The House I DID NOT Stage

Hi folks!  I'm on vaca now and was super busy before I left town. Hence the reason for the silence.

So here we go.  Remember the house I spent lots o' time and $$ but didn't stage.  Well, the deed is done and I wanted to share a few of the rooms.  The seller hired the biggest staging company in our area. They supply big time furniture. I use small furniture and accessories (lots and lots of accessories!)  I tried to refrain from comment (you don't have to) but couldn't resist including some of my staging set-up photos. It is fun and interesting to see how someone else stages!  Here's the reveal. Enjoy!

Remember the Funeral Home Foyer?  The Before is the same as the After.  It was not staged.  Below is the Living Room After. 

The Living Room Before.

The Sun Room After and Before.

Master Bedroom After

 

And the Master Bedroom Before picture.

(Remember all the 'stuff' I bought to put in the Master?)

The Master Bathroom was not staged.  Below is my 'stuff' I'd gathered for staging it.

Here is the Dining Room After staging.

Here's the Before.

I was gonna put these big boy candlesticks on that table.

 This Guest Room was not staged.

Here's some of the loot I bought to stage it.

The second floor bonus room was unfurnished.  The staging company relocated the formal living room furniture to stage this room. StagerLinda had no intentions of staging the vacant Bonus Room.  My philosophy has always been to 'hook 'em' on the first floor.

Bonus Before

 Bonus Room After

I LOVE that I was able to compare how I prepared to stage this house compared to how the staging company worked.  Everybody has a different approach. 

I will continue to market myself as a 'Boutique Stager'. 

Window Valances = Shorty-Short Bangs

You know you are an interior designer/decorator when you look at shorty-short bangs 

and think they resemble window valances.

Adele's comment on yesterday's blog made me remember why I abhor a single tier of valances.

They remind me of shorty-short bangs.

Balloon Valance?

I don't like shorty-short bangs.

  I had shorty-short bangs when I was a wee lass.  But I didn't look adorable like this.

I my shorty-short bangs looked kinda like this.  (Damned pixie haircuts!)

Do you see the resemblance between shorty-short bangs and window valances?  Don't they have the   same-straight-across, off-balance, serving-no-purpose, fringe-for-nothing look?

Damaged from a childhood haircut trauma, I take out my frustrations on window valances....

(PS: The client called me back today and wanted to hire me to stage her house.  I passed.)

Boring Bedroom Blathering Bull Staging

Yeah, I know the title makes no sense.  Bare with me...
Last week, I was hired to stage a house tomorrow.  Yesterday, I was told it wasn't happening Wednesday.  The seller wants to talk to another stager.  After 12 years, this is a first.

May I share with you my plans to transform this bedroom? I am overwhelmed with mind-numbing cra-cra thoughts over this cancellation. I've invested so much time, effort and money into this project.  I feel compelled to share my plans for the Master bedroom. Blogging is good therapy.  Better to blog than go postal, no?


Here's the Master Bedroom picture.  I liked the purple comforter. StagerLinda loves color!.

I pulled a huge bolster and pillow shames from my inventory for head of the bed.  I washed and ironed the covers to crisp perfection! I am was bringing in aqua accessories as another punch of color. I bought perky 3-D pillows to doll up the bed.  Also bought a new shade for a lamp. Can you see how it has the perfect colors to coordinate?  The large abstract picture is my inventory. (You might recognize it from a previous dining room staging.) The picture was to be displayed over the bed. See the fat ceramic vase at the bottom of the picture?  The white iris (wrapped in paper above the perky pillows) were going into it.  The white iris, the pillows white background, the white lampshade, the white in the abstract picture would have added springtime freshness to this ho-hum room.

There is nothing over the bed now.

 Holy Thanksgiving!  This is the wall entering the bedroom as it is now.

See that heavy, ugly treadmill in front of the windows?  I interviewed and scheduled movers for tomorrow to carefully lift it to its new location. I spent hours shopping for the perfect picture for this wall. Then, while shopping on Saturday--Holy Hannah! Thar she blows...I spied this picture on a back wall at the Thieves Market!  I couldn't believe my good fortune.  This one picture would be magic!  It would pull all the colors together and make a Pharrel-Happy greeting as buyers enter the master bedroom.

This is my living room after shopping and pulling inventory.

My wonderful staging assistants, Karen and Jane, were scheduled to help me load and stage the house. 

Time to lick my wounds and start the demo.

Yes, I had a contract.  Yes, I require a deposit. No, I didn't receive a deposit.  No, the contract was not signed and returned. Yes, it is my fault.  Lack of a signed contract has never been a problem before.  I've always worked for great sellers that were true to their verbal agreement.

As my daddy always said, "My handshake is my contract."  It was a different era....

FAQ: This House Isn't Selling. What's the Problem?

  Happy Friday, y'all.


I consulted on this house yesterday.  Check out this 'greeting' as soon as you walk through the front door.

What do you think?
The house is beautiful.
The furnishings are expensive.
The features are A+.
The finishes are A++.

