Hi Friends ~
I recently had the opportunity to work with a client preparing her home (a two bedroom condominium) for sale. When I walked in for my initial consultation I was pleasantly pleased by several things. First, the house was immaculately clean and second, there was virtually zero clutter! Check TWO typical and major staging recommendations off my list!
Another very pleasant surprise was the color and condition of the paint. As you can see below, the living room, dining room and kitchen are painted an amazing color of gold/yellow. As I toured the home I felt like I was engulfed by sunshine. Most folks think that for staging, painting a “neutral” color of boring builder beige is required. NOT SO!!! The objective isn’t to be bland, but to be attractive to the vast majority of buyers. There are many very interesting and enticing colors that work great for staging. When I work with a client I bring along a color kit (my color “bible”) with almost 100 color samples that will work well in various rooms for staging a home to sell (only a few of which are “builder beige”).
Well, this color wasn’t in my color kit but it is now! I wish I could tell you the color but my client only had a non-labeled can with some leftover paint in it which I promptly stirred with a paint stick, dried and brought home. (I’m calling it “Subtle Sunshine”. . . what do you think?) One of these days I’ll color match it and paint a few swatches to insert into my color kit, but for now the “stick” it is!!!!!
This particular client already had so much going for her regarding preparing her home for sale. Great paint and color, clean, pretty much clutter free, beautiful furniture with great scale and bones. So we went to work on some finishing touches with furniture rearrangement, replacing artwork and updating/rearrangement of accessories being a priority. Another recommendation which my client took to heart was updating the honey oak cabinetry in the kitchen and bathrooms by painting them.
So let’s take a look at some before/after pictures:
Before, when walking through the front door people were greeted with two recliners and a baby crib followed by a seating area for watching tv and enjoying the fireplace. While perhaps functional for living, a prospective buyer may have perceived this layout as cramped and the overall space as small. By simply rearranging and decluttering, now the overall impression is one of openness and space!
By removing the tablecloth, replacing the artwork, reversing the drapes, this sunny dining room really comes to life!
And how about this kitchen????? What a difference! The client had some spare valances that matched the living room so the window was updated at no cost. At the time the pictures were taken my client was still deciding on which hardware to purchase and install.
Both of the bathroom cabinets were painted and now really project a calm, spa-like feel:
The master bedroom was another low cost/high impact project. Decluttering and amping up the bedding made a subtle but favorable difference. While the previous artwork over the bed was very nice, it was moved to one of the bathrooms where it made a dramatic difference and we added this striking metal sculptural piece to replace it.
This stage is a PERFECT example of a homeowner who has it almost right but greatly benefited from a staging consultation. I absolutely LOVED working with this client! She was very open to my suggestions and her home is now truly market ready!
Do you have any questions regarding preparing your home for the best possible sale result? Let me know! You can contact me HERE!
Until the next time ~
What a beautiful difference. Some of these changes were so subtle but made such dramatic changes, like simply removing the table cloth in the dining room and the valance in the kitchen. Loved the “after” cabinets after they were painted. Is painting cabinets a difficult project? Expensive? If I wanted to paint cabinets, how would I go about learning about the process?
You truly seem to have an eye for these details.
Hi Kary! Thank you for the compliments and I’m more than happy to answer your questions regarding painting cabinets. As you can see, painting cabinets is a great and affordable way to update and make a drastic difference. Unless you have amazing skills, do a lot of research and have a lot of patience, I strongly recommend having a professional painter tackle the project for the best result. A bad paint job could look much worse than not painting at all!!! This client paid $1200.00 for all the work which is much less than replacing the cabinets and she will recoup that money and more in the sale of her home.