On Fridays my wonderful broker, Ardell DellaLoggia takes fieldtrips to the listings of Brio realtors. She had already been out to see my latest Woodinville listing, a spacious 3340 sq ft 2-story home in the Reintree neighborhood, the previous Friday. Although the owner and I had gone through the house to prepare it prior to listing, Ardell felt that some additional staging was necessary, before an open House took place. I have been staging my listings for a number of years. With each listing, I normally re-arrange what is already in a house and/or I bring in a number of my own staging props. I have built up an eclectic collection of bric-a-brac over the years, which I re-use in my listings.
In the past I have shopped for some of my listings, but under the guidance of Ardell, shopping became an adventure! We first went back out to the house and did a quick walk through the house. Ardell held her arms out in a "penguin style" to see if any furniture pieces were creating obstructions. We moved some of the furniture out of the way. Then, Ardell looked at the overall color scheme of the house. The house was decorated in very neutral colors and we decided that some bright accent pieces were necessary. With a beautiful red maple in full color outside the front door, we tuned in to the warm colors of fall. Looking around, we saw that some of the furniture had cinnamon colored stripes in the fabric and a small rack with bottled fruits and vegetables in vinegar that I had used to add color to the kitchen, cemented the color scheme for the house.
We jumped into my car and headed into downtown Woodinville, where we did a whirlwind shopping trip to TJ Maxx, Target and World Market. At TJ Maxx, Ardell immediately spotted mult-colored checkered side plates, on sale for $2 each, that happened to be a perfect match for the area rug in the kitchen eat-in area. We found perfect celery hued hand towels for the powder room, a red vase, 2 prints, a jug, other ceramic plates and burnt orangey-cinnamon scatter cushions as well as perfect cups! Standing in line, several women commented on our beautiful color coordinated goodies and were curious if we were out on an early Christmas shopping exhibition. When told that we were using the items to stage a home, several people excitedly retold stories of their favorite home decorating TV shows! Our Target and World Market shopping proved to be equally productive and we headed back to my listing with at least 12 large shopping bags.
Ardell was great fun to shop with and taught me that it is best to select a color family for a particular house and stick with that color; spreading that same color family throughout the house. It certainly warmed up my listing and the owner loved the changes to her home. In fact, the owner loves the the decorative cushions so much that I might consider wrapping them up for her as a closing gift once the house sells. Now, all I need is some offers! Preferably, before Christmas!
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