Kates Home Staging Interior Design Blog for Rockland County NY & Bergen County NJ

Bathroom are usually overlooked when it comes to home staging.

To have a big impact, it is usually the simple changes that can have a huge impact.

First, it is extrememly important that your bathroom be sparkling clean and that all personal items are put away. 

Second, fresh towels can make a great first impression and can tie together the color in a bathroom.

Third, paint is always a great way to improve the look of any bathroom.

   Here is the Bathroom Before

  Here is the Bathroom After

By removing the clutter, painting the walls a more neutral color, and a few well placed accessories, this bathroom has been transformed.

Kate

Kate's Home Staging and Redesign, we serve Rockland County and Orange County, New York and northern New Jersey.  Call Kate to setup your design consultation at 845-538-3623. www.kateshomestaging.com

Ever walk into a room and it feels very dark and uninviting?

How would a potential home buyer feel in this room?

If you are trying to sell your home, the wall paint color can really transform the entire feel of the space. 

Color invokes emotions in almost everyone.

Here is an example of a bedroom before a color consultation:

Here is the same bedroom after the color consultation:

This bedroom is using the same bedding as the first picture.  Only a few items to the left of the bed were removed and the walls were painted a much brighter color.

If you are planning on selling your home and are not happy with some of the wall paint colors in your home, a professional home stager can help.  We will show up at your home with large paint chips and help you decide on the best colors for each room.

Kate's Home Staging and Redesign serves the Rockland County, Orange County, Bergen County, and Passaic County.  We offer Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams color consultations in your home. Please call us at 845-538-3623 to schedule your color consultation today.

Recently, I was called in by one of my Realtor partners for a Home Staging Consultation and to create a customized Home Staging Action Report.  The home sellers decided to implement my Home Staging Action Report on their own and called in some movers to help them move some of their heavy furniture out to their PODs container.

When you walk into the home's Entry Way, you are greeted by the Dining Room on the right side. The Dining Room was a great size, but as you can see from the "before" picture the entire room was being overpowered by extremely large furniture.

My suggestions were to removed the following items from this Dining Room:

• The large china cabinet
• The wine rack
• All the additional table leaves
• Two of the chairs without the arms
• The area rug
• All the items on the top of the side cabinet

Kate's Home Staging and Redesign further suggested the following changes:

• The side cabinet be relocated to the longest wall.
• A painting be hung over this cabinet (a painting was moved from another wall in this room).
• Wine bottles could be placed on one side of the cabinet as an accessory.
• A long thin accessory item should be placed under the picture (candles were taken from another room).
• The tall faux plant was already in this room and it was recommended that it remain.
• The red vase in this room could be used as a Dining Room table centerpiece with flowers.

Here are two "after" pictures, I think the home sellers really did a great job following through the suggestions...

The hard wood floors look amazing and this architectural detail was completely hidden before with all the furniture that was in the room.  I also really like how much larger the room looks once the Dining Table additional leaves were removed.  In my opinion, seating for 6 is plenty when you are showing your home.  The home sellers did not do anything to their wood floors, the floors happen to be in perfect condition.

Kate

Kate's Home Staging and Redesignis an interior design and home staging company that serves the Rockland County and Orange County area of New York and Passaic County of New Jersey.  We specialize in home decorating, color consultations, vacant home staging, home staging, Realtor educational seminars, interior redesign, and home decor discounts.  Please contact Kate to schedule your design consultation at 845-538-3623 or visit www.kateshomestaging.com.  Every Home Staging Consultation includes a complete Home Staging Action Report!

When a home owner places their home on the real estate market, their home becomes a product that needs to be marketed and prepared as such. Any professional home stager will tell you, having your home sparkle is a necessity if you want your home to sell quickly and not to turn off any potential buyers.  A savvy buyer can tell if your home was only surfaced cleaned because a buyer will look in your medicine cabinets, under your kitchen sink, and in your closets!

A home that is completely clean sends a message to all buyers that it is well maintained and move-in ready.

Here is a quick cleaning list to run through before placing your home for sale:

1.  Your kitchen needs to shine.  This includes all the appliances (inside and out).  Please clean the inside of your oven with Easy Off Oven Cleaner and do not use it for storage.  The exhaust fan above the stove needs to be free of dust too.  If you have granite, pick up a granite cleaner to make sure it shines (they all seem to work about the same).

2.  Your bathrooms need to sparkle.  Pick up Clorox Clean-up, this clean works wonderfully and will remove any mildew in your bathtub or sink.  I like Cleaning The Green Window Cleaner for glass, it smells great and is also good for the environment.  Also, remember to store your toilet brush and plunger away during all Open Houses.

