Category Archives: Staging Tips

April Showers Bring Staging Flowers!

It’s almost May here in Minnesota, and that means we are crossing our fingers and toes hoping that spring, and the beauty it brings, will be arriving soon! There is nothing better than the blooms of a magnolia tree, the bright colors of tulips and daffodils emerging once again, or the sweet smell of lilacs in the breeze. Close your eyes: imagine the scent, the joy, the warmth a fresh bouquet of flowers brings!

When staging a home, or during a staging consult, we suggest using plants and flowers to bring additional color and life to a home. It is a simple, lower cost way to add color, texture and freshness to a home.  Consider these basic methods for sourcing and displaying greenery in your home.

Trader Joe’s is A Home Revival staff favorite for sourcing fresh flowers and house plants. They have a variety of sizes and styles of plants and flowers, and tend to have a reasonable price point! A few ideas for Trader Joe’s greens:

  • Grab some baby blue eucalyptus and baby’s breath, toss them in a simple, neutral vase, and you have yourself a centerpiece that will last for weeks! Center it on the dining table, an entryway credenza, or on the dresser of the primary bedroom.
  • Take home a few succulents to stage bathrooms. Set small succulents in the corner of the vanity along with a candle or soap pump for a fresh, spa-like effect!

Treat Yourself to Fresh Flowers - The Purple Hydrangea

The Purple Hydrangea

  • Toss a mixed bouquet of bright, fresh flowers in your cart and use as a focal point in the kitchen or dining room during your home photo session! A fresh bouquet is also a nice touch for showings, but should be replaced when blooms begin to wilt. Bonus? They smell great without the overpowering effects of fresheners and spray (which we do not recommend using for showings).
  • Use a variety of house plants on coffee tables, nightstands, sunrooms, etc. to add interest and livability to the home. Plants tend to reduce stress and increase creativity, just what a potential homebuyer needs to envision their new life in your property!

Maybe you’re not into live plants, I get it! For vacant staging, we use artificial plants and stems for the sake of maintenance and longevity. A few favorite spots for faux plants:

Ikea – low price point, good variety of plants and stems, and cute pots and baskets to boot!

FEJKA Artificial potted plant, indoor/outdoor/lavender lilac, 4 ¾ "

World Market – great for artificial trees and larger house plants.

Target – wide variety of styles and price points available.

Medium Ribbon Fern Leaf in Pot - Threshold™ designed with Studio McGee, image 2 of 10 slides

Nearly Natural – an online retailer that has mastered the art of the faux plant. At a higher price point, this is a great option for investing in faux greenery you can incorporate into the design of your new home.

spring captions when in doubt add flowers

Good Housekeeping

When deciding whether or not to incorporate greenery in your staging design, just remember, plants are lean, mean, selling machines! They are one of the simplest, low cost ways to freshen and brighten a space. Not up for the effort of purchasing and placing plants? No problem! You can always reach out to us to do the heavy lifting with an occupied or vacant stage of your home.

 

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

 

The Hidden Costs of NOT Staging Your Home

We offer a variety of staging services at A Home Revival and Rooms with Style: staging consults, occupied stages, and the most inclusive service — the vacant stage. Here’s a peek at what each service entails:

Staging Consult – Home walk-through to develop a prioritized To Do List. Homeowner chooses which items on To Do List to complete and executes these items themselves.

Occupied Stage – Homeowners live in the home with their own furnishings; furniture placement may be changed, and accessories and artwork may be brought in for staging.

Vacant Staging – Homeowners have moved out and the home is empty; furniture, artwork and accessories are brought in for staging.

All of these services are incredibly helpful during the moving process, and clients are sometimes intimidated by the process and cost of staging. Our goal is to explain why it can be more costly to not invest in staging services during the moving process, and why these services are pivotal to getting the most revenue from the sale of your home.

Did you know, the majority of home buyers do not have the ability to walk into a home and imagine themselves living there? Its based on how our brains are built, like color blindness or handedness! A realtor once shared with me that a client wasn’t interested in a home they visited because he really didn’t like the blue couch. The realtor had to gently remind him that the couch didn’t come with the home! We hear examples like this a lot : “I don’t like the paint colors.” “I don’t like their style, it’s outdated.” “We don’t need a nursery.” “I didn’t like how it smelled in the home.” According to the National Association of Realtors, 82% of buyers find it easier to visualize a property as a future home when staged.

