Staging Realtor's Personal Home

Go fo antique brass cabinet pulls, handles, and door hardware. That is your answer. Its in NOW. It is rich looking. It coordinates with the existing fixtures. Get him to replace as much as he is willing to do. I'm guessing he has brass light fixtures...those need to go too. Lamps brass? Tell him to buy new ones that he can take with him to the new house (after the old one sells). Good luck with your first challenge and your new business!!!

That is hard. Hopefully the kitchen doesn't have a gold faucet so you could change out the knobs - (I just had a home that had horrible ceramic knobs with pictures of apples on them. They had great cabinets put in the laundry room and they put more of those awful knobs there.)

How did we get so much gold stuff in our homes! lots of these homes have the gold handles on the doors, gold ceiling fans, gold knobs, gold shower doors---Uck! Good luck!  Anything you do will be better than it was empty! :-)

 

Hi Stacey,

I agree with Rachel that antique brass would be the way to go....at least it will 'blend'....sometimes we have to just work with what little we are given.

Let us know how it turns out!

VAL

Love the idea of changing out light fixtures and taking them with him.  He could even sell the old brass ones.  A realtor should know better than to scrimp on such items as knobs, faucets and fixtures.  These are huge in the buyer's mind and not expensive to update.

I agree with sharon he should know brass is out dated. Ask him what his budget is and then go price it all out let him know with these changes you are adding more value to the home and show better the first time and not have to do it later on when the house isn't selling. If you are over his budget buy not very much he might be will to give a little. He may not know what these things cost. sounds like he wants something for nothing

Stacy - I just did this.  Although her sink faucet is stainless (to go w/the sink,) all her other hardware was GOLD GOLD GOLD.  We swapped it out for a Bronze, that is nearly black w/great results. I would then re-accessoize with iron and dark bronze accents through-out the home to carry your new hardware color through. Even though he's got late 90's gold, the dark contract will give the home an updated boost. 

I would though, try to encourage your client that just by updating the light fixtures, the home will look a zillion times better.  That is the 1st thing I suggest w/homes built in that era - Loose the lighting...

Julea Joseph, Interior Stylist - Reinventing Space 

 

 

Stacy,

Have you thought about spray painting the hardware? I know it sounds crazy but I have done it and Lori Hakeem has written a blog on it and the results were great. I also painted light fixtures black to look like wrought iron. Well worth the small investment and the agent can invest the little money he has into the fixtures. Best of Luck.

Stacy - thanks for the post, it is timely to say the least.  I have a bathroom with bright brass fixtures as well as a brass shower stall and have been trying to come up with an idea to tone it down.  To replace the taps with anything other than the brass would make the shower stall look odd.  I like Rachel's idea of the antique brass and will look into it.  Isn't Active Rain great for getting ideas!