Staging: Under-cabinet Lighting

Whether you are trying to brighten up your kitchen for resale or just need some task lighting, these little guys are a great alternative to hard wired under-cabinet lighting. They are less expensive, easier to install, and quite frankly just as bright. 

We all know that dark kitchens aren't great for selling homes--or for chopping vegetables or reading recipes!!! Painting cabinets is a great way to lighten a dark room, but if you don't have the time or the budget (2 of these lights cost $15 which is about half the cost of a can of chalk paint) or just don't want to paint, adding a few of these under the cabinets and making sure they are on for showings can have a huge impact. You will need a drill to install them properly, but otherwise no special skill is required. They come in various styles so you can pick the one that fits your house the best. They are also great for closets or dark corners in garages and sheds.

Another quick tip: if you have a dark backsplash, set a few light colored, reflective objects in front of it, especially in dark corners. A white pitcher or a simple white plate on a stand can reflect a lot of light and really brighten a space.

Staging: Trim Colors that Update Pink Brick

Ah, little pink houses for you and me....or not....
So you are getting ready to sell your pink brick house (or maybe you just bought one) and you are struggling with what colors to paint the trim and front door to really make it stand out--in a good way? Pink brick can be tricky, but it also looks amazing when you get the accent colors right. The key to this is paint chips--lots, and lots of paint chips--and following the warm with warm, cool with cool colors rule from my last post.
First you want to decide if you want your house to stand out from the neighbors or to blend in. Either one can be the right goal depending if your home currently sticks out like a sore thumb or gets lost in the crowd. Lighter colors will create a more blended and subtle scheme, darker colors will make a bold statement, and if you can't choose, split the difference and choose a medium value color. Bolder or subtler highlights can be added with plants, wreaths, patio accessories, etc.
Once you've decided on a general color, go to your paint store and get between 5 and 20 chips of that color in various values, etc. [If you choose a color like green or gray, you'll have many paint chips to choose from, but maybe only 4 or 5 in a navy.] Tape them all to your brick. Eliminate the ones that make you go "ick" immediately. There is almost always a clear winner in the remaining chips. 

TRADITIONAL LOOK: navy, gray, green, and white are sure fire winners.
COOL PINK: that sort of baby pink brick with grayish undertones or maybe even flecks of gray in it. Trim: bright white or light cool grays
Doors: Cool navy, cool gray, and cool greens. A navy with a hint of purple such as blackberry, steel gray, a grayish lilac, bottle green, or a sage green are good places to start. 
WARM PINK: These bricks have a peachy hue.
Trim: cream or off white trim will feel warm and welcoming.
Doors: a warm navy, warm gray or taupe, or greens in shades of olive, loden, or oregano.

But let's say you DON'T want a traditional look, you want your house to stand out and feel more MODERN
A MONOCHROME palette is a bit of a stand out without being too far afield. Choose a red that is the same hue as your brick for the front door (an orange red for a peachy brick, a cool or "blue" red for a cool pink brick). Again, you'll likely need several paint chips to find the right one. Go dark, or go bright, but don't chicken out and choose anything faded. Then add a white or off white trim depending. White, red, and pink can strike the perfect balance between classic and modern.
COOL PINK: an unexpected choice is a bright yellow door. Getting the exact right yellow is key, but start with colors that make you think of rubber duckies or daffodils and you'll be on your way. Cool pink brick can also be paired with aqua or lime doors for a bold, modern look, just bring home loads of paint chips to make sure you get exactly the right one.
WARM PINK: can look extremely modern when paired with a coral door and cream trim. To tone things down, olive or loden trim can be striking.

Finally, a note for someone who bought a pink brick house because they love pink. Go ahead, paint your front door pink too. I suggest a color that is the same pink as your brick, but a few shades darker or lighter. Then paint your trim gray to elevate the look to something grown up and elegant.
With so many options, I think the only real struggle of deciding what accessory colors to put with your pink brick is figuring out which one you will like the best--or which one potential buyers will!

Staging: Color Theory Applied

One of my favorite classes, both to take and to teach was color theory. The reason is likely how applicable the information was to real life, and how it took the guess work out of a lot of design and staging issues I've faced over the years.
So quickly a few definitions (not totally textbook) so you are on the same page with me:

HUE: the pigment or color of a color (red, blue, yellow, etc.)
VALUE: how dark or light a color is
SATURATION: how intense a color is
TONE: how pure a color is (clear, muddy, grayish, etc.)
WARM: generally colors that are redder or yellower in nature
COOL: generally colors that are bluer in nature

