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Before & After Staging Ideas (Pictures Fixed)

I may not have done a great job taking these pictures and I saw some angles and things I may try to avoid when creating flyers and posting photos for the listing.

Please offer some creative suggestions and ideas for staging these areas for the property:

Built in mid-80s, this is around 1800 sq.ft., 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom property. It does have "greenish, sage-ish" carpet. Still in great condition and Seller does not plan to replace it. Seller will paint walls to light beige/ tan color throughout for warmth (right now, it's stark white and feels cold). The wallpaper will come down and will be replaced with a "faux" wall. Will do a natural stone looking tile backsplash. Kitchen will be tiled with a 13" x 13" tan/ beige tone.

Mantel wall in a darker tone. I think the sofa was be too "large" for the family room, even though it doesnt really "show" in the picture.

More ideas (depending on budget): Replace brass fixtures.

Seller is in the process of massive decluttering....

Any suggestions for improvement? GOAL: To keep the budget down (Seller will do most of the necessary changes).

PS: I'll do a better job in making sure the picture stick the next time!!!

As you enter, you are in the open living space/ dining area on
right.

Kitchen

Family Room

Per Sheron's encouragement, here's the Master Bedroom.
PS: I didnt quite like the artwork above the bedroom. However, Mrs. picked it up at her workplace when her office moved.

Posted by Loreena Yeo - Broker|Realtor(R) of Frisco-TX-Homes (214) 783-2210 on 01/10/2007 10:55 PM

Comments (18)

staging

Originally posted at: faithfully frisco tx homes for sale: Before & After Staging Ideas (Pictures Fixed)

18 Comments on Before & After Staging Ideas (Pictures Fixed)

JAN

2007

Loreena-

I'd love to help you, but your photos didn't load.

Loreena, Im like Kim the photos aren't coming through at all

The photos did come through on mine. No chance of the owner replacing the carpet? It would probably pay for itself and make your job a lot easier. Do you have one of those software programs that allows you to scan the photos and "paint" the walls with various colors to show what best would help tone down the carpet? Better Homes and Gardens has one called Picture Painter which I believe allows you to do that. It would help you and the seller visualize what changes could be may with different colors and shades. Good Luck.

Hi Lorena,

You are off to a good start. As James stated, if the carpet can be replace it would make everything else much easier. If not, green can be a neutral. Where is the mantle wall you mention in these pictures?

Kitchen: Clear it out including the bakers rack. Set a table with 4 chairs in the nook. Nothing else. Are those pleated shades on the windows? It would be smat to tie the kitchen to the adjoining room with a tint paint on the end wall (read Maurene's post on paint colors) in the darker accent tone and carry it up over the plant ledge and into the family room. It will open up the space in the kitchen and expand the tunnel effect. Use a vertical stipe (green-beige-gray) fabric for nook chairs and side panels for the window hung on a black iron rod installed at 84" from the floor so you can use ready made drapes, and extend the rod the width of the nook area with the panels hanging on the wall, not the bay cutout. (For the table and chairs, you could paint an old set in the lighter tone of the wall color you select. You have a lot of wood and it would be nice to introduce a color)

I will continue later...need to leave my pc for awhile.

By the way Loreena, you are the first to use us! I posted an invitation for agents to send photos for staging advice last month and no one took advantage of that.

Things they can do for free-( aside from removal of excess)

Turn the "dining room" table in the other direction. It is placed incorrectly and blurs the definition of the space.

Remove the hutch from the dining room. Use it somewhere else or store it.

Remove bakers rack from the kitchen.

Remove the dog food bin - it takes up valuable space and the food smells bad (I know, I have a dog). Stash the dog dishes during showings.

Reposition the slipcovered couch (back to the dining room) so that it it anchors the room, and invites you to sit down, rather than make you want to walk right past it.

Reduce the greenery on the ledge.

Reposition the 2nd couch (if it fits) to directly across from the fireplace and put the chair (loveseat?) in its previous position. It will allow more access to the door.

Reposition the area rug with the couch or get rid of it.

