home when it comes to selling, right?  Why is that?  Because that's where all the money is!  While the other rooms in the house are just sheetrock, the kitchen and bathrooms contain all the bells and whistles.  So, another reason for leaving the shower curtain open is to expose the bath fixtures -- especially if they are newly updated.  You can't see them in this photo, but you certainly could if you were in the room.

Ready for another set of photos?  Here are before & after shots of my upstairs hall bath:

Can you tell I like red?  I went through a phase where I was into toile wallpaper.  I had it in this bathroom as well as the powder room downstairs.  As you can see, it's got to go.  Also, here again, we have brass hardware and a dated faucet.  Not shown is a brass light fixture.  Once again, we needed to strip the paper, paint, replace fixtures and reaccessorize.  Now, here's the "after" shot:

Today's tip:  a can of paint is still the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to updating your home.  Updating bathrooms can get expensive when you need new fixtures, hardware, tile and countertops.  If you only have a small amount of money to spend, strip the wallpaper and paint.  The two bathrooms you see here were actually in pretty good condition; they mainly needed to be neutralized.  Yes, we could've retiled and added granite counters, but it really wasn't necessary here.  We did make those more drastic changes in the master bath, which will be more important to buyers than secondary bathrooms.  You will see those photos in a later post.

While updating bathrooms can get very expensive, just a can of paint can make a HUGE difference.

Trying to sell you home?  Need help with your updates?  Call Stage, Show & Sell Home Staging Company  where it pays to stage!