I get a lot of questions about updating exterior paint colors before listing a house. Usually these involve doors and trim on brick homes that the owners either don't want to or can't afford to paint--and let's face it, painting brick can lead to some bad things down the road anyway. In future posts, I'll try to discuss some specific brick colors and how to update them with new trim and door colors. For now, I want to talk about a basic rule from Color Theory that I haven't seen successfully broken to date.
When choosing a color scheme, keep warm colors with warm colors and cool colors with cool colors.
Let's say you want to mix metals in your home decor. Brass, copper, and bronze look great together, but throw in some stainless and it's like hitting the wrong chord in the choir. The same applies to exteriors. If you have a warm colored brick, warm trim colors are going to look best. Go for creams and off whites instead of bright white. Greens like loden or olive that are yellowish or brownish in nature will look better than a pine green which is heavier in blue. If you have a cool colored brick, bright white or cool grey is great on your trim. Truer greens like bottle green or blues will make good front door choices.
Warm colors and cool colors almost always wind up clashing and looking just not quite right. It's one of the things that drives me craziest about my current home. It's red brick--warm, red brick. The previous owners painted the trim a warm white that is lovely, but they also painted the siding bits in a cool, bluish gray that is not glaringly horrible, but is also not quite right. Unfortunately, the paint is new and in great shape, so until it needs painted for real, it will stay slightly not perfect. I did repaint my front door in a warm gray that is really lovely with the brick and I have a slightly lighter warm gray called Baby Elephant all picked out for the day when I can unbreak this cardinal rule of color theory.

Staging: Fighting Odors Safely

We all know that the wrong smells can kill a sale: cigarette smoke, cat pee, old people (sorry I know that last one isn't PC, but it did come in 3rd in a recent survey of home buyers.) On the flip side, the right smell can help seal the deal with buyers, but many of the tips and tricks people turn to can be downright dangerous. Baking cookies before a showing is fine--as long as you remember to turn off the oven. Candles should never be left burning, and even the plug in air fresheners can pose a fire hazard. And, you certainly can't turn to these methods if you are listing a home that you have already moved out of. So here is my favorite tip for fighting stale, empty house smell or just making you home smell more appealing to buyers:  COFFEE

Ok, to start with, your house MUST smell clean. To achieve this, I am a huge fan of white vinegar. The acid in vinegar will cut right through many of the worst smells, including cigarettes and cat pee. It also has the added bonus of removing hard water stains and cutting through soap scum like a champ. Once your house is nice and clean smelling, I suggest introducing pretty containers of fresh coffee grounds throughout the house. This glass container was a buck at my local dollar store. The fake succulent was on sale for 50 cents. I like to put glass containers of coffee on window sills that get sunlight. The light heats the coffee and causes the smell to waft around the house like magic, no fire hazard required. A small vase with some fake flowers tucked into the coffee also looks pretty.

I also like to buy pretty bowls from the dollar store or yard sales and fill them with coffee topped in decorative items. If you live near the beach, you can use sea shells (just make sure they are also clean) or you can pick up pine cones, pretty rocks, whatever. This project should be as close to free and cheap as you want to make it as you may be leaving these objects behind for the next owners if you are staging an empty house. I try to put one of these bowls or vases in every room. The bowls look particularly nice on bathroom counters, while I generally use a larger, tall vase with flowers or branches for kitchens, but mix it up!
You can also make sachets using coffee grounds and cotton or mesh gift bags to hang in closets or near litter boxes.
Don't like the smell of coffee you say? Try cinnamon, cloves, or nutmeg. Spices can be expensive, but cinnamon is often available in fairly large containers at--you guessed it--the dollar store. These spices also have the added benefit of acting as an insect deterrent, and bundles of cinnamon sticks make attractive displays.
On a final note, coffee is also great for absorbing existing odors. I once used half a can of coffee to exorcise the smell of running shoes from an entrance coat closet that a tenant has used as a sports locker.

Staging: Staying Current

Remember when staging your house meant making it look as much like a model home as possible? The barren counter tops, the rug-less floors, the generic artwork? These days depersonalizing and de-cluttering a home are still extremely important, but thanks in part to shows like Fixer Upper and Hometown, there's been a subtle shift towards houses that feel warmer, more comfortable, more lived in--in short more like real homes than model homes.

I'll never forget one early client. Her beautiful historic home had been on the market for 18 months and listed with 3 different agents. The price had been dropped several times. When she hired the agent I worked with, she couldn't understand why a stager was being brought in since she had already "staged" her home. Her idea of staging had been to pack up every single piece of artwork and decorative item and stash them in the attic and to push all the furniture against the walls to make the rooms look "bigger." Even 10 or so years ago, buyers weren't buying it.
These days you can't insult your buyers' intelligence. They watch HGTV too, and quite frankly they've become suspicious of homes that look overly staged or not lived in. They know someone lives in your house, and they are looking to live there too. When they walk in and don't see ANY of your stuff, they begin to wonder where their stuff will fit. Will they have to become minimalists to live in your house?
One room where people following old advice can go overboard is the bathroom. For a time, we were told to pick up all of our rugs, hide our trash cans, and clear our counters of everything other than 3 decorative items. (Remember that model home?) But a vase of flowers isn't going to give anyone ideas about how they would really live in your house. So instead of clearing out their bathrooms, I suggest that today's clients simply cut back on the amount of things they have on display and focus on making those things attractive.
Instead of those three useless items, consider a pretty soap dish with yummy smelling soap or a pretty liquid soap dispenser, an attractive container to corral your toothbrush and toothpaste, and a pretty basket to stash your hair products in. One client who took my advice to heart even bought pretty crystal decanters to put the family's mouthwash in--and it looked really cool!
In the shower, aim for no more than two bottles of shampoo/conditioner and maybe a razor. You can even pick bottles that go with your color scheme given the variety available these days. On the floor, one or two rugs are ok depending on the size of your room, just make sure they are in good condition and add to the decor. You don't want to look like you are trying to hide the flooring, but your bathroom doesn't need to be an echo chamber either.
The key to contemporary staging is balance. Yes, you want to show a lot of open space, but you don't want rooms to look empty or sterile if you are still occupying the house. Yes, you want to take down all those family photos, but you also want the house to have a sense of unique style and personality. Striking this balance takes a little effort, a lot of common sense, and some creativity. If achieving that balance is a challenge, hiring a stager is a good way to make sure you hit the mark.

