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Julia Maher, Connecticut Home Stager Staging Fairfield & New Haven Counties

Turning An Eyesore Into An Asset: Home Staging in Connecticut

Turning An Eyesore Into An Asset: Home Staging in Connecticut

No matter how large one's home is, everyone prizes storage. Storage areas and cabinets are usually high on home buyers' "must-haves" lists. However, there's storage, and then there's storage. Not all storage areas are equal. Not all are attractive selling features.

Here's how one handy Seller turned a storage eyesore into an asset, based on the recommendation of Nestings Home Staging.

Before

Before: Located in a first-floor den/guest room, this built-in cabinet offers plenty of storage. However, the damaged, wood-toned shutter doors detracted from the overall aesthetics of the pristine, updated house. This is an eyesore, not an asset.

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

After: We recommended removing the shutters, painting out the interior, and turning this cabinet into a desk. More Buyers are looking for appropriate home office space. Since the counter was the perfect height, this was an excellent solution to eliminate an eyesore and create an asset.

Looking for ways to elimate eyesores and create assets in your home? Call a professional Home Stager for solutions to create a market-ready house that will sell quickly.

Mixing Sellers' Furniture With Rentals: Milford, Connecticut Home Staging

Mixing Sellers' Furniture With Rentals: Milford, Connecticut Home Staging

Can you spot which pieces of furniture belong to the Sellers of this wonderful home located in a golf course community in Milford, Connecticut? Which pieces were from a great leasing company? Which pieces were provided by Nestings Home Staging?

This lovely, spacious home was recently Staged by Nestings Home Staging. Much of the Sellers' furniture had already been moved to their new home in California, so we incorporated some rented furniture and accessories, along with more pieces from my inventory. We aimed for an updated, yet sumptuous feeling. Can you tell which pieces belong to whom?

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

Dramatic Entry

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

Glamorous Living Room

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

Upscale Family Room

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

Welcoming Dining Room

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

Updated spacious Kitchen

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

Master Bedroom as a restful retreat

In working the mix, we tried to make the rooms flow from one to another, and adding a certain sense of sophistication. The wall paint had to stay, so we worked with it in the Entry, Living Room, Dining Room, and Kitchen. We did add new drapery to the Living and Dining Rooms. I'll post "Before & After" photos once the house sells!

So, what are your guesses?

Romancing a Space to Add Function: Home Staging in Connecticut

Romancing a Space to Add Function: Home Staging in Connecticut

Nestings Home Staging recently Staged a lovely home in the Greenfield Hill section of Fairfield, Connecticut. This particular project called for using the Seller's furnishings. Fortunately, we had many beautiful things to work with. So we edited, rearranged, and moved some pieces to different rooms.

There's a small room off the original master bedroom. Given the age of the house, it was probably intended as a dressing or sewing room (as in "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"). It housed a crib and a small bookshelf filled with books and toys for visiting grandchildren. It was cramped.

BeforeBefore

To sell the house, the space needed another function - and one that was not only practical but would visually romance the target buyer.

Using a table and chair from other rooms, we created this:

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

Who doesn't dream of having a gift-wrapping room (like Candy Spelling's)? This fanciful scenario also suggests that a vanity or desk would work equally as well in this former sewing room.

Blog Post Bonus: A quick make-over for this chair:

Side Chair

Circa 1940s side chair with maroon needlepoint seat.

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

Cover the seat with a colorful coffee table book! What's better than Lily Pulitzer?

Quick Staging Tip for Sectionals From A Connecticut Home Stager!

Quick Staging Tip for Sectionals From A Connecticut Home Stager!

Sectionals, those lushly comfortable pits of family warmth, can be the bane of a Stager's life. Frequently, they are over-sized, and too large for the rooms they occupy. They can often block important traffic flow and generally make a space feel awkward and too small.

Sectional:  Before

Before: The sectional sofa cuts off part of this family room, and blocks easy access to the sliding glass doors. The TV also blocks part of a large picture window.

Sometimes sectionals can be taken apart and down-sized. Sometimes, all it takes is moving them! Following directions from a Staging Consultation by Nestings Home Staging Connecticut, the Sellers simply moved the sectional and TV, opening up the space and traffic flow.

Sectional After

After: This simple change actually makes a dramatic difference in how the space is perceived and used.

If you're preparing your home for today's real estate market, re-think that sectional. Make sure it doesn't overwhelm the room or block traffic flow. If you need help, call your local professional Home Stager!

Staging Your House? Stage Those Bookshelves!

Staging Your House? Stage Those Bookshelves!

I'm sure you've seen bookcases beautifully merchandised with art, accessories and books - books that were placed on the shelves backwards! Various shelter magazines and home stores have used this clever device to show off the display techniques and/or the furnishings. The styling visually removes the titles, as well as potentially clashing binding colors, leaving the simple neutral beige of the color of the pages.

Books

Lovely to look at, but impossible to live with in real life! How would I know which book is my favorite Dickens novel?

However, this technique can be very useful for Home Staging. When your home is on the market, you want the focus on its features (such as built-in bookcases), not your possessions (such as self-help books). This display technique can help sell your house, and remove distractions.

Bookshelves Before Staging

Before: The valuable custom built-in bookshelves in this Master Bedroom were cluttered and poorly organized.

Nestings Home Staging Connecticut

After: Nestings Home Staging had the seller pack up most of the books. We then removed some shelves to display some art, and stacked the remaining books and reversed them to lend a calming air to the Master Bedroom. Additional accessories and boxes were added.

The built-ins now look rich, more important, and valuable. This is how to sell a house!