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A fresh palette

By
Home Stager with Shift Property Styling

The chance to stage an empty property is always an exciting one, you have a fresh canvas to start from and no real hinderance or theme that you have to work from. I recently worked on one of these properties which was an empty apartment in inner Hobart, the capital of Tasmania.

The difficult thing was that this apartment was spread over three different levels, and I was under instruction to only stage the main living area and bedrooms. OK, well how about the other areas of the house? No, just the main living and sleeping quarters. Fresh towels in the bathroom, please? Alright then was the response. Ahhhh.

This job was for a new business that was starting their own furniture rental business which was a great opportunity to partner someone who has since become a strategic alliance to Shift by Design. The best thing about all of this was working with a like minded business to assist them develop at the same time as my business does. It give me a solid partner and an ability to work with someone forward thinking who needed their furniture displayed appropriately.

The rooms were difficult as all the beds the apartment had a decent living space, but a small dining area right near the kitchen. It was used to photograph some of their product and for people to come through and see the products in placement. I was lucky enough to have enough inventory of my own to cover the property in relation to linen and pillows, rugs, art and lighting. Very minimalistic, but the key was to present the furniture and let it do the talking.

I guess what I am trying to get across in this blog is that work can come from the strangest places sometimes, always be aware and open to possibilities. Since this job I have found myself working less with the furniture company as a suppliers and more as partner. Very rewarding.

Some sample pics below:

Upstairs bedroom 1

 Upstairs bedroom 2

Living space

 

Show All Comments Sort:
Lynette Lawson
Starlight Design - Yucaipa, CA
Inland Empire, CA Home Staging

It is always fun starting with a blank canvas and being creative.

Lynette

May 10, 2007 03:19 AM
Marci Toliver
438-4642 - Mauldin, SC
Anderson SC, Spartanburg,Greenville SC, Home Staging
Adam I love it - sleek and elegant!  Very nice!  Now if I could only get the picture of the Tasmanian Devil out my mind!  *wink
May 10, 2007 05:05 AM
Sheron Cardin
California Moods Inc - Selma, CA
ARTIST - A Home Stager/Sellers Best Friend!

Marci...me too! The devil I mean.

Adam - nice palette...very refreshing! 

May 10, 2007 05:15 AM
Jackson West
Reveal Estate Home Staging - Vancouver - Vancouver, BC
Adam those are some amazing shots. The bedrooms look like they are out of a chic boutique hotel and buyers love that! You are one talented Auzzie.
May 10, 2007 10:42 AM
Craig Schiller
Trempealeau, WI

Very nicely done... clean and understated.

Suburban Americans don't get this look.

Boo hoo.

Me

May 10, 2007 11:11 AM
Leslie Godbold
WZGM AM1350 Independent Asheville Radio - Asheville, NC
Motivation Speaker, Radio host "Positively Living"
You Have The Talent! 
May 10, 2007 11:50 AM
Adam Luttrell
Shift Property Styling - Honolulu, HI
Shift Property Styling - Hobart, Tasmania

Marilynn - couldn't find the right art to suit so blanks were purchased, some white texture paint applied in random lines and then smeared with hands to break the linear nature. Once dried, white spray paint was applied to give an even colour and finish. Quick, simple and effective. Oh, and very cheap to do. Help yourself to the idea.

Yvonne, Leslie - thank you for the positive comments.

Lynette - could not agree more

Marci, Sheron - The Tasmanian devils do not live in inner city locations, only the kangaroos bound down the streets and highways! :) Thanks for the comments.

Jackson - Thanks for that. The look was always going to be sharp and edgey, yet sophistocated and clean. we were lucky to have decent furniture to work with. Happy with the results.

Craig - I am a fan of incredibly clean lines and styling, hence what you see here. I think that this is one of the biggest differences in staging in the USA and here, and something that I have noticed in posts, blogs and websites. I mentioned in my initial blog that this was the most apparent difference, but then I guess it depends on the market and what people expect as to how the property is styled.

 

 

 

 

May 10, 2007 11:52 AM
Adam Luttrell
Shift Property Styling - Honolulu, HI
Shift Property Styling - Hobart, Tasmania
Thank you Leslie
May 10, 2007 12:01 PM
Lori Kim Polk
Premiere Home Staging : Home Staging Services - Roseville, CA
Home Stager - Roseville, Sacramento
Oh my, can I move there?  I love this look.  This is how "I" live, very similar to my own home.  Love the clean lines, the simplicity and the subtle art affect.  I love eclectic works of art with this style... and love every Staging that I can do like this.  Thank you for sharing.  I am trying to start a new trend here :)
May 10, 2007 04:12 PM
Kathleen Lordbock
Keller Williams Realty Professionals - Baxter, MN
Keller Williams Realty Professionals

Nice Adam & what a great alliance to team up with - will make other staging endeavors so much easier.Nice fingerpainting, too.

Blanks with  smeared drywall compound & glaze or paint is cool too. 

May 10, 2007 04:42 PM
Kathy Nielsen
http://atlantahomestaging.net - Marietta, GA
Atlanta Georgia Home Stager

Awesome job, Adam.  I love the clean look.

