Home Staging in Portland Oregon Blog

Inspired by Mel Salazar's post about sellers using rooms in their home for storage, and Cathy Lee's post about returning rooms to their original purpose .... I recalled a staging project in an occupied home that we completed a few months ago.  The home (in Portland's Hawthorne district) was a charming old Victorian loaded with character, but the room sizes were relatively small and chock full of the sellers' furnishings.

We coach our clients that since they're selling square footage, it's important to show as much floor space as possible.  And that while the room may have served them well with another purpose while they lived there, it's best when selling to show potential buyers the room's original purpose.

This home had two living rooms (or "parlors" as they were called back in 1895 when it was built). One of them had become a "catch all" for music equipment and miscellaneous items that didn't fit somehwere else:

After removal of all the equipment & miscellaneous clutter, buyers could now walk through this room and imagine using it as a cozy seating area.  The original wood floors, a main selling feature, were now exposed and visible, adding instant equity.  (We also recommended that the room be painted a neutral shade, but the sellers weren't willing to do this and luckily the house sold in spite of it!)

Upstairs there's a bedroom that had been used as an office space as well as storage for miscellaneous clutter:

After staging, buyers could see the added value of this guest bedroom! Gone were the desks & office equipment and the large area rug (exposing the berber carpeting underneath);  we then added a staging bed, two simple tables & lamps, and used a few of the sellers' items to warm up the space.

Result?  This home SOLD in a challenging market ~  The sellers were happy and so were we!

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Room Solutions Staging in Portland Oregon provides staging services to homeowners and Realtors to reduce market time and maximize equity. Whether your property is vacant or occupied, we can help!  For a no-obligation home staging proposal, call us at 503-246-1800.

If you have a dated sofa or loveseat and are staging a home  ~ don't despair!  Since several others here on A/R have raved about Surefit stretch sofa covers, I was determined to try them.  This week Room Solutions Staging was contacted by sellers who wanted us to use their existing sofa & loveseat to save the expense of renting new ones from us.  The sellers had moved out, but left this furniture behind for staging the home; however, no offers had materialized in the first 3 months on the market and their agent recommended staging.  

Although I was skeptical about using their furniture, I decided to try Surefit covers ... what a transformation!  See how Surefit (along with our tables, art, lamps & accessories) brought new life to this living room:

We also transformed some other rooms in this home ~

If you're staging with a tired or dated sofa, try Surefit stretchy covers and see how they tranform something old into something fabulous! Thanks to Maureen Henry for her inspiration on this idea!

Room Solutions Staging in Portland Oregon helps sellers & agents maximize equity through faster sales. Let us help you tranform a lifeless vacant property or cluttered occupied property into one that buyers will fall in love with!  Call 503-246-1800 for a no-obligation estimate. 

Room Solutions Staging in Portland OR was selected to stage Home #1 ... it had been on the market for 5 months without a sale.  We staged it using a colorful red sofa & matching chair, a fun brown wool rug, and some typical tables, etc.   Home #1 SOLD in only 3 days, with 3 back up offers!  Here are photos of the living room in House #1, Before & After:

When House #1 was about to be de-staged, another broker called me for a staging quote on a contemporary home he was about to list.  With Home #2's white walls in the living room, I thought the red sofa, chair and fun brown rug would work in that home too ... and we staged it with some new accessories.  Home #2 SOLD in only 5 days, for over asking price!  Here's photos of House #2, vacant and then with the same furniture ...

Meanwhile, a broker who'd seen House #2 called me and said she loved the staging, could I come look at her listing that had been on the market since late last summer? It was another contemporary-style home with a terrific view.  This broker asked, could I possibly stage it with the same red sofa and chair, fun brown wool rug, etc?  I told her that Home #2 was about to be de-staged and we agreed the same furniture would work well in this home too. House #3 SOLD in 7 days!  This broker said that she's finally, after 32 years as a realtor -- a believer in staging!  Here's photos of the same furniture grouping, this time in House #3 ...

I'm not sure if it was the red colors, the fun accessories and artwork, or the lucky Irish book that I placed in each of these 3 homes, but they all sold in a week or less (in a "slow" market)!  Staging really works, and any skeptics only have to read Active Rain to see many other success stories like this one.

Room Solutions Staging in Portland OR helps homeowners and realtors maximize home equity by staging to sell.  Call Maureen Bray at 503-246-1800 and let us know how we can help you.

Fellow A/R members ~ Here's a question for you and I'd love to hear your feedback ....

Do you advise your clients who need to both PAINT and INSTALL NEW CARPET to paint first, or do the carpet first?

Last year when I had both jobs done in my own home, I asked each contractor which job should be done first.  Their answers?  The painter said "paint first"  and the carpet installer said "carpet first."  Neither one wanted to have to be extra careful when doing their part of the project!   If we paint first, then there's no worry about drips on new carpeting ... but if we do paint first, won't the baseboards be subject to scuffing up when the carpet is installed?

SO ~ WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?  WHAT DO YOU ADVISE YOUR CLIENTS? 

This week Room Solutions Staging was hired to stage an Occupied home that's been on the market for many months.  The homeowner is the nicest young man who didn't have a lot of furniture.  The family room looked like this in the online MLS photo (note the lack of any tables in this room; the living room had no furniture, and none of the bedrooms had a table either) ~

With a tight staging budget we needed to "create" a Coffee Table for this room.  We looked high and low throughout the house and garage, and found this upstairs bedroom with only a huge TV and a bookcase ... we planned to store the TV in the garage since the seller wasn't using it ~

My staging colleague said "no problem!" and waved her magic wand ... what happened next?  We took the bookcase & removed the inner shelves;  then we took the large TV from its stand and removed the heavy piece of glass it was resting on.  We placed the bookcase, now on its side, on an area rug, and the glass fit over it just perfectly ~ Voila!  An instant coffee table!

The homeowner was delighted with this creative effort, and potential buyers will now find a much more inviting space.  Even with a very limited budget, don't forget that you can usually find a way to "create" what you need!  

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Maureen Bray and the Room Solutions Staging team helps sellers in the Portland Oregon area prepare their homes for a faster sale with professional home staging services.  Call 503-246-1800 and let us help you maximize your profit potential.