Staging in Edmonton

Did you happen to catch the article about home staging in Avenue Magazine's April issue?
Here's the header:

Personality Crisis: Home stagers can make your house more saleable by removing you and your memories from the premises

If you already done so, check out: http://www.avenueedmonton.com/articles/page/item/personality-crisis

Not only is the article interesting and relevant to my life-- but I love the images too (by Daniel Rossi). I confess... I took a hard look at the crafted backgrounds and thought to myself "that would have been a fun set to have built".

Anyway, the article is written by Eliza Barlow but contains an interview with both Rhonda Wilson of Revealing Assets and Jill Gargus of Simply Irresistible Interiors-- owners of two other Home Staging companies here in Edmonton. I have had the pleasure of meeting Rhonda before and I actually do contract work for Jill.

Three years ago, after being a substitute teacher for awhile, I decided I wanted to look into becoming a home stager. I contacted a couple of companies seeking any advice on how they got into the business. Jill was actually the only one who got back to me. I constructed a portfolio of of the room re-designs I have done for friends and family in the past as well as some of the images from displays I have created at Treasured Memories.  Jill decided to take me on and taught me a ton about staging. After a brief relapse on chasing a career in education, I came back to staging last year! I plan on never looking back.

Back to the article. Barlow makes mention that "house-hunters don't just shop with their eyes; their noses are also in overdrive." So true! A couple of properties I have staged in the past few weeks have had "smells" and unfortunately, the best smell for selling, is no smell at all. Even smells that you would normally think would be 'good' smells can be 'bad' smells. You never know what people may be allergic to, or what smells they may associate with some unpleasant childhood memory. I personally blast our house with assorted Bath and Body Works wall flower scents-- but if we had to sell- I know they would quickly become unplugged.  My wall flower scents (as Jackson West, staging guru, would say) are great for dwelling, not for selling.

Check out the article and let me know if you found anything surprising or interesting.

Have a wonderful sunny day!

No Sale Tree Left Behind..

Attention stagers and home owners alike! Michael's has some great sales on faux trees... Faux trees- who cares right? For regular decorating, I agree- fake plants don't sound so hot BUT  for home staging (preparing your home to sell), faux plants/ trees are a must.

Great faux greenery
- Gives life to a space
- Adds natural colors
- Brings the outdoors in
- Can encourage buyers to look outside (Which is great when the surrounding area is a selling feature... if it  looks onto a shadey alleyway however-- consider drawing the sheers.)

Anyways I picked up as much as my car could handle... unfortunately it had some other things in it for a job that were taking up half of my trunk.  I managed to get 3 great looking trees for great prices. My favorite (the palm) was on sale for $80.00- STEAL of a deal. The other two were much less expensive and are more traditional looking. I will be changing their pots to black ones shortly.

Speaking of my car and its trunk.. A new SUV coming soon for me! I am getting a Volkswagen Tiguan. I wasn't quite sold on it (they don't make it in a standard with all wheel drive ) until the sales lady showed me that not only do the back seats go down, but the front passenger seat does as well. I will never have to leave a tree on sale behind again!

http://www.vw.ca/ca/en_ca/new_models/tiguan.html 

I like the grey and brown. What color do you like?

Out of the trunk

This weekend I finally emptied my trunk... I have had numerous items follow me home over the past week. I hadn't bothered to take them all out of my car because I had no chance to organize my storage space until now.  I have got to admit though- I sure was nervous parking anywhere with so many items in my car, just a window break away from being stolen... Looking back on this, what thief would really be interested in a tortoise print blown glass vase?

I removed most of what had followed me home (usually I get these sorts of tag-a-longs from Home Sense) and took a few photos of some of them. I did find other items in the trunk, however, that made me think to myself—how did that come home with me? These items are heading back today to find someone new to adopt them.

So here a few of the great items that did make it out of the trunk. (Please pardon the photos poorly taken with my iphone).

This vase was a steal of a deal!
Though these square canvases aren't anything too special, they are perfect for staging. They will add color without distracting buyers.

    

These awesome candle holders were also a great deal. Unfortunately I only bought 2 of the 4 they had. I later went back to take home the other 2 but of course they were sold!

 

I just loved this turquoise vase and had to get a little art to go with it.

Silk pillow covers, orchids, shower curtains, throw pillows, wall art- Oh my!

Who knows what will follow me home this week!