First Impressions: Entries

Whether your home is a castle or a condo, a California ranch or Spanish Colonial, the entry to your home is the first step in establishing the impression guests will take home with them.  If you are staging your home to sell this is especially important.  Make sure it is the impression you want to make!

This entry was a disaster.  With stains on the concrete and nothing of interest to catch your eye, it is way beyond boring and well on the way to depressing!  Susanne Vaughn of SVA Home and Garden painted in saltillo tiles on the diagonal, added a new mat, topiaries  and a seasonal wreath to provide  a warm welcome.

Staging: Show rooms with original purpose in mind

We may make use of a space in many ways, but to show your home to prospective buyers, try seeing your home through a stranger's eyes.  Is it clean and uncluttered?  If you were touring homes to buy, how would it measure up to the competition?  Does each room show to its best advantage?


This dining nook had become a cluttered home office - practical perhaps for its current resident, but not a pretty picture when first entering the house.  By returning it to a dining room, with fresh paint, updates to the windows and cabinetry, the room is transformed!


Showing it at its best will ensure that it appeals to the greatest number of prospective buyers.

Kitchen tranformation: heart of the home

When friends bought their new home in Malibu, the first  room needing attention was the kitchen.  Sorry, no "before" pix, but it was a rabbit warren of small spaces, cupboards, unnecessary walls and the furnace was boxed in in the middle.  By moving the furnace to a less invasive location, blowing out all interior walls, exposing the ceiling, adding a skylight the kitchen grew to a spacious gathering place open to the Dining and Family Rooms with spectacular views of the Pacific.  The dramatic granite of the island blends with that on the other counters, but provides much more interest. With a coordinating tile backsplash and carefully thought out lighting, day and night this is where family and guests tend to congregate.

Living Accents: Limonium

 Misty Blue Limonium is beautiful fresh and dries exactly the same.  This house staged by SVA Home and Garden has a lavender bordered walkway leading to the entry and fringing the infinity pool, so it made sense to carry the look inside.  I repeated the whispy blue/purple mist in the kitchen and master bedroom.  Because it is simple, the repetition doesn't feel overdone and is maintenance free!.  Whether it is in a sparkly silver cachepot or Tuscan pottery, it is a stunning addition.  Fill your container with florist's foam and stick the limonium in one piece at a time until it is very full.  That's it.  No water needed!

In the Garden: Patio Makeover

What do you do with a tired run down patio?  Start with the floor of course!  Painting a tile pattern to match the indoor flooring created indoor/outdoor continuity.  Vintage seating provides a comfortable outdoor living room and frequent gathering place.  A former eyesore now enhances the view indoors and out. Can you tell which is tile and which is paint?

Before: Unappealing and rarely used...

Why Stage a House?

You might well ask.  After all, it is the house they are buying, not whatever you put in it, right?  Wrong!  People buy the space they need and can afford in the location they want, but what makes them sign on the bottom line is their heart.

What's more appealing:  this

The goal of any home seller and realtor is to sell the house quickly and at the highest price.  Right?  What will make that happen?  Having a house that shows well, that's what.  If a house shows well and is priced right, then the Broker's Open will create a buzz and the house will immediately see a lot of activity with brokers bringing their clients over to view the property.  If it doesn't show well for the Broker's Open, then fewer will bring their clients by and the house may sit on the market.  This is death, because then it becomes old news and will get even less attention.

or this?

The result is a house that sits on the market for months.  This costs the homeowner in time, additional mortgage payments and the realtor in increased advertising costs and open houses.  Ultimately the result will also be in reducing the asking price by $10,000, $100,000 or even $1,000,000 depending on the market.  Staging effectively is a small price to pay to save yourself time and money.

The Bellavista Staging Project Part 6: The Master Bath

Finally, this Master Bath is beautiful but accessorizing brought warmth and livability to it. The chocolate touches echo the woodwork, while lush towels, plants, soaps and candles welcome you in.  Doesn't the aqua doggy standing guard at the fireplace make you smile? .

before

after