A 'Staged to Sell' Classic Chic Home Tour

The staging is finally complete, and now it's time to SELL OUR HOUSE!

Let me give you the 'five cent tour' of our happy little home.

The FRONT HALL seems like a good place to begin.

The french doors off the foyer lead into our LIBRARY / HOME OFFICE.

And, straight ahead is the GREAT ROOM.

Let's head upstairs to the FAMILY ROOM...

and the second floor LAUNDRY ROOM.

Then it's up a few more stairs to our daughter's BATHROOM...

BEDROOM...

and LOUNGE / STUDY ROOM.

The MASTER BEDROOM and ENSUITE are just down the hall.

To finish off the tour, let's head downstairs to the GAMES ROOM and HOME GYM.

For the expanded version of this home tour, click on the "MY HOME" link at the top of the page.

And now, the selling process begins.

Our last two homes both sold in less than twenty four hours, but I doubt we'll be so lucky this time around.  In our area, the average time for a house to be on the market is ninety days!

That's three loooooong months of keeping our home in 'ready to show' condition...  what have I gotten myself into?!!

~ Wendi ~ xo

A Lovely Little Bedroom Makeover

As it turns out, HOME STAGING is a lot of work, and not nearly as much fun as I thought it would be!

But, there's one room in the house I've been wanting to redecorate for a very long time.

THIS is the BEFORE version of our daughter's lounge/study space...

And, THIS is what the bedroom looks like NOW...

At last! NO MORE crazy lime green, and NO MORE clutter!

From a colourful and chaotic mess, to a soft and serene child's bedroom... this is one home staging project that's definitely been worth the effort!

Just a few more rooms to finish up, and this house is DONE!

~ Wendi ~ xo

My 'Staged to Sell' Great Room Reveal

There's been a whole lot of HOME STAGING going on around here lately!

Aside from working on a bunch of little projects, I've also been busy giving our GREAT ROOM its very own 'staged to sell' mini makeover.

Here's what our living room looked like a few days ago...

And, here's what it looks like after being 'staged to sell'...

The room's new warm, neutral colour palette now flows right through into the adjoining kitchen and dining area.

I wish the walls didn't look so pinky in the photos.  The real colour is a very neutral beige with no visible undertones.

Clean, simple and spacious...  I'd say our GREAT ROOM is good to go!

Only a few rooms left to finish up, and our house will finally be ready to sell!

My 'Staged to Sell' Home Office Makeover

Do you remember my Home Staging Action Plan?  Well, I finally decided to get my butt in gear and start tackling a few of those home selling projects!

So far, I've finished the Spring Cleaning (except for washing the windows), and applied a fresh coat of white paint to the interior doors and trim work.

But, the project I really want to share with you is my NEWLY STAGED HOME OFFICE!  This room had a very blue accent wall and a very personal decorating style.  I started off by removing all of the artwork and accessories, and painting the entire room in a neutral, 'buyer friendly' beige.

To enhance the feeling of a warm and inviting home library, I decorated the armoire and fireplace mantel with a collection of books and englsh ivy.

The artwork I'd been planning to use ended up being too small, and just didn't work in the space.  So, I made a trip to Michaels for some larger canvases, pulled out my art supplies, and quickly whipped up two simple abstracts to take their place.

Even though the paintings are hardly awe-inspiring, they do help create the sense of balance I was looking for, and make the room feel... complete.

So, here's a little reminder of what the home office looked like BEFORE...

And, here's the newly staged, AFTER version.

The room is calm and serene, and even feels larger now.  I have to admit, I think I actually like it better this way!

I guess only time will tell whether or not my NEWLY STAGED HOME OFFICE has that all important, mass market appeal I was aiming for.

And now, it's on to the next project... dealing with our living room's dark and dramatic feature wall!

~ Wendi ~ xo

My Action Plan for Staging Our Home to Sell!

I've been spending the last few days making a list of things to do before we put our house up for sale.

This is the plan:  Stage our home to OUTSHINE the COMPETITION and APPEAL to as MANY BUYERS as POSSIBLE so it will SELL QUICKLY and for TOP DOLLAR!  No easy feat in this housing market!

Since location is something that can't be changed, we're extremely fortunate to have built our house in what's turned out to be a great neighborhood.  Our back yard overlooks a charming little lake and walking trail... a popular selling feature in this neck of the woods.

Our front yard is neatly landscaped and the house itself has some lovely architectural details.  I just hope it has enough curb appeal to attract the attention of prospective home buyers!

Inside our home, I plan to follow the 6 Rules of Home Staging...  DEEP CLEAN,  DECLUTTER,  REPAIR,  REFRESH,  DEPERSONALIZE, and NEUTRALIZE.

Since I'm rather adamant about keeping a clean, organized, and well maintained home (having a touch of OCD can sometimes be a good thing!), the first three steps are already pretty much covered!

In an effort to see our home from a more objective, emotionally detached perspective, I decided to play the part of a potential home buyer!

Starting in our front entrance, I slowly made my way through each room, looking for any features that showed poorly and could possibly affect the resale value of the house.

Overall, I was happy with what I saw... nice hardwood floors, neutral carpeting, upgraded light fixtures and cabinetry, french doors, arched entryways, custom millwork and architectural details...  nothing likely to deter a possible sale.  So far, so good!

I also looked for any decorative elements or furnishings that drew attention away from our home's best features... and this is when I encountered some possible issues.

I've added a few rather 'taste specific' accent walls to our home over the years. To play it safe, I'll likely repaint them in the same 'buyer friendly' beige colour we've used in the rest of the house.  Like it or not... NEUTRAL sells.

I'll also need to remove and/or rearrange a few pieces of furniture to improve traffic flow and make the rooms feel larger and more spacious.

To allow home buyers to picture themselves living here, the family photos and some of my personal artwork and decorative accessories will have to go.

And, to emphasize the storage space in our home, I'll need to remove as many items as possible from each closet.

For each showing, I plan to set out fresh flowers and a few lightly scented candles, and have some nice music playing softly in the background.

And, of course, I'll make sure the curtains are drawn back, the lights are on, and the house is spotless and neat as a pin.

I just hope my staging efforts will be enough to seal the deal on an extremely successful sale!

So....  anybody out there looking to buy a new home? :)

~ Wendi ~ xo

My 'Ready for Resale' Home Gym Reveal

After a lot of time and effort, we've managed to transform our cold, concrete dungeon of a basement into a warm and inviting living space!  My hubby has his big ol' man-cave/games room, and I finally have a HOME GYM!

As it turns out, there's now a good chance that we'll be selling our home and relocating within the next few months!  I know!  The timing is crazy!

And so, I scrapped my original plans for the room and set to work creating a more practical, simplified version of my new home gym using only what I already had on hand.

My goal was to create a functional, comfortable and visually appealing space... one that would motivate me and make me want to work out on a regular basis.

And I believe I accomplished exactly what I set out to do, all without spending a single penny!

A clean, functional and inviting space, all done with resale in mind.

It's not the room I'd originally envisioned, but I'm definitely motivated to make full use of my home gym for as long as I can!

Now, fingers crossed that our future, prospective home buyers are as excited to purchase the place as I am to finally have my little home gym all set up and ready to go!

~ Wendi ~ xo