Featured in Kiplinger's Magazine! Well, Sort Of ...

Marcyne Touchton of Domaine Staging left me a comment on another post and let me know that a bathroom I staged was featured in Kiplinger's Magazine! You can see the bathroom above in my own pictures.

Last October I took a class in Charlotte, North Carolina to become an Accredited Staging Professional. Staging classes aren't offered very close to where I live, but I thought it was a valuable service to be able to offer my clients and worth the drive. I met Marcyne there, and many other great stagers.

Day Two of our class put us in the field using what we'd learned. A fabulous home was found for us to stage. I was grouped with Sally and Sandy and we were assigned the master bedroom. Thankfully this included a study and bath, and we also claimed a little book nook right outside the room. We squeezed a LOT of staging out of what we were given!

Let me take just a minute here to promote this class, or the staging class of your choice. I consider myself a "natural stager" since I was already staging my own homes for sale before I ever heard of staging! I still learned a LOT in this class and had fun doing it. I did not get continuing education credits for this class because WV doesn't recognize it, but I felt the class was a must!

Back to the house. This one was a doozy! It was owned by a single man who really enjoyed a "gothic" style of decorating. This home didn't have much softness, or much that would make a woman or family feel at home. We had quite a challenge, but I think we did very well with it.

Sally, Sandy and I had differing ideas at times, as I'm sure all the teams did, but we worked together and set up rooms we were quite proud of in the end. Apparently, Kiplinger's thought it was worth something, too! In the article Marcyne directed me to, The Benefits of Home Staging, there is a slide show of examples of staging. The last pictures in the show are the bathroom staged by Sally, Sandy and myself. Credit is given to Barb Schwarz, who wasn't even there. Oh well, my work was featured regardless of who got the credit. It also says we used some of our own accessories, and we didn't. The entire house was staged only with what we could find already there.

If you'd like to see more staging from this home, please view the show below. This was a great learning experience in itself, but the best thing I took away from the class was the skill needed to help showcase my clients' homes in the best light possible. In this market, it pays to set your house apart!