During the staging process, we are able to come to your home for a consult, prioritize with you the work you are willing and able to do to ready your home for sale, and then decide together how we can assist you with the process. Our hope is to neutralize the home, and create beautiful spaces that would appeal to anyone and everyone. We show how each room is intended to be used and come up with creative uses for spaces that are awkward or oddly shaped. We help buyers see just how great the home is, highlight it’s best features, and give them a head start at imagining their new life in their new home! According to realtor.com, staged homes sell 88% faster and for 20% more. We often stage homes that have sat on the market for weeks, or even months, without a sale, and see them sell in just days!

As we mentioned, staging services are flexible and meant to serve the seller’s needs. We prioritize the work together because we know there is often not enough time and resources to do everything possible to sell the “perfect” home. That said, the National Association of Realtors says more than a quarter of buyers (27%) are more willing to overlook property faults in a staged home. That means we can take on making your home appealing to buyers and save you the cost and efforts of major updates to your home. We show how great your home can look as is, and modernize it with our stunning décor. 

We know staging is an additional investment, something that can feel “extra” or “unnecessary” with all the other costs and to-dos during the moving process. We can confidently say that the majority of our clients do save time and money by inviting us to walk with them throughout the selling process. We love partnering with realtors to serve their clients, and it is our hope to make the moving process a little more palatable. And if you like our work, we can even come to your new home and help you create your dream space! We’re here to serve and support you!

 

 

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

Ready, Set….SELL!

Spring is here and that means the housing market is warming up and getting ready for busy season! If you are thinking of putting your home on the market this season, consider these top tips for readying your home:

Clean, clean, clean! I’ll say it again, clean! We cannot emphasize enough the importance of a pristine home when putting your house up for sale. That means windows, bathroom drawers, appliances, porch webs and debris, and every other nook and cranny you can think of. We even encourage sellers to dust their basement appliances like water heaters and softeners, as well as furnaces.

Depersonalize and neutralize your space. Pre-pack all family photos, anything with your name on it, calendars, and other items that are very meaningful to you. Imagine you are creating a blank slate for a buyer to tour your home and be able to imagine their life there. I often tell clients, “no signs of life in your house! People know you are living here but they don’t want to know you’re living here.” That means taking laundry hampers and garbage cans with you when you leave or out to the garage, tucking away toilet brushes and plungers, removing any dish towels, rags, soap and accessories — even the cute, just-for-decoration, dish towels!

Repair is essential to preparing your home for market. The goal is for buyers to feel like your home is truly move-in-ready and that they can’t find a single project they must do. Improvements that make a difference, but sometimes get overlooked, can include:

  • professionally cleaned carpets
  • freshly painted front door (no chips or signs of ware)
  • closet doors that open easily and quietly, and shut correctly
  • walls and closet interiors free of scuff marks
  • demineralized faucets and shower heads
  • conditioned wood, especially in areas of high use or next to water sources such as railings and bathroom and kitchen cabinets
  • working lightbulbs with matching hues in all fixtures
  • patched and painted walls as needed

Refresh your home before taking photos or offering open houses. Add crisp, new white bath towels and hand towels to bathrooms. Pick up a few house plants from Trader Joe’s (or fake one’s from Ikea!) to add some life to your space. Toss lemons and limes in a wooden or ceramic serving bowl and set it on your dinner table, they’ll last for weeks! Pick out a fresh, colorful bouquet for picture day and display it on your kitchen island. Perhaps you want new bedding for your next home, buy it early and make your primary bedroom look extravagant for showings. Updating or adding hardware throughout the home can make oak cabinets look new again, and replace yellow-gold fixtures with black or oil rubbed metals. Small, less expensive changes such as updating light fixtures or replacing outlet covers, can make all the difference in the end!

It’s reasonable that preparing to sell your home feels overwhelming. You’ve built a whole life in your home and it can be a lot of work, both physically and emotionally, to prepare to let it go. I find it can be helpful to imagine you are setting up your home to bless the next family to live there. What can you do to make your home the best it can be for them? Or imagine you are a buyer for your home. What would you want to see or not see? What would feel like projects if you were just moving into the property? Put yourself in the buyers’ shoes and you’ll know just what you need to do. Of course, if all else fails, just clean, clean, clean!

 

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival