What I'm Shopping - A Buffet for Home Staging

A WEEKLY HOME DECOR SHOPPING GUIDE

I had two home staging clients last week in need of pulling the dining room together in preparation to sell their home. Both had the essential table and chairs, but lacked a buffet to create that visual & emotional recipe of an authentic dining room.

Although the dining table is the emphasis of the space, the buffet is the styling muse of the dining room. A staged dining room should tell a story of visual appeal and a lifestyle of family and friends celebrating. Add art or a mirror above the buffet and its top surface has unlimited options for accessorizing for a visual and lifestyle win.

STAGING TIP: Dining rooms have an important mission when selling a home - They are one of first rooms a Buyer sees when viewing the home, and need to make a GREAT 1st impression.

Although the dining table is the emphasis of the space, the buffet is the styling muse of the dining room.(Photo: Danielle Moy @Properties)

What I’m Shopping -

My 1st client’s existing dining set was a simple dark wood IKEA set. I found a buffet at HOME GOODS that would fit perfectly in their space and will add interest and elevate their simple table with it’s textural doors and varied wood tones. It looks much higher end for its price tag of under $300.00.

HOMEGOODS Buffet (Photo: Julea Joseph)

My 2nd client’s existing table was a well loved Shaker style table and chairs in natural oak. Because of its age, the table had a yellow undertone. I found an up-styled painted buffet on FB MARKETPLACE that would complement and modernizes the Shaker set, and with its gray Chalk Paint. The gray color will tone down the aged oak table hue and catch the buyer’s eye with its casual, farmhouse look. The price tag was under $200.00.

FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE (Photo: Source)

The BONUS for both of these home sellers is, they get to move these pieces to their next chapter of home. Either piece can be used as a media piece, in a guest bedroom, or right back into a dining room.

Join me next week for “ What I’m Shopping”.

From House to Home – How to Make Your New House Your Own

“Pick one room and make it yours. Go slowly through the house. Be polite, introduce yourself so it can introduce itself to you.”

— Frances Mayer, Under the Tuscan Sun

The keys are yours!  You’ve gone through the process... the searching, deciding, inspection, stress, closing and finally, the elation of buying a new home.  Now, you have to make it your own. Here’s how.

Color -  Paint is the least expensive, easiest way to update a space.  It can individualize a room and put your personal stamp on your home. Pick your color style -  From modern farmhouse neutrals, to Boho bold colors, whatever is in your style files (Pinterest, HOUZZ, tear-sheets), color can showcase it.  And color doesn’t have to be just on the walls - If you want to keep the wall color simple, infuse color with your furniture, art or accessory choices.  Get your craft on by painting a piece of furniture, or recover your dining chairs seats with new fabric.  Try trending wallpaper on a single accent wall or power room. Create a signature look with a statement making front door color. With color, the change is quick, easy and all you.

Color (Photo: Benjamin Moore)

Your Favorite Things -  Home should hold your beautiful art, furniture, passed down family treasures and loved flowers in your garden beds.  Simple daily rituals with favorite things, cozy slippers slipped on at the end of day,  or tossing your keys into that old bowl, will infuse you into the home.  It could be something new that defines your new chapter of home. That perfect comfy sofa you spied, a fresh new style that you’ve wanted to try out, fun new pillows to add a splash to a patio set. By incorporating these favorite things - you’ll become instantly grounded in your new space.

Favorite Things ( Photo: Julea Joseph)

Make Your Bed!  A bed is your personal haven and cocoon.  Dressing your bed makes your home environment feel luxurious.  Even if the bedroom still has boxes, you can sleep well with a beautifully made bed. Make your bed so that every time you see it, you want to jump into it.  I like to mix old with new. New, fresh, very fancy (the best you can afford) sheets, a stylish linen duvet set slipped over your old favorite down comforter and pillows. Pair the bedding with Grandma’s quilt or your favorite throw at the end of the bed and you'll be ready for a great night's sleep. 

Make Your Bed (Photo: Julea Joseph)

Room to Room - This is where you channel Frances Mayer, the character from "Under the Tuscan Sun" - by going room to room to make it yours. Don’t try to tackle the entire home’s decorating and styling needs, instead, try to work on the spaces you spend the most time in first.

