Nicole Hurst (Your Halton & Peel Home Staging Expert)

Cole House Design, a home staging and interior decorating company located in Georgetown, Ontario, just returned from our evening at the NKBA (National Kitchen & Bath Association) Dinner and Awards Gala. The event took place at the beautiful Granite Club (Bayview & Lawrence) in Toronto, Ontario. The evening included the presentation of the 2009 Kitchen & Bath Design Awards.

"The NKBA offers education for industry professionals, a place for consumers to find professional products and services, and a resource for those professionals looking to network with their colleagues. The NKBA represents the finest professionals in the kitchen and bath industry and boasts membership of more than 25,000 industry businesses and professionals."

The gala was labelled "Designers Are Forever" and had a James Bond theme. A life-size cardboard cutout of Mr. Bond greeted you when you entered the grand ballroom of the Granite Club. There were also James Bond dvd's and movie posters to be won at the end of the evening. By the way, I'll take my martini shaken not stirred (LOL)!

The evening was officiated by Mr. Ramsin Khachi of Khachi Design Group. Some of you may be familiar with Ramsin and his work, as he is a frequent designer/guest on the television show "Cityline". Ramsin did a terrific job as MC, and he made sure we always had a good laugh!

The food was delicious, the ballroom was breathtaking, the band was fabulous, and the kitchen and bath designs were gorgeous!

Congratulations to all of the design winners from last night's gala!

Sincerely,

Nicole Hurst - (President)

www.colehousedesign.com

Phone 416-878-0338

(Cole House Design is an interior decorating and home staging firm serving the Halton and Peel regions of Ontario including Georgetown, Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, Oakville, Bolton, Caledon, and surrounding areas.)

Cole House Design, a home staging and interior redesign firm serving the Halton and Peel Regions of Ontario, recently came across an article stating that the Discovery Channel's TLC is launching a new "Home Staging Show". They are currently casting for homeowners in the Los Angeles area. Here is the info if you have not heard about it. Unfortunately there is no mention of the name of the show as of yet.

NOW CASTING NEW TLC HOME "STAGING" SHOW!

Are you in the process of selling your home and need help staging it? Has your home been on the market for awhile and you are desperate to sell? Are you thinking about selling your home and want it to look better for agents and buyers so you can get top dollar? If so, then we want to hear from you.

Let a professional make your home more attractive to buyers.
Bringing your prospective buyers to their feet with offers!

DID YOU KNOW??

*The way you live in your house and the way you show your house are two different things.
*That buyers are not able to picture themselves in a home that displays your way of living.
*"Staging," gives potential buyers the opportunity to imagine themselves living in your home and realtors are successfully selling through the magic of "staging."

NEW TLC SHOW LOOKING FOR HOME SELLERS WHO COULD USE THE HELP OF AN EXPERT STAGER!

Let our Host/Home Staging expert, take your home from listed to sold, by giving it a broader appeal and a design that is buyer friendly. There is no cost to the homeowner!! National exposure for your home!!

Cole House Design would love to see how this new show will portray the process of home staging, its costs, and the personalities of the home stagers the program uses. Hopefully it will portray us and the work/magic we can do, in a more realistic manner, unlike other programs currently airing on networks like HGTV.

If nothing else, this new show will hopefully bring more attention to the home staging industry, and make more homeowners and realtors aware of our services.

P.S. - Fellow stagers in the L.A. area - have any of you been contacted to appear on this new show? I'm sure we would love to hear more about it!

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Nicole Hurst - (President)

www.colehousedesign.com

Phone 416-878-0338

(Cole House Design is a professional home staging and interior decorating firm serving the Halton and Peel Regions of Ontario, including Georgetown, Acton, Mississauga, Oakville, Brampton, Milton, Bolton, Caledon, and surrounding areas.)

Cole House Design, a home staging and interior decorating company serving Georgetown, Ontario and local area, just read an article on the differences between "rich stagers" and "poor stagers" (http://www.industrygab.com/home-improvement/7-critical-differences-between-poor-house-stagers-and-rich-ones).

The article basically says that there are 5 big differences between home stagers that are successful (rich), and those that are not (poor). Here is a copy of the article:

"Studies have shown that there is a major difference between the way people think and feel based on their economic status. These differences are sharply evident in the house staging industry. Here are 5 critical differences between unsuccessful home staging professionals and successful ones:

1. Poor stagers look for reasons to fail. Rich stagers look for reasons to succeed. The key is not whether a person fails or succeeds, but how she responds to both circumstances. Every one fails now and then. The trick is to succeed more than you fail, and to fail in small increments with pre-calculated, measureable risks.

2. Poor stagers are jealous of successful stagers. Rich stagers admire other successful stagers. Poor stagers resent others who dress nicely, drive expensive cars, and enjoy the "good life". Rich stagers appreciate the assets of all others, and are not threatened by other entrepreneurs.

3. Poor stagers believe life is unfair. Rich stagers believe life is what you make of it. Poor people sometimes develop a sense of entitlement, as if the world owes them a free ride. Rich people take pride in earning their own ride and inviting a few friends along for the journey.

4. Poor stagers concentrate on the obstacles. Rich stagers see obstacles as opportunities. Poor people are afraid they don't know enough to be successful and they want to wait until they feel they know enough before beginning. Rich people know they will never know enough, but they trust they know enough to get started.

5. Poor stagers focus on the risks. Rich stagers focus on the path. Poor people fear failure so much they don't want to bet on themselves and would rather keep the status quo than risk the investment of time, effort and money. Rich people believe in themselves, knowing that should they fail, they will regroup and recoup, and wind up even stronger and smarter than before.