Staging: Using Bulbs to Update a Lamp

My dad made this lamp in high school wood shop, so circa 1950. It was catalpa wood so very orange. I chalk painted it, but have struggled to find the right shade for it over the years. Then I was in Ace the other day and saw these "fairy bulbs" and fell head over heels. Who needs a shade?
With all of the cool new Edison bulbs and other creative bulbs that are meant to be seen these days, updating light fixtures just got a whole lot easier. Big bonus: the light this bulb casts is soft and warm and dare I say "magical" so it adds a lovely romantic glow to the room! It also comes in a rainbow version that would be great for a kid's room. So many possibilities.....

DIY: dumawall

FINALLY!!! A way to DIY your shower that is as easy as putting down a laminate floor. Seriously, how did it take them this long? This is a product that is going to revolutionize showers, back splashes and other wet surfaces if it is as easy to install as it promises.

I can't wait to give it a try!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woFhwV2wnGQ

Staging: The Garage--The Forgotten Room

This post is for sellers who are going above and beyond--whether it's because you want to get absolute top dollar for your house or because you live in an area with an extremely competitive market. Agents and stagers will tell you that kitchens and baths sell a house, and that's no lie, but it's the forgotten spaces like closets and GARAGES that get you those extra bucks or give your house the edge it needs to beat out the one down the street. 

So let's talk about the garage. I'll never forget the conversation I had with an experienced agent who said he told all of his clients to clean out their garages and put a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Why? Because people are let down when they walk through a beautifully staged home and then step into a grungy garage. It reminds them that the house is NOT brand new and it may make them question the interior of the home. A clean, freshly painted garage on the other hand looks new and appealing to buyers since it speaks of a well maintained home.

Often, when sellers declutter their homes, they box up everything and stack it floor to ceiling in the garage. I've seen listings where buyers weren't even allowed to look in the garage. If you are in a hot market, you can get away with that, but if you aren't, not even being able to look at a space is going to turn off potential buyers. So GET RID of that stuff! Now that I've told you what not to do, here are some good tips for making buyers want your garage as much as they want your house.

1. Fresh paint. You can do whatever you want, but I like putting a color in the garage. It makes it feel like a room--perhaps even a room that the man of the house would enjoy spending time in....hmmmm. I like blue or gray, but I once painted a drab garage a sunny yellow that really made it inviting. My current flat builder beige garage is getting a coat of Clark & Kensington Drifting Away in a washable semi-gloss. (Again, I like to do this long before we sell so that I can enjoy the pretty color.)

2. Put up curtains. Maybe you have cheap mini blinds that came with your house. I bet they're dirty and maybe broken. Curtains again make the garage look like a livable space--and it's easy to take them down and wash them. (Yup, that blind is going too.)

3. Hang artwork. Real artwork. A framed poster of a classic car or motorcycle might give the man (or handy-woman) of the house more positive ideas about the space. A nice floral painting is perfect hanging above or sitting on the gardening bench.

4. Clean, clean, and clean some more. Make it as clean as your house.

5. Get organized. Declutter your garage too. Buy pretty colored totes to store your stuff. Clean and hang garden tools in an attractive manner. 

6. Make sure the light fixtures are all clean and have working bulbs so the space feels bright. Consider adding battery powered task light to dark corners, and make sure they are on for showings.

Really, it's pretty straight forward. Treat the garage just like any other room in the house you are trying to sell. It needs to feel like a fresh, clean space that people can imagine using for more than a place to dump their stuff. Create a room that welcomes gardeners, mechanics, hobbyists of any sort, and you've sold your garage as nicely as you've sold your house.

Staging: Replacing Caulk

If you want to do like that Sheila E. song and live a glamorous life, I have some good advice: Don't be a homeowner or stager! I'm only partly kidding here. Whenever I do my walk through of a client's home, I am not only looking at it through the eyes of a potential buyer, but also of a potential home inspector. An average buyer will spend about 30 minutes looking at your home. They might not notice little things specifically, but they WILL notice if the house appears to be generally run down or unkempt. Inspectors on the other hand, spend hours going over your house with a fine tooth comb. They see, photograph, and list all of its flaws for your buyer to consider. This can affect the amount you get for your house and even make a buyer walk away, so you want to really impress your inspector, and the only way to do that is to keep up with maintenance.
Living in southern Texas, one thing that any homeowner who has a west or south facing door can tell you is that the caulk has to be replaced fairly often--maybe once a year or every two years. It's not a big job, but it's the kind of little detail that shows you really stay on top of things.

