UpStaged! Home Staging Colorado BEFORES & AFTERS

Befores & Afters make me smile, so here ya go:

Front Room: Basically, it's a narrow living room and a diningroom that is being used as a "music room".
Fix its:
The burgundy furniture is very small for the space.
The wall above the sofa was covered in a multiple of frames and similar shaped things so that it all ran together.
The ficus trees. With Christmas lights and assorted ornaments on it. Had to go. Oh and the rocking horse.

After:

Well, we only took one pic of the front room, and it's the same view the realtor's photographer used.

We took all that stuff off the shelves and added larger scale items instead to fill the space.

Replaced the ficus with a more narrow tree, removed the sewing spindle, 

the small chest, and angled the sofa and chair (which I have no pic of, darn it.) 

We also replaced the small clock with a larger one,

took down all the family photos that lined the wall to the Left of the clock, 

and replaced it with a tapestry. 

Cleared the staircase landing completely.

I would've loved to have had an area rug in the front room to frame it, 

but they didn't own one and were on a budget.

The only view of the dining/piano room.

It was minimally cluttered, 

mostly on the walls,

so we hung a very large picture on it, which is out of range.

Added some mercury glass candleholders and little mercury glass birds.

Family Room BEFORE:

The focal point of this room is the slate fireplace wall,

and the floor to ceiling windows opposite the wall.

AFTER:

We removed the overstuffed chair, but kept the ottoman

to make the room feel larger.

Replaced the dated red-shade lamp with another one.

Thinned out the shelves.

Kitchen Before:

great features, just a little clutter.

 AFTER:

 My one ack! moment is that the rug is still on the floor for pictures!

Wish I'd been there when the pics were taken to remove it.

Master Suite:

No side table lamps.

People, buy some lamps!

Notice the ficus tree on the side of the tub in the background.

Ficus trees are no bueno.

the boxes were a result of packing, so NBD.

 AFTER:

Lamps!

Centered the armoire on the wall,

added some light accessories,

and a serving tray

and throw on the bed.

Removed all the pics above the fireplace,

because, hey! that's an awesome feature all on its own.

 Moved the picture from one wall to the wall presenting at entrance.

 Master bath:

Cleared off the counters,

added some florals, candles,

tossed the ficus,

hung some towels.done.

Now, the Basement.

It. was. full.of. stuff.

We gave homeowners a short list:

remove everything but the things you see in the pics below.

NO Before pics of it, so you'll have to imagine it chock full of

furniture, toys, another ficus tree (@#$%!!!),

and random stuff--probably alot like your basement is right now.

This is what we let them keep:

Two easy chairs and a side table facing a huge wall unit w/ TV.

A foosball table.

 A billiards table

 and dining set.

That's it.

  

  

A secondary bedoom AFTER:

Unfortunately, I don't have BEFORE pics of this room, 

as it had the bed you see,

 a crib, black-out drapes, pink and brown bedding

for a grandchild.

Everything went but the bed, a bookcase, and that dresser.

We added the bedding and pillows.

The mural stayed.

 Ok this is a main floor bathroom BEFORE.

I didn't take an After,

but I show this anyway because it was dated looking--

the colors, the walls, the style.

The homeowners painted the room a complimentary color to match the main floor,

removed all the dated accessories,

and we staged it with our black and red and yellow themed accessories.

It looks great.

 Ok the last room BEFORE:
It was an office/bedroom...what you can't see is a super long desk on the same wall as the bed.
We suggested they make a decision about what the room should be staged for, and yes, paint it a neutral color of their choice.

 They did.

Selling season is just about over--

but for those of you thinking about putting your home on the market,

I hope these photos and tips help you get in the mindset

that your home is a Product to Be Sold.

Pack up your excess,

Paint over your unique custom colors,

and for cryin' outloud

Buy Some Lamps!