Room to Room: (Photo: Julea Joseph)

5 Senses - Nothing says home more than seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and feeling your favorites things of home. Put out those family photos, beloved books, play music, light some candles in your favor scent, open your favorite wine and curl up on that fluffy sofa and celebrate home!  

5 Senses: (Photo: Julea Joseph)

4 Fall Re-Style Tips for HOME

Mornings are a bit cooler, the kids are back to school, and you look at your calendar and there are only 124 days till Christmas!  Summer takes its toll on your home interiors.  Perhaps you have piles of papers in the dining room, a spooky dust covered living room, and the family room’s pillows have been over loved by both the kids and your dog.

A fall home decorating refresher is the perfect remedy for your home’s style malaise.  It’s time to add a new furniture arrangement, an accessory shake-up, and some strategic power shopping to put a bit of zing into your home spaces.

So where to start? I offer 4 tips in this post to remedy your home’s neglected look. 

#1  Assess your Stuff.  Take a hard look at your stuff.  Move room to room and look at your furnishings, lamps, accessories and art.  Could some of these pieces be swapped to another room, be reinvented, repurposed or removed? 

• In our example, a large painting from the living room was swapped. The scale, colors and style looked great over the couch.

#2 A New Position. As the seasons change, so should your room's arrangements. Fireplaces in the summer - who cares; but as the cooler weather creeps in, you'll want to soon be curled up next to your fireplace with a cup of hot coffee and a cozy throw.  A mantle refresher will give new life to your fireplace and a new furniture arrangement will give you a fresh perspective and a new view whether your room's emphasis is a fireplace, TV or just to create a new seating for conversation.

• In our example, a new position for the chair, and an added ottoman from another room creates a new arrangement for the space. The brown ottoman pulls the color down from the paneled ceiling and provides a place to put up your feet.

#3 Tactile Textiles. Nothing give a space a new style than textiles. A pop of a new color in new drapery panels, pillows, or a throw will instantly up a room's WOW rating.

• In our example, we did some strategic power shopping at Tuesday Morning  and added colorful drapery panels and just in for fall, seasonal hued pillows to give the space an update.

#4 Accent with Accessories. Whether you shop your own home, or pick up something new, accessories will refine and finish a space.  

• In our example we added a new rug to add that cozy layer for cooler days.  The fun ombre indoor/outdoor rug  from RugStudio was selected on-line. The vintage vases, tray and books were shopped from other areas of the home, and finish the room's new look.

If you don’t have the time, talent or energy, our team at Reinventing Space will be happy to inject a bit of decorating Botox into your tired home with our FALL HOME MAKEOVER SPECIAL. Call 708-448-7500.

BUDGET Home Staging Ideas - A Bedroom with 5 Easy Pieces!

Home Staging ideas - Stage a bedroom with five pieces.

Do you have a need to create, stage & style a bedroom in an empty room? Think you need to go out a buy and lug in heavy furniture? Think again. Today's home staging & styling job was for a client that enlisted me to to do a budget bedroom staging. Here's how I did it.

1. The bed is the focal point of a room, so start here.  My client owns this great air bed that basically is a rolling suitcase and you unzip, plug in and within minutes POOF turns into a queen size bed.  Frontgate has a few to choose from.
2. Head Board. The head board are 2 plastic decorative fencing panels from Home Depot. I know, I know, super clever, weigh nothing and you can attach them to the wall with a nail. Instant headboard. Acurio Panels from Home Depot. 
3. Bedding. A bed should be lush & lovely.  Chic bedding, fluffy pillows, cute accent pillows -and always throw a throw at the end of the bed for a bit of interest and texture. I found this great microfiber duvet set (almost no-iron) at HomeGoods and bird accent pillow from Michaels. (had the shell pillow and throw in my staging stock pile.) 
4. The Night stand is a butler tray table. A butler tray is meant to be mobile, so easy open and close. This is a great what I call "Good Bones" piece of furniture.  The tray comes off and the base just folds up.  I found a close one on Amazon: Crosley Palm Harbor Outdoor Wicker Butler Tray 
5. Lamp.  Just make sure is substantial enough to work with the scale of the bed.

Accents pillows add detail and ambiance to a bed.

