About Takoma Park's Historic District

Most of the time I stage vacant homes and condos in Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Maryland and DC but every now and then, I am asked to stage a property with furniture. Such a property came my way in mid-December and I eagerly took on the challenge. After reviewing the home and furniture, I developed a custom staging plan and recommended few furniture pieces to be removed (too big, color was off), walls needed to be toned down and furniture moved around the home. The walls were painted as requested just after the holidays but when I returned to the home to stage it in early January, NONE of the furniture had been moved or removed as I requested. So before I could get into staging using my furniture and accents, I had to figure out where to place things.

The first room you see upon entry was the first challenge. In the family room, I had asked for the blue sofa to be removed as it seemed big and bulky for this room. I had selected another sofa, rug and art that fit the space and style of home better. But I had to figure out where to put this one!

Fortunately, I was able to repurpose the sofa in the office (rearranged the furniture) and the rug in another bedroom. Good thing this home has four bedrooms!

Office with re-arranged furniture and sofa from family room.

The second big challenge was the third floor master suite. The sellers were showing it as an exercise room (?) but the realtor and I agreed that master suite would be better. The room opens to a full bath and closet space. Again, the machine was supposed to go into storage. ACK! So I figured out how to disassemble it and store it in the master closet. In went the bed and nightstands to show the room as a master suite, not a forgotten space.

Before of top level room

After of same space

The only thing I couldn’t find a place for was the blue chaise, which went back to our warehouse. I felt a different level of accomplishment after the challenges of this house, that I don’t typically get when staging vacant homes. Yep - it is all about making do with what you have! Any stagers out there agree?!!

I just came off of a great summer with lots of busy staging projects. But I received the coolest news a few days ago - one of the buyers wanted to purchase some of the furniture I used to stage the home. Which is perfect!

You see - I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful furniture store as my partner in staging. They have allowed me to rent their new furniture for use in staging projects. The idea behind it is that someone will be so moved by what they see that they want to just purchase it all. And it finally happened!

I selected this neat mid-century feeling bamboo table in the dining space. The table is round as in the picture here, but each section 'opens up' to a corner, making the table go from round to square. Its very cool!

During staging, I remember saying to myself that the buyers HAD to purchase this table and chair set - it just goes perfectly with the space. AND they did - how cool is that! They love the table and chairs and are interested in a few other items. It feels good to know I can stage a home to not only to sell it...but the furniture too!

I would love to be able to sell furniture everytime I stage - that way each property will have its own look and feel. People will be encourage to purchase new furniture with their new home...and I, along with other stagers, would have more leverage with furniture stores to use their furniture in my projects too! A win-win all the way around!

The below listed Takoma Park neighborhoods in Montgomery County, Maryland show all their active listings in the MRIS as of today. This is a keyword search, and sometimes you will also see homes listed from other areas. Whenever you check back you will be updated with the latest listings, as this info is updated daily.

These Takoma Park subdivisions list homes for sale in the mris that include Washington Adventist Hospital - Columbia Union College - Sycamore Poplar Hickory Pine Beech Avenue, Flower Avenue Park - Rolling Terrace - Multi unit apartments - Park Knolls - The Takoma condos - The Sherwood - New Hampshire Ave - Eastern Ave - Carroll Ave. - Ridgecrest elementary - Cesar Chavez - Piney Branch ave areas.