After that, it would be wall paper and paint and I agree with Sheron - Accent the common wall in the kitchen and living rooms. Choose a second color that is at least 2 shades lighter for the remaining walls. Use a third color for the family room (den?) A greay/taupe would look great with that furniture and fireplace.

I would not touch the mantel. They can be costly with not much return. Just dress it up with bold a small number of bolder accessories and a mirror or vertical artwork as opposed to the horizontal.

Can't wait to read more suggestions.

Hi Loreena,

In addition to what everyone else has already said:

-Either replace the artwork on the living room walls with larger
pieces (the small pieces are out of scale) OR group the existing
pieces together to create a larger display. Without being able to see
the pieces clearly, it is hard to tell if that will work. It may be
possible to paint the frames of the pieces with one unifying color to
make them work together.

-Empty shelves and refill with about half of what is on them now. Be
sure the shelves are "balanced" meaning that the items are
well-distributed throughout the shelves. The shelving in the family
room looks especially bottom heavy with all the books on the bottom
and the objects on the top.

-Move the armoire in the living room. Since there is a desk chair next
to it, I'm assuming it is a desk armoire. Instead of having it in a
corner, try moving it over towards the dining room. If the office
chair needs to stay, put a slip cover over it.

-Is it a church bench against the wall in the living room? I'd remove
that altogether and use the pillows on the sofa.

-If the owner doesn't want to replace the brass lighting, it can
probably be painted. Here is an HGTV page that might give you some
inspiration (I'm not suggesting that you use this exact finish, but the steps would be appropriate) http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/decorating/article/0,1793,HGTV_3545_1929513,00.html

-Replace the light switch covers and the electrical outlet covers. A
nickel finish would be a nice update.

-Remove most everything around the mantle in the family room except
the 3 candles and the little plant that are on there now.

-Set the dining room table. Use napkins or a runner in a color that
complements the pillows on the sofa in the living room. It looks like
the burgundy pillows would be good for the living room and could
introduce a bit of color to the dining table.

-Is there any other furniture in the house that can be used to create
a conversation area with the sofa in the living room? If there were
two occasional chairs someplace, I'd arrange them with the sofa
(moving it as Kimberly suggests) and the coffee table.

Best of luck!

Veronica

Loreena,

Some really good ideas from fellow stagers! Some other things to consider . . . adding pieces that tie into the carpet - same color family since they do not want to repalce it. Pillows, floor to ceiling drapes in similar lighter shade, if the sofa is decent, remove the cover, add a white table cloth to the DR table and consider a vase of flowers of candle arrangement. Arrange furniture to allow for a smoother flow of traffic. Figure out what is the focal point in the room and arrange to bring focus to that.

In the fami;y room, obviously the fireplace is great - as suggested are there some chairs you can add to cozy up the room? Change the furniture layout so as not to block the sliding glass doors. Consider adding a mirror over the fireplace and accent the mantle with tall items to flow with the tall ceilings. The wallpaper in the kitchen needs to go so that is great that the owner is willing to take care of that.

There are many great suggestions so you should be well on your way. Good luck!

Sheila

Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions. I know my Sellers will be excited. The paint will begin this weekend (they are doing ALL of it themselves). They also purchased the tiles for the kitchen already....

I'll be posting some updates (hopefully with pictures from time to time).

Keep the ideas coming. I really, really appreciate this from the bottom of my heart.

JAN

2007

Feel free to visit the tour preparation tips I send realtors and/or homeowners prior to sessions. These items are all from "real life experiences." Feel free to use this information to begin your own list. My clutterphobia (?) is painfully obvious when you read them.

The only suggestion I'd make is to use editing software to render the walls vertical.

Best of luck to you and thank you for the email!

Loreena,

I have one suggestion to add...those ceiling fans look as if they can be adjusted upward to the ceiling (I have seen that type before)...since they look dangerously low, I would have them moved up toward the ceiling!

JAN

2007

Hello from B.C.