LOST, lost Me

This isn't a typical post from my noggin, but I'm puttin' it out there just because I can't believe I'm the only person who feels this way.
OK, so we've had DirecTV for years, eons even. I don't remember NOT having it, so we've had it for awhile.
Well, due to the brilliant folks who run that backstoop shop, our account was caught up in a glitch wherein our daily feed of ESPN, Home Shopping Network, re-runs of Walker, Texas Ranger, and the juvenile delinquent channel AKA "The Disney Channel" was, in a word, OFF.

I didn't even notice it for a few days because TV is not a big thing around here in the summer.  We're too busy with Camps and working and hiking trails to even notice the TV isn't working. The 12 year old was the first to notice, "Hey! the TV's not working. Did you forget to pay the bill, Mom?"
I thought for a moment, made a phone call and the voice on the other end gave a corporate-heartfelt-apology and said the service would be returned in "two to twenty-four hours".
About three days later, it was noticed again that nothing had changed.  By that time, I pretty much decided that we shouldn't be paying for something we don't need or miss.  So I didn't make another phone call. I let it be.

Somewhere in the beginning of September, actually right school started, we got our first Back To School colds.  Suddenly, finding time to waste was not a problem.  DirecTV still wasn't ON, so Joseph cued up Netflix thru the Wi...he stumbled upon a TV show called "LOST".  We'd never watched it--well, that's not true--I'd tried to watch it once in the second season because of the popularity, but I had no idea what the plot was and couldn't catch up on it in one episode, so I never looked back.
But Joseph watched it from the sofa, back-to-back episodes for hours.  He kept inviting me to watch it with him, but I had no desire to watch a show that was already cancelled.  Until the weekend--we're still sick, so there we sat, hopped up on cold medicine, oj, chicken noodle soup, blankets and Kleenex tissues--and we were a captive audience for LOST.

Now, we joined in on Season 4...and over the next two weeks, we gathered each evening in the family room and continued our marathon with Jack, John, Sawyer, Hugo, Miles, the Japanese couple, Sayid, Kate, Juliet and sucky Ben, Jacob and Richard and Ana.  We were on the hook--there was no lookin' back.  I haveta say that while I liked the characters ALOT, the story line where they're going back and forth because of an out-of-sync gear on the Island-was NUTZ.  I felt alot like I feel when I get motion sickness...back and forth between storylines from three-to-thirty years. Ridiculous! And yet, I couldn't NOT watch it--had to see it to the end.
Our family laughed at the seemingly endless jerks of attention and jolts of confusion mixed into the storylines...but we're no quitters so we endured it all to get to the end.
Issues...oh there are so many that I have with...o nevermind, I'll get to those at the end.

So, we finally got to the final season! YEAH!!  I'm ready to drop this bad habit!  I've been held hostage on this dang island too many nights--let's GO already!
(spoiler alert coming, just a fyi)
The finale was um. Uh. Wait. What? Replay that! Go back! What? Hunh?
Like a bad joke, the characters are finally let in on the punchline--
they're all dead.
They all died in the plane crash.
All of it was in. their. minds.
Pretend.
No island, no others, no Dharma Iniative, no Black Smoke, no polar bears, no time-travelling,
no fighting, no bombs, no body, no nothing.

They all end up in a church aka heaven. 
Except Ben.  Whom I cannot even explain why his character was created except to cause more drama...naturally, afterall it is 'hollywood'--but still, I have issues with this series, that,
aside from professional counselling may haunt me for years, except for the fact that I have short-term memory loss and in this case, I am seriously hoping I forget this show-of-a-hot-mess...at least enough to know that I don't ever wanna watch it again.

Which brings me to something else: My Mr. Wonderful has been watching the series from the first Season to see if any of it makes sense.  I cannot bring myself to watch it knowing what I know--they're all DED. D.E.D. dead.   Seriously, what is the point of dead people pretending to have living experiences?

