Home staging before and after

I had been doing home staging and interior redesign on the side for almost 6 years now. I would pick up clients here and there as I could fit them in between everything else. A few years ago, I met up with the pretty awesome Real Estate team of Kathy McKinney and Rhonda Yedinak who are with Baird and Warner in the Chicagoland area. We started talking, and when they realized I did home staging, and they needed a stager, we decided to give it a try. Three years later, we just have the best time partnering together! These ladies are not only sweet and really good at what they do, but we have fun! I love going to homes and working with the home owners to make there home as sell-able as possible.

What most people don’t realize about home staging and interior redesign is, while sometimes you do need to go out and buy somethings,most of the time, the home owners already have what we need, and in fact, it looks better than anything we could buy! It looks more honest. People buy what they love, so everything they have generally is generally “goes together”. My job is to go in and see what they have, that we can used to make their home look better, more welcoming and super cozy. Like you want to move right in!

I wanted to share a home with you that we recently did. It’s been a crazy market lately and we’ve been busy and I’ve really been flexing my redesign muscles the last few weeks.

It didn’t need much help because the home-owner had super cute taste, it just needed some help with furniture placement and room re-designation.

Many of the before photos I took with my phone, many of the afters are courtesy of Baird and Warner and VHT studios.

When you first walked in you were greeted by a play room in the living room.

On the other wall across from the front door, a nice futon.

While the playroom space worked great for the sellers, most home buyers would want to see this room as a living room. It would be hard for them in the current set up to imagine how furniture would fit. The first order of business was to make this room work for both parties.

I mean the biggest thing is, the sellers still have to live and function there, right? And they have kids. So all of that has to be considered when reworking a space.

I shifted the futon to work as a couch so the potential buyers could see there was lots of room for real living room furniture. We brought up a black rug the homeowners had in their basement, and since the kids used the table and chair set all of the time, it made a super cute coffee table. Functional and fun!

On the previous futon wall we made a “seating zone” and moved an extra chair that seemed a bit to tight in the family room and a small table to make a cute seating area, swapping out the art for a mirror. It would be a great place to be able to use to put your shoes on and off, and looked welcoming when you come in.

Setting up “zones” made the room feel even bigger.

and much more multi-functional.

I also just decluttered some of the furniture and set up vignettes on the bookshelf. The home owner said their little one played with the kitchen set all of the time, so I said to keep it. It made sense with the bookshelves the way they were and it wasn’t that distracting, plus they still have to live there.

The living room was really cute, but it needed less furniture and just a bit of shifting to show a little better. We moved that chair right in front to that cozy entry seating nook.

By eliminating one chair, and moving the tall side table to the other side of the chair, it opened up the room and made it feel even more spacious.

I managed to catch a super cute picture with their sweet, little puppy on my phone just before we left.

The kitchen just needed a few things put away to make the counters seem bigger.

It looks pretty and bright!

The bedrooms needed minimal work. It was more of a suggestion of what would work best for the home owner to put away, and what she should keep out.

Isn’t this a sweet nursery? Many times the homeowners know what they should do, they just need to hear it. Many times they’ve done so much work already, and just need to work on furniture placement in rooms, or we will swap it from room to room to make the flow and function better.

We also always tel home owners:

*Only white towels in the bathroom. It looks clean.

*If the room seems drab, add a few plants and touches of greenery.

*Have a 3rd party over to give an honest opinion on smells, off putting smells can turn a buyer away

*Remove instead of add

The idea of staging isn’t to make it feel like a stranger lives there. The idea is to make it feel even more like home. I’ve had quite a few homeowners say to me they wish they had done this while they still lived there! I’ve also gotten many e-mails asking me if I did private in-home design.

The exciting news I have for you is, Aas well as working with Kathy and Rhonda, I am now doing interior redesign and decorating in the Chicagoland suburbs, beyond real estate staging! If you are interested in having me come to your home and are near the Naperville area, feel free to email me! I would love to chat with you and see if there is something I can help you with. I can help you with furniture lay-out, paint colors and home accessorizing. Or if you are getting ready to move, Rhonda, Kathy and I make a great team to get your house in shape and sold! Home staging can put your house’s best foot forward. You can find my email under the tab advertising/brand partnership.

I forget half of the time to take before and after pictures, but I am going to try to remember so can share more homes and design tips with you!