Stage your Space for Spring

A new season is upon us–Spring. With spring comes spring cleaning, blooming flowers, and a boom in the housing market. If you are one of the many who are listing their house to sell or just want to freshen up your space for the new season, I might be able to help you out with a few tips.

1. The first (and most dreaded) step to preparing your home to sell or just for the spring season is cleaning. Removing the clutter from your home makes a world of difference. You will be amazed with what even an hour of cleaning can do. My suggestion is to go through your house and make a list of everything that needs to be done. Then start with the toughest projects and finish with the easier tasks. You have the most energy when you start cleaning–use it to your advantage!

   

   A cluttered room looks messy and chaotic

   

   A de-cluttered room with good organization creates a welcoming and fresh feel.

2. Once your house is de-cluttered, you can move on to the second step–rearranging furniture or adding new pieces to your home. Without all of the clutter, your rooms will have a little extra space which will allow you to look at your room layout and perhaps find a new layout that will help freshen up your space. If you have a little extra money in your budget you could even find a few new pieces of furniture to exchange for some old pieces. This can make a huge difference in your space!
3. The third tip I have for you is to change up your room accents. Find a color scheme and stick with it. Too many colors is distracting and too few is cold (see my blog post on color). This is one of the best times of the year to add color to your home. Bright greens or purples are fun accents to use to transition your home into the spring season. Even adding a simple vase with some fresh flowers will bring a room to life. 

Even though the list is not huge, these three tips will make such a huge difference in your space. Although there are so many more things that go into selling a house, you now know how to get started. It may seem like a lot of work, but I promise the end product is worth it. Your Space will be ready for Spring in no time 🙂

If you have any questions for me please feel free to leave a comment and I will answer as soon as I can. If you have any ideas for me or my business or would like to share a picture of a space you need staged or have staged yourself, please feel welcome to do so

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog and follow me on twitter (@StageYourSpace) to read my latest blogs and follow my journey.

The Importance of Color

Today I am going to share with you my biggest pet peeve about home staging–over-neutralizing your house. One of the biggest tips for home sellers is to neutralize your home before putting it on the market. Realtors and home stagers suggest painting the walls a neutral color and avoiding bold statements. I, too, would agree that neutral colors are a safe and smart choice when looking to stage a house to sell, but I want to caution to not over-neutralize, making the whole house feel cold and bland.

To show what I mean by over-neutralize I found a few pictures from magazines and websites that (to me) seem to be too bland and cold feeling for a staged home.

Although some designers love white rooms, I personally find them blinding and  cold. This first picture from Houzz.com shows exactly what I mean by over-neutralizing.  Although this room has some nice features (love the nightstand), it is lacking color. Even just using different shades of grey or beige would help sell a house with this room.

White room from Houzz.com

Another example is this grey room. Although I am the biggest fan of grey (seriously, it’s my favorite color), this much grey is too much. Even though the room has a great industrial design and has a red chair giving the room a little color, a home buyer viewing this would probably see this as cold. Adding color will add warmth to the room and help sell this a lot faster.

Grey living room picture from sardng.tk showing a complete lack of color

Now imagine if you used the same couch and furniture, but you added different pillows to the couch with red patterns, if on the coffee table there were a glass container with bright red apples. Imagine a unique giant clock on the wall. See the silver vases just sitting on the bookshelf? Now imagine them filled with red flowers? Before long the accents of color and the addition of a few warm elements (pillows, rug, throw blankets, plants) will create a much homier feel which would make this room so much more appealing while also keeping the industrial look.

To show you the difference a little color can make, I also found a few pictures of rooms that use color as an accent and it makes a world of difference.

Although this room is grey the use of an accent color really breaks up the blandness of the room and creates interest and warmth (I also love the symmetry here). Photo courtesy of the Graphics Fairy

This kitchen has beautiful cabinets and using an accent color like yellow really helps bring out the rest of the room. Photo taken from This Old House, photographer: Anthony Tieuli

Even using brown as an accent color is better than no accent color at all. Photo courtesy of West Elm

I hope you can now see how important color is when staging a home. If you have too much color in a room (or your colors are too bold) the room can be overwhelming and can have the same effect on a buyer as a room with no color. A room with no color will not feel warm and buyers may have a difficult time feeling at home there. However, if you use neutral colors throughout the home and use corresponding accent colors to create warmth and visual interest, buyers will feel at home and will feel a stronger connection to the house. It’s all about how you stage your space.

If you have any questions for me please feel free to leave a comment and I will answer as soon as I can. If you have any ideas for me or my business or would like to share a picture of a space you need staged or have staged yourself, please feel welcome to do so 🙂

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog and follow me on twitter (@StageYourSpace) to read my latest blogs and follow my journey.