My back door faces west and gets cooked all summer long, so in the fall, I peel out the old caulk and replace it. My tips for replacing caulk are: Get yourself the caulking tool shown in the center of the bottom photo because having the right tool for removing and installing this sticky goo is essential. I have small hands, so I prefer the squeeze tube of caulk to a gun, but try both to see what you prefer. Make sure to get Window & Door caulk, and if you can, buy something that is UV resistant. It does last a little longer, even here.  I also wear old clothes for this project because I'm a disaster and always get some on me. If you are allergic to latex products, you will want to wear gloves.
Another trick that can help is to tape off the area to be caulked with blue painter's tape to ensure a straight line and that caulk doesn't smear all over your brick or siding.
Replacing caulk isn't glamorous. In fact, it's down right boring. But, it will help keep your home comfortable, protect your door frames, and it just looks better than those nasty cracks.
I've seen photos like the one above on many inspector's reports. If you are selling your home and want to get top dollar, don't let it be on yours!

Staging: The Great TV Debate

When it comes to staging, there is no item in your home that is as hotly debated as your beloved TV. Now, to be fair, a lot of us these days don't really love our TV that much. For years, people have hidden them in hutches, behind artwork, and more recently behind barn doors. Ours has been banished to a spare bedroom that is now furnished and used solely as a media room, and I know many people who have dedicated media rooms. I have friends who don't even own a TV. Some people just see them as eyesores. So it's not uncommon for a stager or a real estate agent to suggest that you put your TV in storage before you list your home if it happens to be in your living room. 

But is this a good idea?

My answer is: NO. A resounding NO. We stage our homes so that they will show at their bests, but we also have to keep in mind that we want people to be able to imagine themselves living in them. Part of that dream we are selling involves watching football games with friends, Friday night date night at home with a favorite movie, and watching Saturday morning cartoons with children. If your house has a dedicated media room, that's fine, but if it does not, you don't want buyers looking at your house and asking, "But where would we put the TV?" and don't think they won't. I've done it myself--my husband does it more than I do, and I've been to numerous open houses where I've overheard other potential buyers asking this same question. Technology is a major part of our lives right now, and that has to be addressed when listing a home. So save yourself the storage fee, and leave your TV where it is, but don't ignore it.

Make sure it is dusted and spot free before each showing. Turn it off.

If it has a feature that will allow it to act as artwork when not in use, take advantage of it!

If it's winter, leave it on that fireplace video on youtube....

And make sure it is off when the photographer comes to take pictures for your listing. 

With just a little common sense, you can make it a feature, and you won't leave any potential buyers wondering where their TV would fit. Instead they'll be planning their first Superbowl party in their new home.

Staging: Refresh Your Welcome Mat

Over and over again, we are reminded that we never get a second chance to make a first impression when buyers see our homes. This is the gospel of home staging and real estate because it is the absolute truth. However, all of the little things that your stager or agent suggests for sprucing up your curb appeal can add up. $20 for a new wreath here, $30 for a new Welcome mat there, and pretty soon you've spent hundreds just on your front porch. What's a seller to do? Well, if you have a faded and worn old Welcome mat like I had, refreshing it with a coat of latex paint is a cheap solution. I just used some interior latex that I had left over from painting a room, but you could easily use craft paint or anything you have laying around. I haven't tried it, but I bet a person could even spray paint it. You could choose a color to compliment your exterior color scheme or a seasonal color. (Craft paint will cost you $2 instead of $30!) I like to use these cabinet & door sponge rollers because they hit the top layer of the design without getting too much paint in the grooves so that the pattern stays true. 

Really, this is a great money saving tip for any Welcome mat that isn't looking it's best anymore, and since it's just paint, you can change it up for very little money whenever you feel like it--and you're keeping it out of the landfill! 

Photo Shoot: Isn't it Romantic?

My most recent photos were of a rural wedding venue. Gorgeous architecture. Beautiful outdoor settings. It's no wonder so many Texans decide to get married in the country!

Budget Friendly Bathroom Transformation Part 3

We've all heard it: The devil is in the details. When it comes to staging your home or just redecorating for your own enjoyment, don't skip the small stuff. 

The finishing touch in this room makeover was framing the mirror. Again it was a super easy project involving some rosettes and trim pieces from Lowes. I think the whole project cost around $30, was an easy DIY, and really finished the room. It amped up the country charm and provided a lovely architectural detail. A simple frame is just a great way to breath new life into an old mirror.
Other small finishing touches included swapping out the old bulb in the fixture above the shower area for a brighter, whiter, more energy efficient LED bulb and painting the switch plates and baseboards to match the cabinets.
In the future, the owner may decide to replace the doors or paint them white. There is always room for updating and upgrading in a home, but as I've said before, doing it over time, saves money and headache and allows you to purposefully choose what you love to keep and what you don't love to edit.