You might want to join the group Staging "Before" & "After" Pictures and post it there as well!!

Good day, mate.

Kathy 

 

May 11, 2007 11:02 AM
Margaret Ann Innis
Decorate To Sell - Merrimack Valley Real Estate Staging - Andover, MA
Real Estate Staging - MA & NH
This is stunning!  Suburban Americans do get this look!  Come visit us!
May 11, 2007 02:05 PM
Kimberly Wester
Valparaiso, IN

Adam - SPECTACULAR!  I get what you mean by the differences in style.  While your look is very clean and simple it is much more difficult to pull off than most people think.  Finding the right balance and knowing when to stop is essential for this style. 

Like Craig said, in our neck of the woods most people don't get this look.  I cry with Craig...

May 12, 2007 04:45 AM
Lori Gilmore
One Savvy Move - Joliet, IL
One Savvy Move Home Staging
I love your aesthetic. . .absolutely my style.  Modern, clean, graphic. . .I'm drooling on the keyboard!
May 12, 2007 08:16 AM
Karen Otto
Home Star Staging - Plano, TX
Plano Home Staging, Dallas Home Staging, www.homes

Looks like pages out of a West Elm catalog - very cool - love the 3 squares - blank canvasses? - over the bed. I was working with a home accessory store as a business alliance as you mentioned however they closed their doors before we really had a chance to work together.  It's another income stream that is untapped it just takes approaching them and making an offer that is mutally beneficial.  Great job!

 

May 12, 2007 10:09 AM
Marilynn Currie
Staging for Top Dollar Stager 9 - Abbotsford, BC

Hi ,

 Thank you so much for the directions for making the white squares over the bed. I thought that a good idea would be to wrap  and staple a graphic print fabric over the canvas and/or  use wallpaper, They say that wall paper is coming back (who are they?) I  don't know but if you want to be trend forward, you could take some of the new patterns wallpaper companies are offering and use it in a small space as in the canvas squrares rather than wallpapering a whole room. Wallpaper is so client's personal taste that it is really not staging friendly.

 Please oh please no borders!

Cheers, Abbotsford/Chilliwack B.C.

 

May 12, 2007 10:18 AM
Toronto's 2 Hounds Design: Decorating + Staging
2 Hounds Design + Home Staging - Toronto, ON
As always Adam, your work is stunning! I love the green and grey.
May 12, 2007 11:55 AM
Adam Luttrell
Shift Property Styling - Honolulu, HI
Shift Property Styling - Hobart, Tasmania
Very humbled by all the comments, thank you very much everyone, glad to be able to share a view of staging from a different continent. I would love to have flexibility and control in all my jobs as per this one, but it doesn't always happen that way as I am sure you are all aware.
May 12, 2007 08:50 PM
Veronica Harbert
Select Home Staging - Denver, CO
Select Home Staging

Hello, Adam!

I did some consulting work in Australia this last March & April. The things I would have brought back if I had the room in my luggage! Is it the Bay Home store? I've been to one at the ferry stop in Manly and in Chatswood. I also hit a few stores on Chapel Street in Melbourne that had some amazing lighting fixtures. 

These are gorgeous rooms!

A friend of mine in Sydney swears that Aussies call "home staging" something altogether different. He's never been able to tell me what it's called...what do you say?

Cheers,

Veronica

Select Home Staging

Denver, Colorado

www.selecthomestaging.com 

May 30, 2007 03:11 PM
Adam Luttrell
Shift Property Styling - Honolulu, HI
Shift Property Styling - Hobart, Tasmania

Thanks for the additional responses everyone, and apologies for being more in reality than this virtual reality for a few weeks. Work comes first though, right?

Lori - I am a big fan of simplicity. Not always easy to achieve, but great when you get the right project such as this one.

Kathleen - Ha ha, thanks, I was promoted to fingerpainting recently and I really feel I have come a long way! I have learnt a lot about the art from my 2 year old daughter

Jeff and Kathy - thanks for the feedback

Margaret - the plan is to do a bit of a tour of the US and Canada to see the way my peers work at some stage in the future. Perhaps we'll cross paths.

Kimberly - it's a shame that you cannot use this style more often, such a pleasure to style a property in this fashion. But it's what the market wants so I guess until that changes, there is not a great deal of choice.

Lori - better not drool too much, might short circuit something.

Karen - working with another company does a number of things. Proves you can work in a partnership and proves your skills to the partnering business which results in refferals

Marilynn - plenty of options, and about as much flexibility in the execution of the work as your mind can consider. Wallpaper is on the way back big time. Painted feature walls are leaving and papered feature ways are here for a while it seems.

Dane - thanks for the comments, always nice to hear from you.

Veronica - home staging is getting bigger in the larger city centres like Sydney and Melbourne. However where I am located in Hobart, Tasmania, the market is smaller and very new to the concept. I brand myself as a property presenter doing property presentation. Home staging limits what I can do I feel as I would like to cover off vacant new developments as well as assisting clients with pre-sale presentation. Chapel Street is amazing, a great place for a stroll and a sticky beak at what the shops have.

May 30, 2007 03:33 PM