3.  Any tile grout lines must be cleaned.  If your grout lines used to be white and now appear to be a dark gray, it is time to use the Clorox Clean-up and a scrub brush to remove the dirt.  If your grout is beyond the help of Clorox, please call up Stanley Steamer (or a similar vendor) and have your tile grout steamed and sealed.

4.  All carpets need to be professionally cleaned every year. If you have pets and you are trying to sell, I would recommend you have your carpets professionally cleaned more often to ensure your home smells fantastic.

5.  Fireplaces must be cleaned on the inside and also the brick or mantel.  If your fireplace is discolored with black soot, you can use Easy Off Oven Cleaner and a scrub brush to remove the discoloration on the brick.  Any metal on your fireplace should sparkle as this is the focal point of the room.

6.  Hard wood floors need to be vacuumed and all your furniture needs to be moved and vacuumed under. Swiffer Wet is a great product to touch up hard wood floors quickly and it also smells great.

7.  All lighting fixtures and ceiling fans must be cleaned and free of dust.

8.  All furniture should be dusted or sprayed with furniture cleaner.  Clutter should be removed from the top of all furniture to streamline the look and feel of your home.

9.  All garbage must be emptied. All the garbage cans should be emptied during an Open House, I would even recommend hiding the garbage cans if possible.

10.  Wipe down all walls, switch plates, and door knobs to ensure they are free of fingerprints. Any walls that are in bad shape, really should be touched up with paint to give your home a well maintained look.

11.  Windows and glass of your entry way door must be cleaned.  Windex sells a cleaner that connects to your garden hose to help clean the outside of your windows and it works rather well. All the glass in either your entry way or back door must be cleaned, this door will be the way a potential buyer enters into your home.

12.  Check your outside yard to ensure it is free of debris. Please make sure your garbage cans are not visible from the street and your external curb appeal looks fantastic.

Home Gain's 2009 Survey of the Top 12 Home Improvement Results lists cleaning and de-cluttering as their #1 item with a 872% return on investment.  According to Home Gain, if a home seller spent $200 cleaning they would receive a $1,700 price increase in their home sale.  It definitely shows how some elbow grease pays off.

When a potential buyer walks into a home and it is full of clutter and requires hours of cleaning, the buyer is thinking about the hours of work it will take to make the home "move-in" ready. A dirty home may also open up your home's price for further discussion.  Why take this chance, when a few hours of elbow grease will have your home "move-in" ready.

Kate, Kate's Home Staging and Redesign, specializes in home staging, interior design, color consultations, custom wood signs, custom molding installation, and vendor discounts.  Contact Kate to schedule your design consultation at 845-538-3623 or visit www.kateshomestaging.comfor more information.  We serve Rockland County & Orange County, New York and Passaic County, New Jersey.

Home Staging is the process of highlighting a home's strengths while downplaying it's weaknesses, through techniques such as depersonalization, de-cluttering, cleaning, addressing maintenance issues, and implementing interior design principles. A typical home staging consultation will last about two hours and will have your home headed in the right direction for a quick real estate sale.

Here are a Few Home Staging Secrets and Tips to Help Sell Your Home:

• Remove any furniture from your home that is broken or very worn out and that does not serve a needed purpose.  For example, do you really need several extra chairs in your Living Room when you already have a couch?
• Replace any light bulb that is older that 1 year.  Replace the light bulbs with GE Reveal light bulbs, this type of bulb will give off a clear white light and your home will look lighter and brighter if you use it.
• All clutter needs to be removed from all your counters, dressers, tables, and sinks. If you have not used something is over six months, now is the time to pack it away in a moving box.
• Never place furniture up against a wall; there should be at least a 6-8 inch gap behind every piece of furniture.
• Every room should only have one purpose; your Dining Room needs to be turned back into a Dining Room - it should not be your kid's craft room!
• Heavy, dark window treatments should always be removed.  When you are selling your home, you want to use sheers and silk window treatments on your windows to allow natural sunlight to beam into every room.
• Light your home appropriately.  According to HGTV, aim for 100 watts of light for every 50 square feet in your home.
• Bring greenery in the form of real of faux plants into every room.
• To freshen up the appearance of any room, use paint in a neutral color.
• The best accent colors to use are red and black, these colors give your room a rich and luxurious look.
• External curb appeal is very important, if a potential buyer is turned off by your home's front yard it is unlikely they will want to enter inside your home.

If you are planning on selling your home, the best time to consult a professional home stager if before you place your home on the real estate market for sale.  In this economy, you only get one shot to make the right first impression.  A professional home stager can help you design each room of your room to ensure you attract the largest potential buyer audience.

Kate's Home Staging and Redesign works with home sellers and local Realtors to ready home for sale. Contact Kate to schedule your home staging consultation by calling 845-538-3623 or visit www.kateshomestaging.com for more information.