Budget Friendly Bathroom Transformation Part 2

Again we were so excited to get started that we forgot the before photos, but luckily, my friend has some spindles in her house that we have not yet removed....yet....so you can see what we started with.

These old spindles remind of old banks and prisons....

 After removing the spindles from the small privacy wall in the hall bath with my handy Sawzall (my favorite tool to borrow from the hubby), my friend and I constructed a simple column using lumber from the trim section at our local hardware store that only had to be cut to length--a task easily accomplished with the chop saw. I admit to a fair amount of measuring and math being involved since I used simple butt joints instead of miter joints. I left the last spindle in place and screwed the new column to it for added stability. I counter sunk the screws since I knew the end result would all be painted. My friend is an excellent finish person with attention to detail that I can't even begin to imagine. She did filling and sanding to such a high quality that the column looks seamless. Then she painted it to match the cabinets. Leaving a column saved us a lot of money and headache since it meant that we could leave the header in place. It also creates wonderful architectural character in the room. Getting rid of the spindles opens up the space, makes it look brighter and roomier, and creates a display shelf. Since simple columns could be a feature of an old house or a new one, instead of dating the room, it makes it feel timeless.
We could have just painted the spindles white like so many home owners do, but removing them altogether opened up the space so much that it was worth the added effort and expense. With lumber, filler, and screws, I'm pretty sure we came in under $50. I will say, this was definitely a two woman job. Having someone to hold the pieces in place while another person installs the screws made it much easier and safer, so if you take this on, enlist a friend to help.

As a final note, I would say that this is a project anyone can take on with a little planning. If two ladies of a certain age can do it, anyone can! Most lumber yards will cut wood to length for a minimal fee. Then all you need is a drill with a counter sink bit and any kind of saw to cut the old spindles in half so you can pull them out, even a hand saw would work. Simple tools, a little money, and some elbow grease created a priceless result.

Budget Friendly Bathroom Transformation Part 1

I recently helped a friend "redo" her hall bathroom, and there is just so much inspiration in the end result, that I have to break this up into a few posts. 

Her house was built in the mid 1980s, and like so many homes from that era, it has some wonderful character elements and some elements that are beginning to look and feel dated. We had two goals. The first was to make the room feel bright and current without erasing all character. The second was to give the room a whole new look and feel without spending a ton of money.

We were so excited to get started that we forgot to take before photos, but luckily she has another bathroom with the same cabinetry that she has not redone yet. Here is the dark brown wood and period hardware we started with:

 The room had two features that she and I both really liked and wanted to preserve and highlight: a pretty blue counter top and pretty blue tile. Blue is thankfully a color that never really goes out of style, especially in bathrooms, and these features were in excellent condition. That was good news for the budget since new counters and flooring can be costly even for budget friendly alternatives. More good news was that the cabinets were also in excellent shape and very sturdy. So the obvious answer was paint. White or off white would have been good choices, but the owner opted for gray as it is a trending color, and a sample of Amy Howard's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" looked amazing with the counter and floor. She also spray painted her existing hinges with Rustoleum in a metal finish and replaced the knobs and pulls with inexpensive brushed nickle pulls that simplify the look and unify the metals in the room so that now the faucet, knobs, and hinges are all silver in tone. (Tip: buy knobs in bulk packs to save money.) She even painted the existing wooden light plate to match since she had the paint already. Spray painting hinges is a favorite cheat of mine since it saves a ton of money and makes it so much easier putting the same hinges right back where they came from.

Both the owner and I loved this pretty blue counter, and since it is in pristine condition, it would have been a waste to replace it. It was really not shown to its best advantage with the brown cabinets and dark hardware, but the gray paint and nickel knobs really make it pop.

In the future, we might decide to router out the scalloped edge on the cabinets to a straight line for a more modern look, but for now she is liking the country vibe it provides (and remember, we didn't want to erase character for the sake of change). She might also repaint the walls from the very pale creamy yellow that they are now to a light modern gray to further simplify and update the color palette of the room. Because she is starting to update long before she might even thing of selling, she has time to make changes as she likes and to enjoy them--and to take advantage of sales at the hardware store! The best part of this make-over was when she said that she used to kind of hate this room, but now she loves it. Music to my ears.

DIY: Crackle Finish Chair

If this was an art piece, I would title it: Dumpster Diving with Cats. I found this chair on the side of road, so not really dumpster diving, but.... I couldn't leave it there. I have a problem where old chairs are concerned. I'm sure I need help.

Unlike most of the chairs I drag home, this one is extremely sturdy, so no fixing was required. I just had to clean off a layer of dirt and a few spiderwebs. Then I coated it with Elmer's Glue using a chipping brush, let it dry overnight, and painted it with interior house paint. I had leftover paint I could have used, but I just had to have this particular shade of purple, so I spent 5 bucks on a sample can, and I feel like it was worth every penny. I didn't feel like this chair was horribly attractive to begin with and thought about just cleaning it up and taking it to Goodwill, but as is often the case, I was reminded that color can make all the difference to so many items so don't discount any item until it's been spiffed up with paint. Lesson learned.

