New Year new room re-style - Shake up your space with these post holiday styling ideas

STOP!  Before you start shoving your furniture back into its old spots after you’ve packed away your holiday décor, consider this instead – why not give your space a new perspective by re-styling things? After all isn’t the New Year all about making changes?  And don’t give me the excuse that if you move stuff around what will you do about those carpet divots. Please…

A fresh perspective is a good thing, especially in your home environment.  Here are some things you can do to up-style and reinvent your rooms and home spaces.  

Move What You Have Around:  Start with what you already have.  Take a stroll through your home and inventory the furniture you have from attic to garage.  Could that consignment shop find desk up in the spare room work as a sofa table or would that rug in the dining room look really nice in the living room? After you do some mental inventory, address the room you want to reinvent. Consider flip flopping the sofas, changing the room's focal point to a different wall or changing the entire feel of the space by swapping pieces from other rooms to make it more formal or casual.  If these suggestions are a bit overwhelming to you, try swapping out or repositioning smaller pieces such as accent chairs, tables, rugs and lamps. 

(PHOTO: Source )

Accessory Re-Styling:  Rotate it, archive them or repurpose it!  From tabletops to bookcases to wall art, your accessories can always use a new look. The same family photos in the same frame in the same space aren't even seen anymore.  Your very favorite piece of art hanging in the dining room isn't being celebrated there - move it to a spot so you can view it all the time.  That boring bookcase or China hutch could make your room POP if you rotated and swapped the pieces.  Give a lamp a new look with a new shade, harp or style - by raising it up with a stack of books.

(PHOTO: One Kings Lane)

Furniture Reinvention: Can you reupholster, slipcover, paint it?  If your furniture is good, if you love the lines or it has sentimental value, keep it and improve it.  

(PHOTO: Pinterest)

Paint Color UpGrade:  Once you get your room rearranged, you may want to take the next step and change the paint color as well.  If you have had the same color on your walls for years, a new hue can upgrade your furniture, accessories and art.  

(PHOTO: Colorhouse Paints)

A Few New Purchases: Any room could use a few new things.  It could be as simple as a lovely potted plant on your cocktail table to a super shaggy custom rug to take your formal living room from boring to spectacular.  Feel free to shop for a few new items, but only after your room has been re-styled. Consider the new items as the frosting, not the cake.

(PHOTO: Source)

Don't have the time or talent to do this yourself?  Good news, we can help.  We're interior arrangement experts, have fabulous ideas on how to give your old stuff a new life and don't even get me started on what we can find with our shopping skills!  Give me a jingle, send an email my way and let's talk.  We offer both on-location and e-makeover sessions.  Let's get your home refreshed, restyled and reinvented.  Biz phone: 708-448-7500 Email: Julea@Julea.com.

Oh... and those divots - Add crushed ice to the dent, let melt and then use an old hairbrush to re-fluff your carpet. Refluff again after drying.  Divots gone!

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More than a Home Stager... Why I call Myself an Interior Stylist

Fresh back from my speciality design training in Dallas, Texas (home staging training didn’t exist yet),  I landed my 1st client.  Recently moved into her new home, she was so excited to get it pulled together and make it hers. As we chatted about design ideas, she confided she partly hired me because she was hosting a baby shower and really want her home to look special.  Too, could I help her with ideas about the baby shower?  Instantly, part of this project was to advise which China to use, theme ideas and how to style the event.

The AHA Business Model Moment

That was my AHA business model moment. This new home design business I was launching was so much more than making a home pretty, my new job was to help a homeowner fully celebrate and embrace their home.

Not fitting into any box, I called myself 1st a Home Stylist, which was short lived being confused with a Hair Stylist that comes to a client's home!  A simple word swap of INTERIOR from HOME solved the identity problem and my business brand was born.

More than a Home Stager

Beyond a home stager's regular repertoire of just prepping a home for sale, I have for 17 years offered up a signature menu of interior stylist services that progressively celebrates their home. Once that house is SOLD,  there are a menu of design services to turn that NEW house into a home and celebrate the haven within.

•·        Color Consultation-  Already familiar with your things from your old home,  I am right by your side in expertly selecting and creating a new color palette.  From paint,  wallpaper to fabric selections,  gone are the old home owners hues, or those contractor white walls - in with color choices in-tune to your belongings and personal style.

•·        Interior Redesign-  I take what you have and make it all work within your new home.  In just a day or two,  your blank space becomes your space.  Interior Redesign is the art of arranging what you already have.  With specific steps and procedures, spaces become balanced, functional and unified. Best of all, you get instant gratification and validate your existing pieces.  This process then opens the door to new pieces and creative ideas to repurpose or refreshed what you have.  A very 21st century way of decorating a home.

•·     Shopping, Procurement & Traditional Design Services- If you'd like to refresh, add to your furniture & collections, we can help shop for those new pieces  Need more traditional design service such as custom window treatments, reupholstery services or help with choosing a new counter or embark in a remodeling project?  Our talents and resources can add those finishing touches and updates to your home.

•·     Lifestyle & Entertainment Services-  Your home is now ready to greet family and friends - from styling a home for a holiday or season, setting the stage for a party, or making a backyard patio a summer retreat.  - I help  my clients  celebrate the haven within.

