I decided to do a bit of a personal post this week. As you guys (those of you who follow this blog) know, I have been in the process of selling my old home, moving in to my new home, and running my business. On top of all that, around the time I first listed my house, my dog, Kaya, was diagnosed with cancer. This has been an incredibly emotional struggle for both of us, but I am happy to report that she has been strong through all of this, and her treatments have been going really well (thank goodness).

I was very concerned about moving her into the new home, when there has recently been so much change in her life, but as of last week we are officially moved in. So, far she has been excited to explore, and seems to have a bit more energy. Kaya has always been the smarter of my two dogs, which means that she tends to get into a bit of trouble, but after how intense the last few weeks have been it makes me happy to see her being a bit mischievous.

Here’s a picture of my pretty girl, hanging out at our old home before we moved. And here is a link to a funny comic I found that gave me a lot of laughs about how difficult it can be moving with dogs: Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving.

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive : )

I recently staged a 4 bedroom home in Tigard, Oregon. Because there was so much open space I used the furniture to help create an obvious divide between room functions, but it was a well designed floor plan with a good natural flow from room to room. I used a mix of personal inventory, and the client’s furniture.

I’m a fan of staging with plants. This is something that can be overdone (a jungle of plants will just be distracting), but living in Oregon means that there are a lot of months of rain (which even native Portlanders tier of after a while). Without the benefits of sunny natural lighting during the winter months, plants do a lot to make a room feel brighter (along with some well placed lamps, of course ; )

Here are some different examples of using plants as accents in different types of rooms:

Five bed, three bath house I recentially staged on 3258 NE Skidmore. This home had a lot of great woodflooring, and a ton of natural lighting, you can see how bright and cheery each room looked, without even having to turn on the lights and lamps. This was a fun one to stage, and Realty Imaging did a wonderful job with their photographs.

To check out the listing click HERE

I recently blogged about a staging I did on 3604 NE 24th Ave, Portland Oregon. Kelly Seifer is the Real Estate Agent I worked with, and I wanted to show off some pamphlets she did as advertising for this home.

It’s great working with agents like Kelly, who pull out all the stops, and I’m a big fan of this square style brochure.

Not only is it eyecatching with those vivid colors and awesome photos, but when opened the squared triad mimics the feel of a panaramic view of a home.

I also love how when open the photos give the illusion of an actual depth to the rooms that can be lossed when only viewing the pictures online : )

Quick update, some staging pics from a recent job that sold quick : )

Do you need to stage every room in your home? Can the home stager work within your budget? If you were to only have a few rooms staged which would be the most important for your home? Why?

These are questions you should be able to ask your home stager. Every home is different, and the answers to these questions reflect that. Now, it’s important to remember that home staging is an investment (it’s never going to be dirt cheap, and you should be wary of a stager who won’t honestly discuss the costs involved), but it’s an investment that can help hasten your sale and help raise the offered price.  

A stager should be willing to work with you to create a plan that works for your home, and your budget. If you are in a situation where you only are going to stage a few of your rooms, it’s my job to help advise you on which rooms will have the most impact – and this will completely depend on your home, and it’s layout.

In the case of this recent staging, we staged the first two rooms you would see upon entering. Helping to create a flow through the home, and giving the potential buyer a warm first impression. These are also “functional stagings”, many buyers put a high value on the dining and living rooms, and it’s important that they can gauge these spaces by their function.

Though this was a three bedroom house, we chose to only stage one of them. When the potential buyer looked at the other empty bedrooms, they could call back to this one to help them guage what the others might look like.

 But why this bedroom?

This one had a very unique shape, and ceiling, becuase of this the room appeared much smaller when empty. Out of all the bedrooms it was the most difficult to visualize without furniture as reference.

 We also the covered seating area. This created a focal point for the backyard, and also showcased something that would be considered a luxery feature, one that adds value to the home.

To check out the listing click HERE

To check out the listing click HERE

As I’ve written before about how neutralizing a home is often recommended as part of the staging process. In order to draw from a neutral color pallet, but without the starkness a straight white can sometimes bring – you see a lot of tan and beige colors used for wall paint.

So, I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about the importance of the accent color pallet used in a thoroughly “neutralized” home. In the case of this resent staging the walls were painted tan, and the wood flooring was a rich brown. I matched the pallet with darker brown tones, and deep beige in the furniture to enhance the natural warm earthy feel. But if only earth tones are used, the room can become washed out (too neutral), so it is important to add bright accents.

In this case I used blue tones, and added visual complexity by focusing on the complimentary blues to the tan and orange-brown colors. The result is a warm inviting room but one that draws focus not to itself, but to the selling features of the home, like the wide window view, the natural lighting, the wood flooring.

Below are some more pictures from this same staging.

Recent staging I did for 850 SW 67th. This home is a spacious 3,596 sq ft  with vaulted ceilings, two stories, and 4 bedroom and 2.5 baths. We removed wallpaper, tiled painted carpeted and staged on this one. We pushed neutral tones in the wall color/carpeting and used color in the staging to accent selling features.

This was a really fun room to stage, we angled the rug and couch towards the window seat (which in turn looked out over a gorgeous view). Who wouldn’t want to work at a desk that looked out that window.