In the midst of building and designing a duplex, we took on a staging project as well. It's amazing how a coat of paint and some different furniture and accessories can make the world of a difference. However, it's important to remember when it comes to staging that neutral colors are the best choice for paint. Also, consider your target market and ask yourself who would be buying that house, depending on location etc. Then you can dress the room with color brought in with accessories and artwork!
The master bedroom was a fun one! We wanted to keep it simple and adult, but with staging finding inexpensive alternatives is very important. Here we upholstered our own headboard with some contemporary fabric just from fabric land, and a staple gun. Overall we stuck with neutral colors, bringing in color with toss pillows and artwork.
Before we got started on the staging, the master bathroom had carpet. In a 25 year old house, with carpet in the en-suite we knew that for selling purposes that had to be replaced. We replaced the carpet with a neutral tile and framed it with simple glass mosaics.
"The Girls Bedroom." In this house, we expected the target market to be a family. Therefore we made the home family oriented, with this being a girls room. We kept the walls neutral of course, and brought in color with everything else. While it is girly, it isn't a typical pink girls room. The colors were pulled from the floral pattern in the artwork and the draperies. The colors were kept light and fresh for spring, and suitable for a girl without being over the top.
"The Boys Bedroom." With this room we went a little darker in the woods, and dressed the room with dark blues and reds making it suitable for a boy. Some lighter blues were used sparingly to keep the room light and fresh for spring. We also created the illusion that the window was larger, by layering the draperies across the entire wall. Again, working on a budget with staging means sewing a lot of the toss pillows, and draperies!
The kitchen probably had the biggest change in this house. Before the staging the cabinets were a dark mahogany stain, leaving this kitchen feeling dark and cold with the other dark finishes in the space. We had the cabinets painted white to brighten it up, and bring that classic but clean look. Amazing what a coat of paint can do!
In the dining room, we found a fabulous orange mirror. (Too bad we don't have a better pic of the mirror) But we took the inspiration and color for the room from that mirror. We grounded the room with dark parson style dining chairs and layered a bright patterned table cloth over a dark chocolate.
Paint made the world of a difference in this room as well. Previously, the walls were a forest green with a fuschia feature wall where the fireplace was. Using a neutral, but light color really opened up the room.
In the front room of the house we went for a very eclectic feel. We used some pieces that the owners already had, found some great deals for some other pieces, and accessorized the room with a variety of tosses and interesting pieces we found!
