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Makeovers
This Blank Canvas Needs a Pretty Picture
By Kit Davey
CTW Features
Before
“What should I do with this big empty living room? It’s a funny shape and it looks so lonely without furniture,” said my client. She needed a quick sale and to maximize her sale price, as she and her family had already moved into their newly constructed home across town, leaving this house vacant. Her Realtor had explained that vacant homes usually sold for less and lingered on the market longer than staged homes. She was overwhelmed with the prospect of staging it on her own, so she called me in to help.
I usually stage “lived-in” homes, using only the furniture and artwork the homeowner already owns, so I looked forward to working with a blank canvas. After touring the house, we sat down on the floor to create an action plan. We decided to fully stage the living, dining and family rooms, using a combination of her things with rented furnishings. We would accessorize the kitchen and bathrooms and leave the bedrooms vacant.
This is a plan I suggest to homeowners who can’t or don’t want to live in the home while it is on the market. If at all possible, do not show a vacant home. A vacant home feels and looks lonely, brings up questions in the buyer’s mind about why the property is being shown in that way, and makes any flaws in the house stand out. It may seem like a good deal of effort and an unnecessary expense, but your efforts will be paid off with a higher selling price and a quicker sale.
Since the living room is the first visible space in the house, we needed to make it warm and inviting and look fully decorated and lived in. After deciding on a space plan, we flipped through the furniture rental catalog and made a call to set up a delivery. My homeowner said she would meet me the day of the staging and bring along a box of accessories to “fluff up” the space. Most rental companies offer silk trees, a few area rugs and lamps but do not rent smaller accessories.
After
Before
• The room had an odd shape, no fireplace and a long wall opposite the seating area. With no furniture, these “flaws” really stood out. We needed to create a conversation area that invited you to sit down and that de-emphasized the room’s weaknesses.
• We needed to add some color and personality!
After
• We rented a basic couch and matching chairs, along with a coffee table and companion end tables. The arrangement filled out the entire space and welcomed visitors into the room.
• We added color and a bit of personality with accessories. We searched through the rental catalog for a large piece of artwork to place over the couch. Once we found one we liked, we selected pillows, an area rug with complementary colors and lamps with color-coordinated bases. Staging the room in this manner minimized its flaws and created a warm, inviting atmosphere.
Our staging efforts worked like gangbusters. The house sold for $28,000 more than the asking price in just a few days.
Kit Davey, an interior designer based in Redwood City, Calif., helps clients redecorate their homes through the creative use of their existing furnishings. E-mail Kit your questions: kit@ctwfeatures.com
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