Studies have also shown that rich stagers think very differently from poor stagers when it comes to their ability to make money. That's because rich stagers have a very different belief system about wealth that affects not only their thoughts, but their feelings and actions. Consequently their incomes, according to Barbara Jennings of Decorate-Redecorate.com, vary widely.

A person's deep seated unconscious beliefs about money and their worthiness to have it are at the root of why some people are extremely affluent and other people are extremely poor. Until a person can change their unconscious beliefs about themselves and how they feel about wealth, they will be incapable of changing their income status or their self image."

Do you agree with the 5 big differences that this author writes about?

Do you feel that you are a "rich stager" or a "poor stager"?

Cole House Design personally think that we all have to start somewhere, and thus we all begin somewhat as "poor stagers". Those that are new to the industry may still feel that they are "poor stagers". If you are pessimistic and always see the glass as half empty, then you may always be a "poor stager". If an entrepreneur always thinks that they will fail, then I believe they sooner or later will.

We all have bad days...but we need to rise to the occasion, learn from our mistakes, and keep working hard to meet our goals. Go get'em fellow stagers!

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Nicole Hurst - (President)

Phone 416-878-0338

www.colehousedesign.com

(Cole House Design is a professional home staging and interior decorating firm serving the Halton and Peel Regions of Ontario including Georgetown, Acton, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Brampton, Bolton, Caledon and surrounding areas.)

Cole House Design is a home staging and interior decorating firm located in the Halton Region. Our favourite home staging transformation of 2008 was a family room in a home staged to sell in the prestigious area of Credit Mills, in Mississauga, Ontario. With only a little money, and some ingenius furniture swapping, we transfromed this room from "crammed with clutter" to "simple yet elegant".

Family Room Before

This family room was located in a million dollar mansion in Mississauga, Ontario. The homeowners were a young couple with a new baby. It was crammed with baby apparatus, toys, stuffed animals, baby gifts, and all kinds of "stuff". You would be hard pressed to find a seat in amongst the clutter.

Family Room After

• This room was painted in Benjamin Moore's Gray Wisp CC-670, which is a beautiful gray-green colour, so we left the walls as is.
• The carpet was fairly new and in terrific condition, so it too stayed.
• We moved the two large matching brown leather sofas to the formal living room in the home, as we thought they looked a little more elegant.
• The beige microfibre sofa and matching ottoman that were previously in the formal living room, were placed here in the family room. A simple swap!
• We accented the sofa with new pale green cushions and a knit throw blanket.
• The two brown leather armchairs were rented, and they allowed traffic flow into the family room from the adjoining kitchen (the sofa before had completely blocked entry into the room).
• We placed the two extra stools off to the side, as not to block the view of the fireplace.
• Both pieces of artwork were left where they were, and the items on the mantel and those on the glass shelves were simply rearranged.
• The family photos that were previously over the bar, were replaced with a large framed mirror which the homeowner had in storage in her basement.

The Results

This house went into a bidding war and sold for $3,000 over asking in a slower market. Similar UN-staged homes in the area were sitting on the market for approximately 3-4 months before selling. This home sold in roughly 3 weeks.

And the amount spent to stage the room - minimal. Rental cost for the 2 leather armchairs plus new cushions and a throw blanket. All other accessories and furniture belonged to the homeowner, and were simply reworked from other areas of the home.

Why This Room?

The reason this is one of our favourite transformations is to illustrate the effect that simple home staging can have on a room. This family room went from extremely cluttered and having a lot of oversized furniture...to a beautiful and cosy room where a buyer could see themselves watching TV with their family or having a glass of wine in front of the fireplace.

Home staging DOES NOT mean thousands of $$$ spent, or bringing in all new furniture. Cole House Design prides itself in always trying to reuse as much of a homeowner's furniture and accessories as possible, and only doing what is absolutely necessary to make a room a showstopper!

(Thanks to Kathy Nielsen who recently blogged asking her fellow stagers what our favourite transformation of 2008 was! It was fun to look over all of our before and after photos!)

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Nicole Hurst - (President)

Phone 416-878-0338

www.colehousedesign.com

Cole House Design is a professional home staging and interior decorating firm serving the Halton and Peel Regions of Ontario including Georgetown, Mississauga, Acton, Oakville, Brampton, Milton, Bolton, Caledon, and surrounding areas.

This past summer a neighbour of our's here at Cole House Design, put his house on the market. He made FOUR major mistakes in listing his home.

First, he waited till the last week of June to list, when the real estate market typically goes dead for the summer months.

Second, he had done all of the renovations on his home based on he and his wife living there alone (with no children). However, his house was located in a very family friendly neighbourhood. For example, he had completely decked his entire backyard, so there was no area for children to run and play.

Third, he priced his house far more than the comparables shown to him, hoping to get back the thousands of dollars he had spent in renovation costs.

And last but not least, he did not hire Cole House Design to come in and stage the home for him. Although the home was decorated nicely, it did have a lot of personal photos lying about, a large amount of house plants, and tables full of trinkets from travels around the world.

Long story short - the house sat on the market for over 4 months with FIVE major price reductions. Final selling price...$45,000 less than what the home had originally been listed for.

And the cost to have Cole House Design come in and do a staging consultation - less than $200. And his reason for not staging the home...his Realtor advised him NOT to mix business with personal. Our neighbour paid dearly for that advice, and perhaps unknowingly at the time...so did the Realtor.

Cole House Design can get your home ready for a quick sale at the best possible price. Our goal is to redesign the space to surpass the competition, and attract the quality buyers you are looking for!

Homeowners and Realtors - call us today to book your initial staging consultation!

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Nicole Hurst - (President)

Phone 416-878-0338

www.colehousedesign.com

(Cole House Design is an expert home staging and interior decorating firm serving the Halton and Peel Regions of Ontario including Georgetown, Acton, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Brampton, Caledon, Bolton, and surrounding areas.)