Fortunately the real estate market in Philadelphia has not suffered as much as other areas across the country. Even with snow on the ground now home sellers are already getting their homes ready for Spring Market. That is why it was I was not surprised when I got a call last week from a local Realtor that I work with on the Main Line.
She asked me to come over and take a look at her listing. I explained that my children were home because it was a snow day and that I would have to come the following week. Normally she would have understood but this was a STAGING EMERGENCY!
So like a staging super hero I flew out of the house, packed up my mini-stagers and armed them with Happy Meals and DVDs for entertainment. When we pulled up to the home nothing looked out of place. It was a charming remodelled home in a great neighborhood with wonderful schools- location, location, location!
The kitchen was stunning and included top of the line appliances, granite counters and custom cabinets. The home had gleaming hardwood floors and 2 fireplaces. Other bonuses included a sunroom and finished lower level with built-ins. Mentally I imagined myself moving in, dining in the formal dining room, adding fireside chairs in the great room and sipping coffee on a Sunday morning in the sunny conservatory room.
I could not place what the problem was until I saw the Master Bedroom. Here I discovered a dark, forlorn room whose closets were the resting place of the previous owners hangers. Sad plastic roller shades drooped at the windows and the blue-grey walls suggested doom and gloom rather than a sanctuary. Immediately I turned to the builder- "The problem here is that no one wants to sleep here" I explained. "The rest of the home is an A+ but you just lose it in the bedroom. Sure, it is a large room and has hardwood floors, BUT it does not FEEL like the rest of the house."
Typically I would have advised a full staging- add a dining room set, accent the kitchen, highlight the family room but this was a real emergency.... he needed to sell this home and could not invest any more $$.
So I can up with a solution. I spent the next 15 minutes giving him a checklist of how to give this room and the bathroom a mini-facelift. I prescribed replacing the oak towel bars circa 1986 with chrome and the yellow brass faucets with chrome fixtures to match the other hardware. I recommended swapping out the fluorescent lights above the vanity with chrome sconces with white glass shades and removing the old plastic shower curtain rod and rings and adding a clean fresh pole.
My next remedy was to paint the vanities a creamy white to match the molding in the newer part of the home and then to complete the makeover with a warm neutral color to give the room a crisp fresh feel and get rid of the imposing blue-grey. Of course the forgotten hangers had to be removed since they were a reminder that someone else had once lived here and we wanted this remodel to look like new inside and outside of the closets too.
The last thing I recommended was staging the bedroom and only the bedroom. He had a tight budget and I wanted him to invest in the small details I had mentioned but I still felt the bedroom needed to feel as young as the rest of the home. He had painters and electricians on his team and agreed to get to work. I agreed to come back the next morning ready to stage the bedroom.
In my 4 years staging I have never used "instant furniture". I strongly feel that when staging a home the quality of the inventory I use must match the quality of the home we are selling. Using cheap and inexpensive items make the staging stand out instead of the home. I decided however to use some inflatable mattresses and skirted tables and to craft a headboard from an architectural wall scroll. This would complement the tones of the French inspired kitchen.
I arrived at the home first thing in the morning- the Realtor had scheduled an open house later that day. The painter was still giving the walls a fresh coat and hanging the new towel bars when I arrived. I set up the bed which was an easy task and then added the tables and table skirts.
I was uncertain if this would be enough to do this home justice. Once I added the bedding however I was satisfied. I selected loads of pillows and a bedding set in a soothing green and topped it off with more toss pillows and a down filled duvet- this bed screamed "come sleep in me!"
After I added some artwork and lighting for more color I was quite pleased and even surprised myself. Could it be that in 24 hours we gave this once cave-like room a younger, more sophisticated look?
As I left hours before the open house the builder and the Realtor were thrilled. This transformation was the result of quick assessment of the problem, some quick painters and some quick staging! All in all the total time I spent at the home, planning the job and installing the job was 2 hours! Not bad at all for a complete new look and a rescue mission for this now charming home.
I got this emergency done so quickly that I forgot to take a before shot but here is the after for your review. Good looking inflatable beds and instant aaaahhhhh.....
