I recently helped a good friend stage her house in preparation for listing it on the market. From my recent personal experience of staging our own home, I new it was going to be a lot of work.... and it was, but it was so much fun! Rolling my sleeves up and working with Patsy and her husband, Bruce, was a fun challenge. In the end it was so rewarding to see their house shine and be "market ready".
They have lived in their beautiful north Boulder home for over twenty years. Lots of memories made here... also lots of stuff accumulated over the years. Serious purging and organizing had already transpired prior to me showing up on the scene, but still more to go.
Here are some spaces that we worked on. The goal: lightening, brightening, decluttering and updating.
Dining room before: (note... this room is normally pulled together, ignore the paperwork, etc. as it was a product of the staging process ;-).
Dining room after:
Replaced the mirror with artwork from Target that we sprayed white.
Office near entry before:
After:
Wish I had a before shot of this built in shelving before....
No before shots of the other main level living areas, but here is what we ended up with.
Living room off kitchen:
Kitchen/living area:
Formal living room:
Moving upstairs... this bedroom was dark with heavy window coverings and some dated bedding and accessories.
First up: The bed frame. We took it outside and sprayed it white to lighten and update the look on a budget.
And voila:
We switched out some furniture and did some table staging.
We removed the heavy window coverings.
With updated bedding, pillows and art... the room became a clean and bright space.
Another bedroom upstairs that was being used as an office.
Before:
After:
Other rooms upstairs that I don't have before shots of:
The master bedroom:
The master bathroom. Ooh... I wish I had befores of this one. Let's just say there was carpet on the floor :-o
Another bedroom upstairs:
Whew! It was four days of moving, pitching, donating and shopping.
Now it's showtime. This house is on the market! You can see the listing with all photos here.
Staging a home is no small event. However, there is no doubt in my mind that every last bit of time and money spent can make a significant impact on the selling price of a property.
Here are two great blog posts that cover home staging in more detail:
This one might have been near and dear to me ;-)
This one includes shots of the house featured in this blog :-)
If only we could all live in a "staged home", which is pretty much impossible (at least for this gal).