Home Stager selling off excess inventory:

• Art, bedding, chairs, sofas, curtains, decorative pillows and more!
• All of these have been used for staging only, so very little wear
• Rain or shine, all indoor shopping.

1812 N Culumbia Blvd #B1

9am – 5pm             Saturday (2/25)

10am – 4pm          Sunday (2/26)

 Cash only, and you must be able to transport your purchase upon buying it.

Sofas – $150-$225

 Art: $5-$25

Comforters: $25 (never been slept in!)

Chairs: $20-$50

Not used to posting pictures like this…and no this isn’t my most recent staging  ; )

These pictures are from storage. Owning all our own inventory and the wide variety that allows us to stage for different types of homes and demographics means that we have enough furniture to, well, fill a warehouse.  Some big jobs that we have had recently, as well as the growth of our business over that last few years made us decide to move. We’re taking over more square footage and reorganizing to better customize our inventory.

 Reorganizing has been equal parts high stress, and breath-of-fresh-air refreshing. The work involved is well worth the results and I’m looking forward to having a new space and a bit of a new start. Once I’m through with this we’re planning on having a moving sale to help move out some of the furniture that we don’t use as often, and make way for some new staging furniture that better fits with the changing trends and wants of the NW home buyer. I’ll keep you guys posted when we set a date for the sale, I’m hoping to be done with all this within the next few weeks : )

And good luck to anyone else out there who is starting on their Spring Cleaning early, we can do it!

Thinking of selling your home? Decluttering and cleaning is the first step to do.  As a stager I have written many blogs about the benefits of staging (here, here, here), and the ASP statistics above shows this as well… but today I want to talk about the part I highlighted.

That’s right, an average of 872% increase in return simply for cleaning and decluttering.

Now I know that decluttering can seem like a daunting task, but you will already have to go through everything to pack, so why not start early? Instead of looking at your home as a whole, break down the process room by room. Organize your things into 4 piles: Keep, Donate, Trash, Maybe (it’s a lot less stressful when you allow yourself the time to decide on items, and the more you sort through the easier it is to let go of things). As items are moved for organizing, it is easy to begin to deep clean hard to get areas.

It is also important to figure out what pace works best for you. Some people prefer to dedicate a few hours a day of work room by room, till they have organized their home. While others prefer to spend a long weekend intensively organizing a cleaning, and get it done as quickly as possible (I’m one of those prefer to power through and get it over with).

It is always surprising to me how many listings one can see posted online, where there hasn’t even been basic tiding done. So, if you are thinking about selling your home, think about the additonal $2,000 you could be making just by decluttering and cleaning : )

Quick update on some recent stagings:

126 SE 52nd Ave

 1713 SE 55th Ave.

Both homes have already sold!

I know that I have talked before about the way staging helps a potential buyer not only gauge the layout and functionality of each room better, but also bond with the home. This isn’t about manipulating the viewer, or hiding a home’s flaws, it is about showing off the attributes, and making a house (or in this case condo) feel like a home.

Which brings me to an interesting situation that has been happening at the K-Station eco condos I’ve been staging for. As you can see from the example on the right, the condos have the same layout. Despite this, so far the buyers have only wanted to buy the staged unit. So, after a sale we have had to destage everything, and then move it all over to another condo (with the same layout).

It really goes to show how much staging can help personalize a home, and let the buyer bond with it.

I normally try to keep my blogs very work targeted, but I recently came across a really heartwarming story that I wanted to share here.

Gracy Bonney, whose blog Design Sponge  is overflowing with design inspring posts, recently found a stray kitten. The poor little thing was out in the freezing cold, underweight, and when they took her to the vet she tested positive for FIV. You can read the whole blog here (and I suggest you do, it is really wonderful), but the quick version is that becuase Gracey blogged about this and reached out to her readers, she was able to find a forever home for the kitten.

Just look how happy that kitty is : )

Not only is this story inspiring to me as an animal lover, it is inspiring to me as someone who blogs. No only is blogging a tool for building a business, it is also a way to connect people from all different spheres of life. The internet has given us instant access to people near and far, who come together to read and share and bond over common interests. So, I just wanted to post today to celebrate that : )

Large rooms are a great selling feature, but without staging, the empty space can feel hollow and lack that home feeling that helps potential buyers bond with the house. I staged to show off the spacious rooms, high ceilings and natural lighting. For more pics or to check out the listing, click here.

 I meant to write a new years post on the first of this year, and somehow it is already over a week in and time is flying past at full speed. So, one of the things that made 2011 great was that I increased my blogging…

Now admittedly I had only posted 4 blogs in 2010, (so maybe that 850% is not quite so impressive).  But in 2011 I made it a goal to try and blog at least 3 times a month, as a first time blogger it was a big step for me.

Some other things made this year so great:

-          Having one of my staged units toured by the mayor, and featured on our local news

-          Having a blog post featured on ActiveRain

-          Finally getting an Ipad (goodness is that a lifesaver)

And of course:

-          Working with so many wonderful clients and Realtors : )

Here’s to another great year!

Sending you all a virtual greeting card, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

“Warm colors are said to advance or appear more active in a painting, while cool colors tend to recede; used in interior design or fashion, warm colors are said to arouse or stimulate the viewer, while cool colors calm and relax. “

Color Theory

 Home Stagers have a lot of experience working with neutral tones: such as tan. When talking about tradition interior design using warm and cool color pairings, this neutral tone needs special consideration.

Tan is a unique color, it combines the warm tones of brown with the cool tones of white. Because of this it can read as either cool or warm depending on the accent colors used with it. Since tan is also a neutral tone (and us stagers love our neutrals), it is important to anchor it to a strong accent color. In the case of a recent staging I did on 5930 SE Lafayette St, Portland OR, I used blue (which is one of my favorite colors to pair with this tone tan) as the secondary color in the staging.