A wonderful paint colour is Wyndom Creme Benjamin Moore. Is a warm cream .I have used it all my stagings and it looks like a different colour in each room depending on the light. The wallpaper must go Why put in a faux wall that is an unneeded expense. What I do is remove everything off the walls, and counter tops and tops fridges, etc . Remove everthing but the major pieces of furnture. Even. the window coverings.Clean throughly. Then you can really see the space. Paint the areas that need it and then return attractively one third or less of the stuff. The pictures here are way too high and too small. Go to Lh2 Photography .com and you will see thousands of images to frame for a reasonable cost. Use unframed artists boards and wrap fabulous fabric or find wallpaper that could be framed. Wallpaper /wallpaper borders and faux walls are so out of date. If they choose to replace the carpet new on the market are vinyl plank floating floors and bamboo hardwood is a reasonable price to replace that green carpet. if you do any colour research, green carpeting is the worst colour. Rearrange the furniture for ease of movement and sight lines in room. Replace the fan with more uptodate fixture and hang it at the right height. Or if that is not possible because of the place in the ceilling paint it the same colour as the ceiling so it looks hidden. Simple is best. Encourage the folk that the way you sell your house is not the way you live in it. Clean clean clean and simple simple simple is the best. For design forward folk Dark grey is the lastest accessory colour according to Candian House and Home guru Linda Reeves. If t hey remove a lot of the furniture they are alreay half way to moving. Buyers are dreaming of a million dollar space not the ones they came from. So give it to them. Space and light and emotional connection is what sells a house.

Marilynn Currie CSP Abbotsford/Chilliwack B.C. Canada

What alot of wonderful suggestions ! I just thought that I would add that if they refuse to replace the carpeting all is not lost. Some hot new color trends are blue/cream/chocolate: sage green/cream/chocolate or teal/cream and chocolate. True that does not include using teal/green or teal as a carpet color but right now you can find lots of accessories such as pillows, rugs, art pieces and candles in those colors. You might try using an off white well fitting slipcover, pillows with the carpet color, and some tan and chocolate shades thrown in. You can place a rug in those colors in front of sofa and place those two chairs opposite with coordinating pillows. Tableware in the same colors as pillows green/cream/chocolate. Unless there is an unpleasant view out those windows you might want to eliminate the window coverings all together and just paint the frames white. Good luck. Oh yea, try pottery barn, crate and barrel and pier one for accessories in this color.

Everyone has given such great tips. All I might add here is purchasing some fabric that comes in 3 coordinated prints ie. plaid, stripe, solid all in the same color way. You can actually safety pin the fabric to your sofa pillows, staple gun fabric to seat cusions in your kitchen and a simple rod pocket sewn into a width of fabric for your side panels on the windows. And of course the white slipcovers (I almost always recommend them) Gorgeous. The bedrooms?

JAN

2007

Thanks for all the feedback. This afternoon (Sunday), this Seller is on my to-do list. I plan to incorporate all the ideas that have been shared so far. I need to digest this, then put into a "proposal" for my clients on staging. Thanks again.

PS: I'm excited about the ASP class that I will take in mid-February. It will be my first accreditation. I'm very conscious about picking the accreditations because I want to be sure that it will provide value-added services to my clients. I look forward to that.

Sheron: I do have pictures of the Master Bedroom. Initially when I started this blog, I didnt want to overwhelm myself and of course, didnt really know how this would entail. I'd love to post the MasterBed.

Please feel free to comment. I know it's alot of stuff there. Declutter, declutter is what Mrs. is doing now.

Loreena, it is so much easier to declutter if first you empty everything out and then put back thoughtfully, what will be needed until the move.

Sheron: I will advise her to do just that. Thanks for your help.

I would vote for removing the carpet and wallpaper absolutely!

The green dominates the space, and no matter how much you try and stage around these 2 major issues, your seller will not get top dollar. I know it is tough to convince a buyer, but the cost of these 2 important changes is far lower than risking a price reduction for not selling. Remind them that for every buyer that does overlook these issues and visits the home, they are probably leaving 2-10 times that many potential buyers behind, who will take one glance at the listing photos and rule their property out.

Good luck to you.

Lisa

www.BostonHomeStaging.com

I do know that the major issue with the house is the carpet. Unfortunately, the Sellers do not have the funds to change out the carpet.

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