Questions I have about LOST:
TO the writers: did you write the beginning with the end in mind or did ya just wing it?  And, did ya end with the same writers that you started with?  What were you smoking?
Regarding these Characters:
Mr. Eko? Why?
Richard? his past life he was a tormented widow, then a passive follower of an immortal-non-immortal keeper of the gate, Jacob who killed Juliet's crappy husband, by having him run over by a bus--what kinda man is that?
Ben. Tortured child. Misunderstood Youth. Devious, pathetic man that noone could trust but everyone defended? He was at times portrayed like an All-Knowing God.  Ack! I can think of many scenarios in which I woulda let the fool die. I could write a paragraph on my dislike of this character and the way he interacted with other characters and the storyline.
John Locke.  Reincarnated. Born again. Bossy pants. WHY?
Mr. Widmore?  Why was he important? How much would the story have changed if he'd never been created?  I didn't miss him when he wasn't there and wasn't impressed when he was.
Why did Claire's baby, Aaron, have to disappear and reappear?  For that matter, Claire was a hot mess too.
And the crazy french woman, Rousseau.  She added as much as she distracted.  Is the actress who portrayed her (and she did well) related to a producer?  Was she on the plane and I just missed it?
The whole Hawking family.  HUNH? What did I miss?

My favorite character in LOST: Rose Nadler.  Favorite Scene: When all heck is breaking loose and the gang is beckoning them to abandon their campsite and Rose tells them she isn't getting involved in the drama.  Smart woman. She knew she was already dead and ain't nobody got time for that.

So in conclusion of my LOST rant post, I have to confess that I have been banned from watching the show with the family as they watch it from the very beginning, because of my lack of appreciation for the story line, and mainly because I wave my hands around saying, "They're all dead. None of it matters!"

p.s. there's a whole Wiki page dedicated to LOST criticisms! Ha!

Here We Grow Again

Lots of happy news for our family:
After five years of marriage,
our oldest son, David Scott and beautiful Daughter-In-Love, Tisha
announced:

They SKYPED with us yesterday afternoon to share this marvelous news!  Oh, I cried! I did. We've been praying for a baby for them for a couple of years now.  There were concerns about infertility--
they'd gone to a clinic to find out what was going on in August and talked about fertility treatments,
when, WOW! they're pregnant!!
Tisha is a lovely young woman and will be an awesome mother! David Scott is thrilled to become a father and we are beyond grateful to have another person to love in our family!

How she told him:  He'd been out working and when he came home, Tisha motioned to the stove and said, "I got you something special in the oven."  He opened the oven door and there sat a little cinnamon roll, "We've got a BUN IN THE OVEN!", she exclaimed!

Isn't that adorable?!

Creating a Fall Centerpeice

As promised,

here's how I generally make floral arrangements.

My first job in high school was a floral assistant for a gal who made dried arrangements

out of her basement and sold them to retail places and craft fairs.

Mostly what I did was her prep work and clean-up,

but I paid attention and she showed me how a few things.

Supplies:

3-4 large floral stems. These will be the focal points.

3 medium sized different floral stems (in a different color or shape, such as the golden wisteria)

2-3 tall stems (different color/shape, such as the brown hollyhocks(?) )

An assortment of fillers--berries, feathers, thistle, branch stems, heather-types.

Spanish moss

Floral Foam

Florist wire

Wire cutters

A container--metal, ceramic, woven basket--

whatever you have on hand will probably work.

Step-By-Step Instructions:

1- measure and cut the floral foam to fit the container. I like it to kinda squish down in there a little.

If the container is bigger than the foam, hot glue it to the bottom first to keep it secure.

2- Take the Spanish moss and cover the foam. You can secure it with floral wire picks, or just take a bit of wire and make your own wire pick: fold it over kinda like a wide bobby pin and just push it into the foam. It disappears into the moss so you can't see it. Besides, you're going to cover it with floral stems so it doesn't have to be pretty. You just don't want the floral foam to peek out.

3- Start with your fillers.  Not all of them, but you're building the base of the arrangement, so start putting some into the bottom. Try to make it natural-looking. Let some hang down over the container's edge. Don't put them straight up, in the middle. Just around the edges where the foam meets the container.