A Home Styling Lesson in Choosing Bedside Lighting

It is my occupation and duty as your interior stylist to point your home styling indiscretions. You will thank me profusely when the errors are corrected.  

Home Decorating Tips - The Art of the Mix

Wouldn't it be pure bliss to have an unlimited budget to make your home lovely.  No regard for the bottom line or being reduced to look at price tags?  Oh joy.  As a Chicago home decorator, interior stylist and stager there is no fun in that scenario!

I love the thrill of the hunt, find euphoria in using what you already have and get giddy using my creativity and cunning ability to reach the same end. Now that's pure bliss.

My job with clients is to know when to spend it and when not to - getting that right mix.  A beautiful home should have a rich collectiveness - A mix of rich with poor, old with new - A recipe that in the end defines the legacy and personality of the homeowner.   My business signature is using what you have, and then moving on from that.  For most of my clients, shopping is not an issue, nor is what they already own - It's the mêlée of pulling it collectively together to distinguish their space and define their style.   Whether they're puzzled on how to make their living room inviting or launching into a remodeling project - Most struggle with knowing how to mix that perfect recipe.

My secret formula is to know when to use it, when to spend it, and how to get the look for less.  The total package has to fit together with your personal taste, style of your home and most importantly - Your Budget!  It doesn't matter if I'm staging your home, helping you decorate for a party or holiday, or consulting on a major renovation - The formula is the same. 

So what's my formula?  How you obtain that perfect recipe?  Here are the three ingredients:

USE IT:   Most of us over the years have accumulated things, whether bought, inherited, or found, we have stuff.   If you take a hard look at your stuff; I guarantee there is treasure galore within your inventory.   Can you repaint, reupholster, and update it?  In another room, would it look better or have better use?  Your old stuff is your legacy, it defines who you are, and if it doesn't, I'll let you know.   As an educated professional, my talent is to be able to identify what can be used or not when it comes to making your spaces beautiful.   Although, most would not cast me to appear on "Antiques Road Show," I'm pretty good at knowing what's worthy, and really good at using it if it fits into the grand plan.

Whether it's a couch, painting or lamp, I'll let you know if it will work, or if it's an undiscovered treasure that we can use "as is," or is worthy of a reinvention.   I did a staging recently and came upon a signed Leroy Neiman print that the homeowner had picked up at a garage sale.  They were going to toss it because the matting was ragged and damaged and the print was falling out of its frame.   After a quick look over and a suggested run to a framing store for a re-mat & tune-up - They'll have a pretty snazzy "real" piece of showcase art! 

SPEND IT:  O.K., even though I'm supposed to be the budget decorator, sometimes you have to spend a bit.  Love that vintage French one-of-a-kind-kind piece, knowing it will be perfect for your awkwardly sized foyer- Entry Table. Go get it!  It will become the showcase to your home.  You'll love looking at it every day and it will define the style of your place.  There has to be expensive in the mix - and there will be a times that spending the big bucks is a worthwhile or part of the grand plan. That stuff may be pricey, but you can fill in the blanks with less expensive or fabulous finds.    

The other piece of SPEND IT has to do with the quality of things.  Sometimes you can't get it for less; sometimes the workmanship upstages the price point. Your inherited Grandma's dining room set may need repair and is a perfect example of the SPEND IT choice you make.  Pair her set with off-the-rack Target window treatments and rods and her set is reduced to a "tired pass-down."  Pair her set with custom one-of-kind window treatments and the set is now upgraded to "antique heirloom."

LOOK FOR LESS:  Getting the LOOK FOR LESS is a two- fold feat.  The 1st feat is to see if you can find the expensive, SPEND IT item for less (you still have to pay a bit of cash.) And the 2nd feat is to have the knack for eyeing that inexpensive item that has the look of expensive.   Shopping expensive is easy; anyone can walk into the Chicago Designer Mart and find fabulous stuff, expensively priced.   Finding its identical twin or a knock-off for a fraction of the price takes talent and an eye.   Getting that look for less, filling in those blanks, makes for that perfect "mix." 

Say you've got a few lovely Sterling silver pieces.  Pair those with a few more you have found at a discount retailer in silver-plate and the plate becomes instantly "Sterling" by association.

The end result is a beautiful home that has the perfect mix...