Also, I learned not to leave newspaper laying around in my house....

Staging: The Best Decluttering Method

As a life long minimalist and a home stager, I think the number one question I get is, "What is the best method for decluttering my home?" The answer is simple, but not what clients usually want to hear. You have to look into a few and choose the one that fits your personality. No matter how popular a method is, it won't work for you if it doesn't match up with how you think, feel, and live. One size does not fit all.
I'll never forget the first time I watched an episode of Tidying Up With Marie Kondo. I laughed so hard I about fell out of my chair. I thought the woman was off her rocker bananas bonkers and her method was gimmicky. Ok, I still do. Things do NOT spark joy for me. If my house has a spirit, I'm moving out--AND I don't fold my socks. I dump them unceremoniously into a drawer. They are all exactly the same (black Hanes) so any two will do, and I don't have time to waste folding them anymore than I have time to waste picking a color of socks that matches my outfit. (All my winter pants are black too, so....) The point is, her method wouldn't work for me. There are a lot of people out there it wouldn't work for. I would not suggest this method to a highly logical client.
Then there is the Swedish Death Cleaning method. I'm ok with it because, again, I don't have sentimental attachments to things, but if you do, this method may be too heartless for you. It could simply be too painful and strict. I would not suggest this method to a sentimental client.
I know a lot of people who have good luck with the 3 Month method. You put your clothes on their hangers backwards and what you don't wear in the 3 months (seasonally appropriate of course) you donate. You put everything from your cabinets in boxes, and what doesn't get pulled out and used in 3 months gets donated. For some people this helps them to really identify what they actually use and need. Other people would be completely freaked out by such a strict method. Some might need to modify it to 6 months or a year.
Here's the deal. We're all different when it comes to our stuff and our relationship to it. There is no shame in that, and we should not feel ashamed if we are not on board with the latest decluttering or organizing trend. When it comes to decluttering, you have to take a beat to become aware of your relationship to things. Are you like me and have no feelings for any objects? Do you place great sentimental value on things? or do you fall somewhere in the middle? Once you answer that question, you can then choose a system that will work for you.
On a final note, if you really don't want to get rid of a bunch of your stuff before listing your home, you can pack stuff in boxes and stack them in the garage or put them in storage for the length of the sale--and that's ok too.

Staging: DIY Wreath Revitalization

One of my (and I think many stager's) favorite tips for sellers is to hang a wreath on or near the front door. Right behind a fresh coat of paint on that door, a wreath is a great way to instantly increase curb appeal with very little effort. However, the stinking things can be pricey. In many cases, it's cheaper to paint that door! This is where a little creativity and a can of spray paint come in.
Maybe you have an old wreath laying around that isn't looking it's best anymore. If you don't, there's always the local thrift store. You may have to remove "accessories" like flowers, Christmas decorations, etc. to keep it simple. Then, simply paint the wreath.
I had this old twig wreath hanging out on my front porch, and it was looking pretty faded. It originally had lovely silk flower sprigs in it that had all blown apart and away in the gentle Texas breeze. There were so many possibilities, but I chose white for a few reasons. One, I already had a can of white spray paint. Two, I have dark red bricks and the white brightens things up and is visible from the street. Three, it goes with my existing patio furniture.

There are probably too many good ideas to list, but here are a few:

Unadorned gold, silver, or red for Christmas.
A bright orange for fall.
White for winter.
A pretty pastel for spring.
A contrasting color like blue on a yellow door, or lipstick pink on a green door.
A much darker or lighter shade of your door color.

One thing to remember if your house is on the market is to keep holiday/seasonal decor simple and to a minimum--but you still want the house to feel welcoming. A nice monochrome wreath in a seasonally appropriate color certainly fits that bill.

Staging: My Number One Tip

If there is one staging tip I could give everyone wanting to sell a house, it would have nothing to do with paint color, decluttering, or furniture arrangement. It would simply be: Don't Procrastinate!!!

If you are even toying with the idea of selling your home, then NOW is the time to start staging. Look around your house (or better yet, have a friend or family member known for their brutal honestly look around your house) and identify areas that need to be decluttered, things that need to be repaired, things that are hopelessly out of date, etc. Get a notebook and make a list.

I suggest starting with decluttering. We all need to do it to one degree or another, and more often than we think. Getting rid of clutter makes our homes feel brighter and more spacious, and it frees up mental and emotional space for us to spend on other things like friends, family, and hobbies. Starting long before you might want to sell gives you a chance to really think about what you want to keep instead of waiting and just frantically pitching stuff at random 2 weeks before your listing date.

When you look at repairs, think about the things that are driving you bonkers around the house. Why live with a switch that doesn't work or a faucet that drips? Some things can even be safety issues or cost you money, so make those repairs!