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.

Do Home Stagers Only Stage Vacant Homes?

You'd think so from all the HGTV shows and magazine spreads wouldn't you? A vacant home shows real drama when transformed from empty to full with furniture and accessories when on film or in print. Right?  The reality is though, that almost homes that are getting ready to go on market have people living inside of them. 

And that is where we come into play. At Reinventing Space we are happy to transform an occupied property into that awesome home desired by today's picky buyers.  Our secret weapon is that we are experts in re-styling what you own and stepping up your space with stylish and trend forward rental or purchased. It's a winning combination.  

Our process is simple, we'll setup a date to conduct our Home Staging Evaluation.  Notes and suggested enhancement procedures are made (which you'll need to complete before we sweep back to style your home). While you are working on your home, we're putting together a proposal to finalize the home staging process.  We select, coordinate and then style your home so it looks its very best.  Here's a recent example - Take a look:

So now you are informed - Home Staging isn't just for vacant homes.  Aren't you excited that you too can have your home staged and styled and move it to 1st in line when it goes on the market?  Shoot us an email, we'd be delighted to work with you.

Sunday Reading - Business Launch Tips

Sunday Reading - Business Launch Tips

It’s Sunday. I read on Sundays.  I Just got done with a great feature in Better Homes & Gardens - ‘Finding Your Calling.’ Even as a business owner of 17 years, the article was chocked full of fabulous tips and advie on launching yourself into the entrepreneurial universe. 
 

Here are a few take away tips from the article.

Brand Aid

Naming your business is the single most important task.

1. HI MY NAME IS... Consider your name. No one has it but you.

2. Brain Storm.  How will customers receive your name? How do you want them to see it?

3. Is it Searchable and Tweet-able? Too long, too short, easy to remember?  Is it already being used? (You can check on-line.)

4. Let’s Get Visual. Logo-up. Color is key. Color has personality.

6 Things I Wish I Knew Then

Hindsight is 20/20.

1. It Gets Lonely.  Just not working by yourself, but making all the decisions too. 

2. You Wear lots of Hats. From accounting to PR, you are the boss.  Get help in your not too gifted areas.

3. Don’t Compare. Every business is different and so are you.

4. Hire Slow, Fire Fast. Your hires are your brand, so make sure they are a good fit.

5. Be Patient. Overnight sensations are rare.

6. Pivot and Problem Solve. When something doesn’t work, adjust and work it out.

Stress Free Holiday Home Decorating Ideas

Well it’s that time of year again, we head to our attics, basements or garages and haul out oodles of bins and boxes filled to the brim with holiday décor and trimming.  We unpack and reveal years, if not decades of the stuff - Super excited to begin the annual ritual of decking the halls.  As an interior stylist, it’s my job to give my clients new ideas on how to use their old stuff, shop wisely, and celebrate their home in style.  Here are some tips and techniques to shake up your view of how to make your home festive for the Holidays. This is the year be a stress free decorator!

1.)    Inventory what you have before your start any decorating. To get a fresh perspective of your goods, you need to take a step back and look at what you have. 

a.      Can it be re-purposed, reinvented, spray painted or need to go?

b.      Sort your product into category, rather than room.

2.)    Shop your home for “Good Bone" accessory basics that you already have.  I love these standard décor pieces because they can be used in so many ways, can be reused in ever season and most of us already have them.

a.      Tall Hurricane, cylinder or apothecary vases. These can hold a host of holiday décor and too can be used to set a buffet or service food.

b.      Cake Stands.  A great anchors or bases for a wonderful display – Perfect to elevate florals, décor, showcase candles or create height.

Cake stands can become a lift to elevate a display.  Making it a table focal point.  (Photo: Source.)

c.      Silver.  From silver trays, coffee pots to champagne buckets – Silver makes everything more festive and rich.

Aunt June's old silver can be r-purposed into a fabulous seasonal door wreath (Photo: Source)

3.)    Showcase family heirlooms.  Although I’m sure we all have treasured holiday items, don’t overlook what’s already in our cabinets and closets. From Grandma’s China, to your own old ice skates to family photos of loved ones passed – Celebrating our family and what we love is the heart of celebrating this season.  Think of ways to infuse these things into your decorating.  They’ll create conversation and be a gentle reminder of special memories.

Celebrate your family history by displaying heirloom treasures. (Photo: Source)

4.)    Create a theme for your décor. It could be as simple as a color, or inspired by a place. Whatever it is, this is the building block of your decorating.  This theme will be carried from décor to entertaining.

a.      Resist the urge to different theme each room in your home - instead keep a common thread throughout the home.

b.      Spread the decorating to every room of your home.

c.      Set your holiday table in style using the same common theme.

5.)    Move your Furniture.  Holidays bring hoards of people into your home and are meant for great visiting, eating and celebrating.  Remove, shift, move your furnishings so they are conducive to conversations, not TV watching, be aware of traffic patterns so people move freely through your home.

6.)    Entertain in style.  From setting the foyer as the bar or dessert and coffee area, to setting a show stopping buffet, make use of what you already have, making sure your whole home is enjoyed and most of all being a stress free will make your holidays happy.

Spread your hosting around your home. (Photo: Source)

Cheers! - Julea.