"What's the problem?"  asks the realtor.
So, guess what I blurted out?  I mean really--I do need an Edit Button.  Sometimes the wrong words just tumble out of my mouth.  As soon as the last syllable was uttered, I winched waiting for an appalling reaction. 

The words I spilled forth were:

"It
     looks
                 like
                          the
                                  front
                                             parlor
                                                          of
                                                                 a
                                                                      Funeral Home. 

Funeral Home.  I compared a beautiful house to a Funeral Home.

Dang it, Linda! What is wrong with you?  Shut up!

Amazingly,  I still got the job.  Go figure.

Really? You Cheated on Me? and God Luck!

bestaloeevera

 Friday, I had lunch with a long-time realtor client.  After meeting her for a consultation at her latest listing, we went out to lunch.  We were celebrating the immediate sale of one her houses I had recently staged.  I really like Debbie. She is marvelously talented, successful and just plain fun to work with.

During the course of lunch, Debbie admitted she had cheated.

She had flandered-around with two other stagers.

My realtor hired the other stagers because they were cheaper.  Way cheaper.

I wasn't shocked.
 
Cheater-realtor has bullied challenged me about price the last several months.

I won't regale you with all the negative things she said about the other stagers. (OK--so yeah, I did egg it on a bit--merely, research I assure you!)  Then she glorified me with a tsunami of praise. (Smile. Smile.) And, concluded with, "I'm done trying anyone else. You always deliver."

She is now in a committed, monogamous relationship with me.


I'm Just Sayin'...
Many of my blogging friends are small business owners.  Stand your ground on your pricing.  Competition is rough but you can survive on quality verses quantity. Your reputation is everything.  Do your best work consistently.  Be ethical in all your dealings.  Treat everyone respectfully.

The best work commands the best price. 

God Luck!
I read an article with a typo in it recently.  It was suppose to read 'Good' luck.  It read "God" luck.
I have pondered this typo.
We've all had someone tell us "Good luck".
Is there "God" luck?  


Happy Sunday and God Luck for the coming week!

Explore Using Furnishings in a New Fashion to Stage

Hi lovelies!  Winter is back again in NC.  Mr. Meteorologist promises it will be a distant memory by Easter Sunday.

Last post, I showed the sleeping area of this Master Bedroom. Here's the other side with it's oh-so-very-large-seating-area and fireplace. (Tonight would be the perfect time to fire it up.)

Here's the seating area before.

I swapped the sofa for the wing chairs in the living room.  The living room is near the front door and needed to be staged with more furniture for the best first impression.  The coffee table from the Master, I moved to the family room.

The fireplace is missing a hearth.  To simulate the hearth, I moved this trunk from the master closet to underneath the firebox. (I also removed the scary masks above the firebox!)

The staging is certainly not dramatic.  The purpose of the post is to look at all of your furnishings with fresh eyes. Consider using items in a new context.  Try moving furniture to different rooms where it makes more sense and has a bigger impact.

Adding the trunk below the fireplace adds dimension to the flat facade of this wall.  The warm wood tones of the trunk pick up the dark wood of the master bed on the other side of the room.

You need to consider the entire space when you stage.

I'm Back and Spring Bedding

Overwhelming apologies for my absence.  Life + stuff = no show.

My home seller took my advice to buy a Bed-in-a Bag for her master.  As I've said before, nothing gives as much bang for your buck as a B n/a B treatment. Seller sent me several links for bedding within her budget.  This is the one I suggested.  "But it doesn't match..."  Nope, it doesn't.  

Spring has sprung! We had a gruesome Winter. It is tres important for your bedding to look fresh and bright. You can't afford a melancholy Master when selling.  I went over to the seller's house to see the bedding when it arrived.  I gave it my blessing and moved on to another area of the house to check a color.  When I returned, I caught the seller stuffing the comforter into the washer. "STOP!" I screamed in horror.  "Please don't wash it!"  For staging, you don't want to risk the bedding shrinking and getting lumps in the dryer. (There is a reason B n/a B is such a good value.)

I digress....here is the very dull and rumbled bedding before we changed it. 

See that green tissue box on the 'nightstand'?  That green POPS.  It was my inspiration. (Doesn't everyone get inspiration from a Kleenex box?)  The picture below is the bedroom as it appeared in MLS. 

After staging, I missed a shot of the mastered bed.  Grrrr....It took me and 2 assistants f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get the bedding perfectly smooth, straight and the pillows placed to perfection.  The sellers' did a good job of reconstructing it after spending the night in their bed.  (But, StagerLinda is an impossible perfectionist.)

Such a better 'feeling' after staging. A pretty, happy bed!  (I don't use the small pillows on the bed that come with the set.  Again, too match-y match-y for me.)  I wanted the white in the comforter and shames to draw attention to the white moulding and tray ceiling.  We are selling that architecture! The picture above the bed coordinates the paint color and the comforter colors together.

The bed is only one side of the glorious room!  I'll show you the seating area next post.

Thanks for waiting for me, my amigos.