home buyers

Late last year, we responded to more requests from development companies to stage their new-to-market properties inside of DC. We have noticed a trend of the companies  buying older rowhomes, completely updating their interiors (and exteriors too in some cases) and returning them to the market looking and feeling brand new.  These are happening all over the city, not just in one corner, from Southeast to Bloomingdale in NW.  As home stagers within the Washington DC market, it is imperative that we make potential buyers say ‘Its soooo cute/clever rather than “Its so small”.

First up is our blank canvas in the vacant property.  This house is in NE DC on a block with 2 other houses under construction, meaning competition is only few doors away.   It is important that our property stands out against others on the same block!  We walked in to find a small family room, as pictured here..

After touring the rest of the small home, we set to work figuring out how to stage such a small space. Although I rarely use love seats, this room was perfect for one.  So that was easy to solve. Next was colors. The wall color was nice and there was no need to change it. But we always add more color to the space and thus life with our furnishings, art and decor. We created a moodboard, via Olioboard to start the inspiration and juices flowing.

For those who are not familiar, Olioboard  is an on-line moodboard software tool, which uses real furniture, art and decor to help with interior design for homes, parties or anything else you can think of. This was a great tool to use for crafting a cool space in this new home.  We started with our own artwork and just freely pulled ideas from it.

We love the Olioboard that we created for the space, even though we already knew there was no way that size furniture could fit in the space. But it gave us a great starting point, then we rummaged through our own warehouse to pull the room together like so…

 and our art inspiration piece helped to make the room ‘cute’ family room.  The piece is titled ‘Clever Women are Dangerous’ which is the perfect title for this room now!

We loved the space and think it turned out really cute! The chevron rug was one that we made earlier in the year, and the lemongrass mirrors were a last minute DIY, using a few wooden mirrors and spraypaint.

Today’s post is a part of a monthly #Oliohop, featuring 10 selected bloggers who blog and tweet about the same topic on the same day. Learn more about OLIOBOARD and their free moodboard/inspiration tool – use it for your next home project! It doesn’t have to be for staging!

You are encourage to hop from one blog to the next via the links below.  This month, the featured topic is staging! Check out my fellow hoppers and their blog posts here!  And leave a comment if you like what you read above! Thanks for stopping…I mean hopping in!

Lisa Mende, Design

Frances Newman, As You Like It!

Stephanie Weeks, Interior Design HQ

Marilyn Russell, Design Magnifique 

Williams Sonoma Interior Designer Marketplace

Lynda Quintero Davids, Focal Point

Linda Merrill, Surroundings

Ronique Gibson, Stagetecture

Kristin Barnett, The Decorologist  

Don’t forget to follow Olioboard on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube too!

Many times, new layouts in old homes can and do confuse new buyers – where would the sofa go? What about the television?  Where do we eat?  This is especially true in DC, where many times the row homes were built with walls and distinct functions per room, and then the developers and contractors remove the majority of the interior walls, giving the old home a new and open floor plan.

Home staging helps to answer tough design related questions for the potential buyers so that they can instantly see how they might live in the space. Below are some before and after pictures taken of a recently completed vacant staging project in NW DC, that really does give buyers a sense of a way to live in the space. After all, the easier it is to see themselves in the space, the easier it is to sell!

This is the main family room space, with the picture being taken from the kitchen/bar point of view. That is P street outside of the windows on a particularly sunny November morning.

Now is the after – you can see the sofa in the foreground with additional seating featured across the room. The picture also gives a sense of space in the room – there is a good amount of it!

Now for the Master bedroom – first is the before shot…the room sits just above the family room so the bay window feature is found in this room as well.

And the after picture has a bit more of the room, again giving a nice spatial sense of the room and how it could be pulled together.

You almost lose the sense that this bedroom is in the city – with the sun filtering through the tree and the blinds. This is a great example of what home staging can do for vacant properties – really help buyers get a sense of how to live in the space. no more guessing games and hopefully more offers! Let us know if we can do the same for YOUR properties!

Last week, I was contacted by a Realtor (referred by another Realtor) who represented a builder for staging. The Realtor is selling a newly constructed million dollar house, and to keep expenses down, was only looking to stage ONE space within the home.  In line with a topic from a previous post, we could definitely stage one area in the home, especially if that is the space that may be confusing potential buyers. I met with the new Realtor that afternoon and reviewed a beautiful home in McLean, VA.. Here is what I found:

Hallway landing from staircase, between bedrooms and balcony

Hallway landing, looking at focus wall

Yes, the realtor asked to stage the landing – which is large enough to be its own room, as it seemed to be confusing potential buyers. I had a few ideas of what to do with the space – study area, reading room, kids play area but given time and budget, I narrowed down and decided to do it as a reading room and worked to execute accordingly.

I submitted the contract and received a call 2 days from the builder?! I didn’t know the Realtor was representing the builder…but they were pleased with the proposal and ready to make it happen. SCORE!  So I got my ideas and accessories together to put together the following space (of course, I couldn’t hang anything from the walls…:-(

Hallway landing turned into reading and …

…lounge area, just off the balcony!

We were glad to be able to give this once ignored space some definition and purpose within the home…and are super excited to be able to stage for a home builder. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for ra reDoes rooms and DC area home builders!