“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be”

About a month ago I was asked by one of the agents in my office if I would like to stage a house for one of her clients. I had expressed to her my passion for design a few times before so I was so enthused that she wanted to give me this opportunity! I gladly accepted the offer and went to see how bad of shape the house was in that afternoon.

I must say, it was pretty bad- bad because of 2 things- dated decor and bad energy.

Jerri Snarr (the agent) told me about the situation her seller was in. His wife had recently passed away due to depression that she had been dealing with for a long time. They had a lot of kids together and had been married for something like 30 years. The family is very religious and had pictures of temples, family photos, and religious sayings EVERYWHERE. It was very cluttered and very personalized, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but when you're trying to sell you need to de-personalize as much as possible.

We started de-cluttering and tried to make it look as good as it could for the time being by doing some basic staging. Here are some photos of how it looked before:

Where is the color?! You can't really tell but the entire house has a chair rail. Painting would have been a huge plus but the budget was limited and the seller wasn't interested in painting.

A common misunderstanding that sellers have is the thinking that if you leave your walls white, the buyer will like that they won't have to paint over everything and it will just be a blank canvas for them. It's actually not a good thing to ignore your walls and keep everything white. Buyers have zero imagination. They need you to create it for them by painting and adding inspiration. I knew I needed to add pops of color in the couch, mantle, and above the entertainment center and somehow tie it all in with the kitchen and dining since it was such an open floor plan.

Nice kitchen but take a look at the heart wreath. Those kinds of silk floral arrangements were literally everywhere. Look at the gorgeous hardwood floors! That dark green colored rug isn't doing anything to accent it. And that window doesn't look very appealing either.



Notice the rug in the dining. Pale greens & pinks. Ewww. The sad thing is that the hardwood floors aged and changed color, but under the rug they looked the same as when they were put in. Which means that a rug now always needs to be covering that space. I also had to figure out a way to work with the light woods in the kitchen, floors, and living and still make the harsh dark mahogany color of the dining set look good together

We didn't take pictures of the master bedroom before but this picture of a bedroom downstairs will give you an idea of how ugly is was. The picture to the right is of the master bathroom. Notice the burgundy, dark green and gold color scheme. Yugh. Very nice tile though. Staging is all about accenting the best features of the home so I knew I would really have to show off the tile and hardwood floors.

All in all, the home itself wasn't that terrible, it was the decorating that was bad. I told them that they needed to do some serious cleaning. Every counter space was cluttered, little newspaper cut outs posted all over the side of the fridge, just all together very "grandma." Kind of creepy too because his deceased wife was the one that decorated everything, so I knew it would be a very difficult task to get rid of all her stuff that she loved. They cleaned out everything, got rid of all the silk arrangements, took down every personal picture, and left me a blank canvas to work with. It was awesome to have that done and really helped me think of the big picture.

As you can see, I had my work cut out for me. I was to stage the main level including the entry, the family room, kitchen, dining, master bedroom and master bathroom. Phew! I was very nervous to go shopping. Ron, the seller, gave me $1,500 to start out with.

I wrote a list down of things I needed to get:

The kitchen needed some new rugs, some kind of kitchen art on the walls above the cabinets, and some window treatments. The dining room needed a new rug, a table runner, and centerpiece. The family room needed some new throw pillows, a centerpiece for the coffee table, and lots of random decor for the mantle and above the entertainment center. The master bedroom needed a completely new bedding set and accents for the end tables. The master bathroom needed new towels, new bath rugs, and some kind of bath decor.

I had a limited budget to work with so I went to TJ Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond, Pier 1 Imports, Tai Pan, and Target.

I thought the shopping would be fun but it was honestly the hardest task to complete. Maybe if I was focusing on one room at a time it would be a bit easier but I had 5+ rooms I was trying to think of at the same time. I kept doubting myself, picking things up and then putting them back, I knew I would probably return some stuff so I just went with my gut and got things that I wasn't really sure where I was going to put it, I just knew I would somehow make it work. It took a lot of confidence and reassurance of myself to do it but I got it done!

I found the most amazing bedding set for the master bedroom and got it approved by the seller, I was relieved that they loved what I picked out and mostly that I wouldn't have to return it!

I went to go stage for the first time with my husband (he helped with hanging things on the walls and measuring, I couldn't have done it without him!) and I stayed there for a good 3 hours trying to make it look perfect. I realized the kitchen rugs I got were too small, found a rug in their garage that worked perfectly in the dining room, and went through dozens of original artwork and picked out what I could use. All in all it went really well. I knew there was more work ahead though.

That Monday when I went to work, Jerri approached me and told me that Ron was very pleased with what I had done so far. He was so impressed! PHEW. I was so nervous that he wouldn't like it and especially nervous for Jerri to see it too. I had a lot of pressure on me, this was my first time ever doing this and would be the deciding factor in whether I would want to continue on this path and decide if whether I would do this for the rest of my life! So yeah. You could say pressure again. But I kept my confidence up and was determined to do an amazing job.

I ended up shopping on 4 different occassions and staged the house 3 different times. I did run into a couple problems like the new comfortor for the master bedroom... we tried putting it in the dryer and it came out with 3 dark brown spots in the middle of it. EEEK! I freaked out. Since I had been keeping all of the receipts I called Bed Bath & Beyond and they switched it out for me! Problem solved. Oh and don't leave candles in your car when it's hot out. They melt. Who knew?

After all the fussing and freaking out, I decided that I did a pretty damn good job. I was proud of myself and it felt so amazing and rewarding afterwards. Plus it was so much fun! Decorating and designing is what I love and it was so awesome to show my talent to someone who was actually paying me to go shopping!

Here are the AFTER photos, let me know what you think!

The family room doesn't look like much has changed but I added some throw pillows, some items to the mantle, and a decorative centerpiece. You can't see what I did above the entertainment center which really was the statement of the room. If you would like to see the panoramas you can visit:

http://www.Obeo.com/483619

I really love how the kitchen turned out. I thought red would be the perfect color to incorporate in here so I also added touches of red in the family room as well. I just don't understand why they took out 2 of the 3 red rugs I put down in the kitchen. And replaced it with that ugly green one again. Whateva! How fabulous do those curtains look though? Love it!

My favorite thing about this dining room is the rug switch! So much more colorful and luxurious! It went with my color scheme perfectly. I was trying to bring out neutrals through golds, greens, and browns and then added pops of red. I added a gold table runner to the table with a cute candle votive. The clock in the kitchen has a mahogany finish so it ties in the dining table with the light wood of the kitchen. It looks a lot more balanced to me.

This is a bad shot of the master bedroom (again, you can view the panorama which shows the wall with the bedding) but it definitely looks a lot cleaner along with the bathroom which is more neutral and spa-like. You don't seem to notice the brass fixtures as much when you have neutral colors that go with the gold theme.


What an amazing experience this was!! I'm really grateful for having the opportunity and I hope to have more like it in the future. It was a tough first time job but I know it gave me what I needed: CONFIDENCE! I will be taking online classes soon to get certified and hopefully get a business started!