After that, look at the things on your list that are changes you would enjoy. Did you paint your dining room dark red when you moved in, but now you'd really like a lighter color? Did you buy a house with a green toilet, and you've always wanted a white one? Why wait to make changes that YOU will enjoy? Plus, starting ahead of time gives you a chance to take advantage of sales and coupons and saves you money in the end.

There are so many reasons to take a critical look at our homes and make changes long before we plan to list.
1. Avoid the mad rush (and stress and anxiety) to get the house sale ready. I call this the "Don't kill yourself" rule as in, don't kill yourself doing in two weeks what you have had years to do.
2. YOU get to enjoy the changes you make for awhile.
3. You may decide that you love your home so much that you don't want to sell after all. (I've had it happen.) Sometimes we think we need a bigger, newer house when what we really need is to get all the junk we don't use out of ours and freshen it up.

So whether you are thinking about selling 6 months from now, 2 years from now, or not at all, NOW is a good time to apply some of the basic rules of staging to your home.

Photo Shoot: English Manor....in Texas

Taking photos of homes in Texas poses completely different challenges than I faced when I first started back in Wisconsin. Snow and ice are never issues, and grey skies are a rarity, but July and August are hotter than bloody blazes and fog and humidity (and sunscreen in my eyes) create their own unique challenges. One thing I've learned is to always wear my boot when photographing country properties. This time, I did NOT because it was so hot. Instead I wore regular walking shoes. I knew immediately that I would be walking around this pond to get just the right shot. I was careful and made a lot of noise, but I still startled a big water snake. He shot out of the grass and into the pond like I had launched him out of canon. Snakes don't bother me at all, but it did remind me to wear my boots, no matter how hot it is. That perfect photo is worth sweaty feet!

Staging: That Extra Room

We're not all lucky enough to have an extra room that we use for sewing, working out, watching TV, etc. but for those of us who are, those rooms can be a challenge when staging the home to sell. This room started out as a sewing room. The house had 4 bedrooms, 3 of which were being used as bedrooms already. We could have left the room a sewing room, but in reality, if you are advertising a 4 bedroom, it doesn't hurt for buyers to see 4 bedrooms. In this case, the owner had the bed already and other furniture was borrowed to set this up as a lovely sleeping space. If you don't have a bed, I often suggest borrowing one. If you can't do that, you can sometimes get away with faking one using boxes and an air mattress--as long as the buyers don't decide to sit on it! If you want to leave the room as an office or hobby room, that's ok too, just make sure it is super tidy and nicely decorated.

Staging: Make Sure Everything Works!

This dining room was already a beautiful, well appointed room. A few pieces of artwork were removed or changed to make the room feel less crowded, but the elephant in the room was the beautiful light fixture--the one with one bulb that refused to work no matter what we replaced. So, we replaced the whole fixture. One really important thing to remember when staging is that selling a home is not just about having the right color of throw pillows. The home needs to be in excellent repair. Every little thing that doesn't work tells the buyers you just don't care about maintenance, and that is NOT the message you want your house to send.

 

Staging: Girly, but NOT too Girly

A teenage girl's room is often the bane of a stager's existence. In this case, the room wasn't that bad. A bit of tidying, decluttering, and the removal of one dresser so that the size of the room would be more apparent were about all it needed (other than some serious paint on the doors). I keep reminding sellers that it's ok for a house to look like people live in it--as long as those people are all neat freaks! Buyers want to see a clean, comfortable HOME. 

The pink and black doors and trim had to be painted white. Sometimes you just can't avoid it.

Home Improvement: Staining Concrete

We've all been there. You're painting your garage door or your porch ceiling and you drip paint on your concrete. This is when you learn that if you don't get to it immediately with the hose and scrub brush, your concrete has a permanent stain. This is plain old latex house paint we are talking about, so why do we spend oodles of money on fancy concrete stains? This is a good question. I've used a lot of stains over the years. Acid stains bring out the natural imperfections of concrete to create a stone look, but they are nasty to work with. Behr makes a solid color stain I like, but it takes ages to dry here in the sticky South. Valspar makes a floor and patio paint that I won't even bother to complain about. So let's talk about the cheap way to stain unsealed concrete, latex house paint mixed with water. It's by far my favorite way to go. You can get a solid color, a marble finish with a poured technique or a granite finish with a sprayed on or flicked on technique (use old spray bottles or cheap paint brushes), and you can get any color you want. Here's how you do it:

My concrete was outside and dirty, so I started by pouring half a gallon of bleach on it and spreading it around with my handy scrub brush. After half an hour, I rinsed it thoroughly with the garden hose. Protect any surrounding plants with old towels.

My concrete had dried over night so I misted it with the garden sprayer. I wanted it damp but with no standing water. Then I mixed 80% water/20% paint in some old juice jugs. I poured this on randomly and let the colors bleed into one another. The slope of the concrete did a lot of the work for me. 

After the poured "stain" had dried, I splattered it with some black and brown using an old brush to create a more blended look. 

