Ok folks, you want to know what a $1500 house staging job looks like? This will be more interesting for my friends in real life who saw the "before" in action. Since I did not document what the rooms used to look like, those of you who have never been to my house will just have to use your imagination. Think clutter. And piles. Lots of piles.
The Living Room:
The interesting thing about the living room is that all the furniture you see is actually ours and was indeed in the living room, albeit not so tastefully arranged. The only things the stagers added were the curtains over the windows (we had the windows blocked from sight by bookcases) and all the knick knacks. The branches and fake plants? Not ours. The stars? So not ours. Creepy Audrey Hepburn? Not ours either. The rug is ours and the shock of blue you see poking from behind the couch is LM's Thomas couch that we will have to stash in the garage during the day.
Here is the kitchen. The coffee maker is ours, as is the bowl of fruit, but the big plate in the corner, the fake plant in the other corner, and the paintings are not ours. Nor is the metal shelf with the baskets. And the rug? Cute but not practical with toddlerrific around.
The bedroom. Well, all I can really point out is there is now a leopard print throw on the bed! Plus, the stagers seriously dig using fake plants wherever they can. Yes, that is our bedspread but likely no one ever saw it as we hardly ever made the bed.
What would be complete without bathroom towels you can't use?
Here is the study. The red slipcover and pillows are not ours, nor is the plant that seems to just like to hang out on the futon:
And the front patio. The toys you see are bunched together for B and I to move to the backyard where they will be out of sight for potential home buyers, that is, until they have explored the patio and the house and take a peek in the backyard. Everything you see is ours. Also Suzanne - they totally loved your separate seating area idea but the table was too broken to go on so it was trashed.
It was a pretty grey and gloomy day today so excuse how dreary it looks out in the patio. Focus on furniture placement and the nice trimmed plants!
All in all, I think they did a great job. The only thing that really didn't look great was the weird fake plants they put up in the hallway.
So what do you think?
WOW, it looks so different! I think that was money very well spent. (Not that your house looked bad before, just full, like ours is.) I am such a sucker for the blank canvas of a sparsely decorated house!
Posted by: Melissa | February 01, 2007 at 11:54 PM
Looks really nice, though I never saw it before. You may be convincing me that we'll need a stager when we sell (hopefully soon b/c I found a house I WANT in our neighborhood).
Posted by: Michelle | February 02, 2007 at 12:51 AM
I love the bathroom cabinet. Can I have it? Your buyers won't really need it :). And who ties raffia around their towels? Seriously!
All kidding aside, it looks great! The Audrey Hepburn painting is a little creepy, though. I would have gone for something more nuetral, like a landscape or abstract.
Posted by: Chickenpig | February 02, 2007 at 07:19 AM
It looks immaculate!
Although I agree the fake wall plants are a little strange :)
Posted by: em | February 02, 2007 at 07:56 AM
HOLY COW!!! That's Amazing! Someone will buy that in an instant! It's impressive even in the pictures, so that will help it list on the MLS websites - the more pictures for a listing, the better, I say. It'll draw folks in faster for sure.
Oh.. and of course I like the creepy picture. Mostly b/c it's creepy. ;)
Posted by: zombiegrrrl | February 02, 2007 at 10:02 AM
Holy cow! Is this the house we visited in 2004??? It looks wonderful! Almost a shame to move! :)
Posted by: Amy | February 02, 2007 at 11:15 AM
Oh. My. God. Money well spent! Fricking awesome.
Posted by: SuzanneM | February 02, 2007 at 12:11 PM
What the pictures don't show, of course, is our dungeon/crawlspace area.
Not that that needed any highlighting.
Posted by: bri | February 02, 2007 at 04:39 PM
wow. I want to sell our house, just so it'll get cleaned. :)
It looks amazing. and i can say this because we use a shovel to clean *our* house -- i can't believe they really made it look like a child doesn't live there. seriously. that woman has a magic WAND.
Posted by: mama pajamama | February 02, 2007 at 08:34 PM
I'd buy it! Although. OMG, do you have to redo the tied-towel thing every time you take a shower? That would be annoying, huh?
Posted by: elizasmom | February 02, 2007 at 11:37 PM
I'm glad you all approve, especially those of you who had actually been in our house!
So the towels, basically it means we can't use our towel rack until the house is sold! So we have to balance our towel on the sink when we shower and then hang it over a door to dry and basically either bring it to the garage before we leave the house or if it is dry, put it in a hamper behind closed closet doors.
So yes, a bit of a pain. As is the 45 minute clean up in the morning and the hour+ at night. And the house isn't even on the market until Monday! But the realtor is coming tomorrow to take the interior pictures so hopefully all this will pay off soon!
Posted by: Meredith | February 02, 2007 at 11:40 PM
I can't believe that is your house! I also can't believe the effort it would take me to keep it looking like that every day. lol.
So I wander away from your blog for a few weeks (uhm months...) and you decide to up and move? Wow.
Good luck with all the madness!
Posted by: Jessica | February 10, 2007 at 07:42 PM