Loving Pinterest

September has been a busy month for re-design consultations. Re-design consultations involve walking through a client's home and offering practical suggestions of how a client can use what they have, combining it with some new things (paint, furniture, accessories) to create a new, desirable look! After I see the client's home I head to the office and write a 'report' for them so that all of the details are written down in one place and no one needs to try to remember them all---except me!

Last week I went to view a young family's beautiful Sherwood Park home.  They were looking for some help in making one of the kid's rooms work for two children so that they could have another baby.  My client loves wainscotting and had mentioned a baseball or sport theme. We discussed using a dark rich blue on the top half of the wall and antique white on the bottom. After taking some measurements, I discovered the room would not be large enough for anything but bunk beds. I suggested a layout and we built from there. Long story short, I knew that this client is very visual and wanted to show her what sorts of things I was picturing in my mind...hard to do! Since I had been hearing from a lot of people about how great Pinterest is for inspirations, I finally gave it a shot and found this:

Original Link *here*

Too perfect! The funny part is that so much of it is exactly what we were discussing and I had never seen this image before. The blue walls, the white wainscoting, bunk beds, the layout, a place for books around the window...it is all too perfect!

Pintrest is a great place to show clients images of what sort of things you are envisioning and it is a great place to find inspiration. Check out this link to find out what it's all about.

15 Home Staging Rules

I stumbled upon an article today that lead me to do some investigating. I found this one very interesting...
Dr Andrea Angott conducted a study and released the "Top 15 staging rules":

1. Removal of personal items from bathrooms.
2. Using rooms for their intended purpose.
3. Removing evidence of pets.
4. Turning on every light in the home during showings.
5. Vacant homes should be furnished.
6. Removal of garbage cans.
7. Removal of personal photographs.
8. Removal of attention-grabbing or personal art or accessories.
9. Neutral paint colors on all walls.
10. Removal of appliances from kitchen counters.
11. Never placing the back of furniture facing any room entrance.
12. “Tell a story” with staging (breakfast tray with mugs on bed).
13. Sheer or no coverings on all windows.
14. Use of scented candles, plug-in air fresheners or potpourri.
15. Chocolate chips baking in oven during showings

I have made recomendations to many clients in the past to do most of these things but number 14 is never something I recommend. I have said it before-- NO-scent is the best scent!  I can also honestly say I have never smelt potpourri that I enjoyed! Has anyone?

Also number 15 makes me laugh.. Yes it may be a nice idea but are you really going to bake chocolate cookies everytime you have a showing? It is best for all parties involved if the home owner is not at the property when potential buyers come through, so who is to watch said cookies bake? And then what are you to do with dozens of chocolate cookies but eat them all?! Maybe that is just something I would do, but I couldn't be trusted with dozens of cookies in the house!

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and long weekend! It has been a busy summer for Tilt with lots of Re-Design consultations with some really great new clients.