Since I was just practicing techniques before a bigger project, I used leftover paint I had from around the house: black, white, gray, and a milk chocolate brown. If this were indoors, I would let it dry over night and then seal it with a water based poly for easy clean up and a smoother finish. Outdoors, I don't want a slick surface, so I'll just leave it. I did something similar on my front porch over 2 years ago and it still looks as good as the day it was done, even after pressure washing. I plan to do the bedroom floors in one of our rentals at a future date. Finished concrete is bullet proof and budget proof, so something to keep in mind for interior and exterior purposes.

Staging: Bold Color

Conventional wisdom tells us that when we put our homes on the market, they need to be as neutral as possible so that people can imagine their things in them. To some extent, this true, and I definitely advise people to paint over a lot of colors or to repaint when a whole room is a bold color.  On the other hand, a house that is wall to wall greige is forgettable. When buyers walk through your house, you want a few eye catching details that leaving a positive lasting impression. The owner of this home asked me if she should paint over this deep turquoise wall before listing, and my answer was a resounding: NO!!! This was a boy's room and started out looking it, but the solution wasn't new paint. Instead we replaced boyish accessories (including the curtains) with neutrals throughout the room. Boyish wall art was replaced with a large neutral piece from the garden that showcases the stunning color. We also pulled the blue down off the wall and into the room with a throw pillow and a softer blue blanket folded at the end of the bed. The end result was a pretty room that looks like what you find at a nice country B&B. These same tricks could be used to neutralize even the biggest offenders --Pepto pink girl's rooms, Smurf blue boy's rooms, and barn red dining rooms--in the event that a client doesn't have the time or motivation to repaint.  Total cost for this was $5 for the pillow from the garden department at Wal-Mart. Everything else was borrowed from other parts of the house.

This room may not be totally color neutral, but it at least feels gender and age neutral so that anyone can imagine using it. One or two rooms that stand out are NOT a bad thing as long as they stand out in a pretty way. 

Home Improvement: Painter's "Pro" Tip

A few years back my Ace stopped carrying Benjamin Moore and started carrying Clark and Kensington. Both are excellent quality paints, so I'm fine with that. However, my complaint with C&K is that their cans don't last. Give them a year or two and the lids are a rusty, falling apart mess, even if you keep them in a closet in the house. My solution to this has been to use any free air tight container I can get my hands on to store leftover paint. Depending on how much I have, my top favorites are: clear juice jugs, mayo jars, peanut butter jars, and the containers my cats' tartar control treats come in. I know you can buy plastic containers, but why? Isn't there too much single use plastic floating around in the ocean anyway? As for the plastic buckets that the paint comes in originally, I keep those and clean them out for use in the garden, etc. They are handy for a multitude of tasks and can be spray painted for decorative use as planters or any thing else you might want a small container for.

Color: Technology to Help You Decide

I am just having too much fun with this project not to share. Choosing paint colors can be difficult. When it's an exterior color you are choosing, it can be downright stressful. Exterior paint is more expensive and more of a pain to change if you don't like it, so you want to get it right the first time. A lot of times it's hard for people to visualize what a new color scheme will looks like. Technology to the rescue! Many paint brands have online tools that will let you upload a photo of your house or room and then mess with colors. They can be fun or a real headache depending. I often use plain old PhotoScape to give clients an idea of what their home will look like. It's not an exact science, you still have to go to the store and get paint chips to choose exactly the right color, but it can help people get over that first hurdle of imagination--and it's much cheaper than repainting an exterior!

Here we have a late 80s home with brown and tan trim. Today's color schemes lean toward lighter colors in more of a gray tone so the second photo shows what the house could look like. We can even cut and paste doors, windows, shutters, etc. so that people can envision the end result.

How it looks.

How it could look....

Staging: Changing Old Faucets

Having a powder room is a great selling point for a home. Having cheap plastic faucet handles and a light fixture that makes people think of 80s hair bands is not. Changing either one is a project that any DIYer can take on. The first rule of plumbing is very similar to the first rule of electrical. Make sure the water is off!!! In some cases, just the knobs can be replaced with stainless ones. In other cases, the whole faucet has to be replaced. In every case, it's worth the effort! Instant update.

Photo Shoot: Azaleas for the Win!

You just can't beat flowers for photographic magic when it comes to real estate. Whether it's blue bonnets, crape myrtles, or azaleas, Southern houses look best when they are blooming! If your house doesn't already have this touch of magic, some big colorful pots full of seasonal blooms are worth the investment before listing. The bright pop of color will attract the eyes of potential buyers and make your house stand out from the crowd.

Project: Updating Spindles

If you buy a house built before 1980, chances are you are going to inherit a knee wall or bookcase with spindles on top separating a room. The architecture and definition are nice. The spindles, not so much. Thankfully, they are usually quite easy to remove. Cut them with a saw and pull them out. In some cases, all you need to do after that is fill the holes and paint what's left. If you have a header, adding just one simple column can update the space at minimal cost. This is a project I am comfortable taking on by myself with just the chop saw and my drill. Bonus points for freeing up space to put down your keys, phone, etc.