I recently went into a home in Vancouver’s West side to assist the owner with getting her home ready to sell. She and her husband had been eagerly clearing out clutter and furniture before I arrived and had placed it in storage. When I walked into the home and peeked into the living room I was a little bit surprised (ok, a lot surprised!). The only things in this huge room were two sofas pushed up against the walls, 2 floor lamps and a small bookcase.
When I asked if she had an area rug or coffee table, she said that they put them in storage. Hmmmm, why I asked? She said that they had decluttered.
Decluttering for the purpose of selling is the process of removing knick knacks, personal photos and excess furniture which makes a room look smaller and crowded. Coffee tables and area rugs do not fall into this category of clutter. They are necessary pieces that bring the room together and make the home feel warm and lived in.
Back to the storage locker they go, to retrieve the pieces that should never have left.
Chairs & sofas that are pushed right up against the walls make a room feel stiff, understyled and bulky. Interestingly enough, pulling furniture a few inches away from the walls will make the room appear larger. When selling your home this is very important, as square footage is so expensive in Vancouver and we want to maximize the perception of the space.
Also very important is repositioning your seating into distinct groups in such a way that the traffic flow is very clear to a prospective buyer. If you are selling an empty space that has large rooms, clients get overwhelmed in trying to imagine what the layout of the furniture should be. As professionals, we remove the guesswork.
Last week I attended the RESA (Real Estate Staging Association) Conference in Las Vegas. To say the least, it was great!!
The line up of speakers were knowledgeable, inspirational & ever so passionate about the art of Home Staging. Not to mention how well organized the conference was, it went off without a hitch. The food was delicious & the accomodations were perfect.
It was great to meet so many successful home stagers from all over North America. The one thing we all had in common was the passion for what we do. Transforming homes into show suites that people fall in love with, makes our jobs seem more like play than actual work, that’s how much we love what we do.
We are so excited in Vancouver to finally have a RESA chapter here, to keep us informed & in tune with the ever changing world of real estate.
For those of us who attended, the information we learned was great to bring home & the rest well, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!!!
  
Sometimes we adopt furniture pieces that we don’t exactly love when we get into a new relationship where we either get married or move in together. It is often a struggle when two people try to blend their furniture, as often they are very different styles or one of them doesn’t like their spouses furniture at all.
This particular client, who is based in Burnaby, BC was distraught at her living room. She and her husband had been together for 10 years & 90% of the furniture in the living room was stuff that he brought to the relationship. My client liked very little of it, but her husband loved it all. She didn’t know where to start & wanted to try to work with what they had. Her biggest dislike were the two wing backed chairs, that were comfortable & good quality, but excessively ugly. The pink & teal floral fabric shows their 80′s era.
When I suggested that we get them recovered, my client was instantly relieved. If you have a quality piece, it’s worthwhile to get it recovered in a fabric that you love, it is very cost effective.
We waited until her husband left town for a few days & we got to work. Within 3 days, she had the chairs & ottoman back to the home with a fresh new look, in keeping with 2012.
Her husband came home to his new living room & absolutely loved it all. We didn’t get rid of anything, just updated the lamp with a new shade, added some custom throw pillows to the little settee & recovered the existing chairs & ottoman. They eventually picked up a new area rug, and next is a new coffee table & artwork, to complete the room.
 
The answer is absolutely!!! I had suggested to a client recently that she might consider adding a cowhide rug in her living room, to go with her black leather sofa & black swivel chairs, both modern in style. She said, “isn’t a cowhide too country for that?”. I said absolutely not & backed it up with the photo below.
Styles of furniture & accessories can absolutely be mixed, this makes it eclectic & much more interesting in my opinion. The rule of thumb though is to make one style more predominant, the 70/30% rule or 60/40%.
In this photo, in downtown Vancouver, we paired a very contemporary barcelona sofa, coffee table & floor lamp with this occasional chair with moose fabric, which is quite country & we added the cowhide. This room feels quite funky & fun.
The buyer ended up being a young, hip couple looking for that modern downtown Vancouver lifestyle.
Nothing brings music to my ears more than a nice email from a client that I have worked with. This client was a little perplexed on how to get the furniture placed properly, the artwork hung on the right walls & at the right height, and advice on what finishing touches still needed to be purchased. Here is what she had to say…..
“Thank you very much for your warm and professional decorating & design
you completed for our new condo. I was very pleased with the layout which was very
important to the balance and presentation of our new home. Your picture
hanging techniques and skills are very impressive and I would not hesitate in
recommending your services. “
The Fredericksen’s, Coquitlam BC
Yesterday Suze Interiors helped a new homeowner with the finishing touches of moving into their first condo. Everything was unpacked, but there were little stacks of photos and artwork leaning against the walls & sitting in small piles throughout the space.
The first thing that needs to happen before you hang the artwork, is to properly place the furniture, we only want to hang the art once, avoiding unnecessary holes in the walls.
The next thing we want to do is to group the pieces together. Put similar style pieces together, whether they are contemporary abstracts, landscapes or animal themed. The other thing to consider is the style of the frames, if you have a mixture of silver, gold or black frames, this can prove to be tricky. If you have a combination of canvas pieces with no frame, you want to be careful putting them in the same space with framed pieces.
If you have a large collection of personal photos, it’s nice to do groupings. This way you don’t have small photos randomly placed & feeling lost on large walls. Also, personal photos are best placed in personal spaces like bedrooms & offices.
The other very important thing to keep in mind is the height of the artwork, the majority of homes we go into, the artwork is hung about 6 to 8 inches too high. Place the center of the picture at eye level. The exceptions are in hallways and rooms with seating. Hallway pieces should be placed higher & lower in rooms with seating i.e. over a sofa should be 5″ – 7″.
When we were finished, her home felt like a home, with all of the pictures hung & the accessories stategically placed. The only thing left to do was to relax!
 Here is a beautiful example of a grouping of photos in a master bedroom.
This West Side Vancouver townhouse has been on the market for several months without any offers.
Walking in the front door & into an empty space is not appealing to any potential home buyers. We have several seconds to make a first impression, and how can we possibly make a good impression without furniture, artwork & pretty accessories? All of which help highlight the features of the home, create warmth & interest.
Our objective is for people to imagine themselves living in the home, feeling like it is “home” already.
 Living Room Before
 Living Room After
Most ceilings are painted white, to match the trim & doors of a space. If your ceiling is stucco, then by all means paint it white. Otherwise, in contemporary spaces, why not use a tint of the wall colour, either at 25 or 50%. This will visually heighten the sense of space in the room, by blurring the division between the wall & ceiling.
It’s also a wonderful trick if there is no crown molding, because the line between the wall & the ceiling isn’t so harsh. Otherwise, your eye stops at the line & visually lowers the ceiling.
If you would like to bring your ceiling down visually, so it is more in scale with the room or if you want the room to feel cozier, then painting the ceiling a darker colour than the wall will do just that.
Confused on what colour to paint your walls & ceiling? Suze Interiors, a Vancouver based Interior Decorating & Home Staging company will come to your home & help you pick the perfect colours for your space. Call today to book your colour consultation. 604.733.5015
Suze McCart of Suze Interiors turned this 80′s bathroom that was filled with gold fixtures & trim to a more up to date contemporary look. We added a granite counters, a vessel sink with brushed nickel faucet, had a custom mirror made, a new light fixture & added some handles to the vanity. This small reno didn’t break the bank, because we left the original tile flooring & vanity.
 
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