4- Add your largest floral stems; make them high and low, facing a different direction. 

As a general rule, your floral arrangement should be twice as tall and twice as wide as your container.

You can make it bigger, don't go smaller.

Most of the time, I have to cut some of the stem off if I'm putting it into floral foam. Just don't cut it too short.

5- Add the medium sized florals in--try to keep a balance.

6- Add the tall stems

7- Use the rest of the fillers.

*A word about the fillers: if you look closely, there's some yellow heather-y looking filler on the bottom, and some branches poking out--those are both stems that were ONE stem that I cut apart with wire cutters.

Voila!

Tips: 

Use coupons to get your stems on sale.

Pay attention to florals you may see either in craft stores, hotel lobbies, restaurants, etc.--if you like what you see, try and mentally dissect it so you can recreate it at home.

You Tube has lots of tutorials too.

I don't usually like silk flowers that are colored in non-natural ways,

those in this arrangement were bought for me to put together,

but I generally try to keep it real.

You can also add fruit (like artichoke, apples, pears, lemons, limes)

or even pinecones or cottonbolls, to your arrangement.

Ok, that's it. If you try this, be sure to share a link to your site so we can all

OOOOHHHHH and AHHHHHHHH 

over your creation.

Rustic Luxe Retail Design

Here's where I spend much of my time as a Merchandiser aka "Professional Putter":

 Details: Bamboo rug, LAMPS! (nearly every home we stage has very few lamps, and often they are too small/dated for the space/not enough for the room--buy some lamps, people!), throw pillows, natural elements i.e.:lavendar, pussy willow, grains, florals.

 Tip: get out your heirloom platters and use them to "frame" some treasures that vary in size, texture, and height.

 Mercury glass is IN right now.

 So is grainsack and ticking fabric.  Have a large mirror that doesn't reflect anything? Try a boxwood wreath or similar.  Also, in regard to the large ceramic sheep: too many women try to make a statement using many small accessories, when a large piece is better to fill the space.

An armoire painted in Annie Sloan chalk paint serves as a display for linens. An old ladder

is used for throws. 

So do ya see the black tray? It's just a frame around the candles and bird.

The floral is something I made from scratch. The owner of the shop brought in a variety of stems

and I put them together in a ceramic planter we had on hand. 

I'll post another blog about how I made it.

Fun clocks, ribbon-wrapped spools, metal gears--all trending right now.

Words, dried grains wrapped in burlap ribbon,

grainsack chairs~

Metal, industrial-look clocks, mercury glass, pheasants and florals on a shelf.

Pussy willow out of the backyard with a little bird

to top off an armoire or china cabinet use natural-looking florals--

try to balance without looking too matchy-matchy, but keep a balance.

An unusual pottery vase to hold cotton boll stems works for the look we want.

Details: Chalk painted chairs in Coco and Old White (cane), hydrangeas, a great garland mirror,

and Dash and Albert rug that's ready for a new home.

Seriously, if you're looking for one trend that's inexpensive and charming, 

I would recommend cotton bolls!

Statement pieces

Details count too

This small vignette is going to be short-lived as we are turning this room into a 

gorgeous Rustic Luxe Christmas room, starting this week!

I've drawn up the plans with the goal to be revealed November 1st.

So keep posted!

Annie Sloan Chalk Painted Cabinets

So I've been wanting to paint these builder oak cabinets for awhile:

I talk about chalk paint at least 75% of my work day

and I've painted a few pieces of furniture,

so I finally jumped in this week:

I LOVE THEM!

 I used ASCP Old Ochre as the base coat

 then I made a small wash of Old White over that

and finished with Annie's Clear Wax.

Details:

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old Ochre: two coats

ASCP in Old White: Approx. 2 TBS 1:1 with water,

brushed on directly over Old Ochre with a 1" brush.

Sealed with AS Clear Wax.