Tag Archives: Home Stager

Light Up Your World!

I was working with a client a few days ago who had just purchased a new home. The home was built in 2000 and she wanted help in making decisions for updates. When buying a new home that is older, you may want to update a lot of things but financially you cannot do them all at once.

I was asked, ” what are the 2-3 things I can do to make the biggest impact for the money.” The answer was easy, especially in this home. Paint and lighting.

The home was built in 2000 and many of the features showed exactly what decade it was built. Burgundy and yellow paint colors, lighting with amber frosted globes.

Keep this in mind when buying a home as well as taking a hard look at your current home.

When purchasing a home, are the bones of the home great and you just need to make some cosmetic changes over time? Are there big updates needed to flooring, trim, or even opening walls that can be done later? Or maybe you just don’t want to tackle them at all and you want a pure move in ready home.

In your current, home has it been a while since you have updated things? Do you need to start considering making some changes that will make your home more marketable when you are ready to sell, plus you can enjoy them now?

Even in homes I am working on to get ready to sell, paint and lighting bring the largest Return on Investment, the biggest bang for your buck. Use paint colors that are fresh and modern which right now is light paint colors. Make sure your light fixtures are current, making your home light and bright with updated light bulbs. These two things will bring an instant change!!

So light up your world by bringing in light and on trend paint colors and new light fixtures with bright bulbs and clear globes. Light up your world literally!!

Selling? Furniture Placement is Key!

One of the things I look at closely during a Home Staging Consultation is furniture placement. It is an element that is so important in just about every room.

As I meet with people, there seems to be a common belief that in order to make the room look as large as possible, push all your furniture back to the walls. That just is not true. I would say in 90% of the rooms at least some, if not all, furniture pieces should be floating in the room away from the walls.

Living room areas should be arranged into cozy conversation groupings. A definitive traffic flow pattern should be obvious to the potential buyer walking through your home.

Whenever possible beds should not be jammed against a wall, no matter how small the room, but rather have space to walk around them.

Office desks may also be best floating in the middle of a room versus pushed against a wall.

Furniture arrangement isn’t easy. It’s one of the things my students struggled with as I trained them with hands-on exercises to become a Certified Home Stager. So if you need help with an expert eye please reach out to a professional Home Stager.

Should I Paint My Kitchen Cabinets To Help Sell My Home?

Such a good question and one that I get at least once a week during a Home Staging Consultation. It really is something to take a hard look at. Questions to consider:

How old are the cabinets?
What is the price of my home?
What is the current market?
Is there a lot of competition in my area?
What will be the cost to paint the cabinets?

I did a consultation for a starter level home in a suburb of Minneapolis. The cabinets were original and in pretty good shape but in a medium oak stain which is not what the buyers are looking for. Since this home was a starter level home we know that the buyer may not be coming in and gutting a complete kitchen right away. They want a kitchen they can live with for a while until improvements can be made down the road.

It is a hot market right now and homes in that price range are going fast but you also want to get top dollar.

I had the homeowner get a bid to have the cabinets painted which came in very reasonable. I recommended the painting be done.

Painted Kitchen Cabinets 2

Painted Kitchen Cabinets

Isn’t the difference amazing!! Because the cabinets were being painted they could also take down the decorative bar across the top of the sink that is very dated and add an updated pendant light. The home got a couple other small updates, was staged and the outcome??? The homeowner received an offer the first day with multiply offers coming in and selling for over the list price! Painting the cabinets paid off with a quick sale, did not leave any money on the table and in fact put a little extra in the homeowner’s pocket.

If you are selling your home be sure to get professional advice from a Certified Home Stager.