Stager Cindy Gaisor, owner of Transitions Staging, and I tried a new approach to home staging that she now calls “Hands On” staging, and I call “Hit and Run” staging. This particular home Seller was very reluctant to have us stage her midtown Tulsa home for sale, but a few key areas really needed attention.
The two biggest selling points of this home are that its master bedroom is on the first floor (unusual in our midtown historic homes) and that the home had been remodeled to have a contemporary flair. Its open floor plan needed to be emphasized, along with the many other updates.
Since the Seller was a bit reluctant for us to invade and alter her home, Cindy and I planned the “hit and run” staging. I asked my photographer to come at 11:00am and plan to stay two hours. Cindy and I arrived early and got to work. Our thought was that we would modify rooms for the photos, then return rooms to their original state.
As it turns out, the Seller was very PLEASED with our improvements and we left most everything staged. Smile. Except for the theater room – we moved a large white sofa for the photo (sorry that we didn’t take a “before” photo of that) and moved it back in place after taking the photo.
The minute you walk into the home, you are impressed by the very open floor plan. Yet the breakfast table area and kitchen bar stools looked less than contemporary. Cindy left the breakfast table with a beautiful granite top, but switched out the four chairs; replaced the four bar stools with two more neutral stools and de-cluttered the adjacent cabinet overflowing with books and photos. See before and after photos below.
Disclaimer that the “before” photos were taken by Cindy or me, so are not of the professional quality of the “after” photos.
The master bedroom was pretty cluttered and the bed spread is very taste specific. Cindy covered the bed with new neutral bedding and pillows, added pillows to the love seat in the alcove, removed a lot of personal items – and voila – see the improvement!
Two chairs were removed from the formal dining room and items were removed from the surface of the hutch. As you can see, just a few minor additions and subtractions make quite a difference!
The formal living area looked great (I thought). But what a punch the white rug made replacing the original dark Oriental rug – it seemed to make the beautiful wood floors pop, and it tied together the white cast-iron fireplace and built-ins (also de-cluttered). Cindy added dark accent pieces by the fireplace which look stunning, and she replaced the coffee table center piece with something colorful.
Cindy finished up with adding a few touches to the kitchen and butler’s pantry area.
So “hit and run” staging may be an option for your Seller a bit reluctant to staging! It was our first time to approach a staging project in this manner, and although a bit exhausting – it worked out quite well!
And here is the AFTER photo of the theater room. I’ll try to take a photo of how the furniture is currently arranged and add as soon as possible!
Content written and published by Lori Cain.
