DIY Home Staging Tips

12 Tips for Storing Stuff Off-Site

Monday, December 27, 2010

Have you ever rented a self-storage unit? I have. A few times. When we were selling a residence.

It's kind of a hassle, but it sure helps your home look more like a model home.

And I was always glad when it was time to actually start serious packing because the job was already underway.

Getting the extra furniture, the overflow from your closets, the out-of-season belongings, and all those trinkets with too much personality into an off-site storage place is way-preferable to stacking them in the garage. Or clustering them in the guestroom.

As with almost everything else, it helps to have a plan. Here's mine.

LIST the items you plan to store. Figure out how you'll pack them.

Boxes of uniform size are best for books, clothes, kitchen items, linens, and toys.
Plastic storage tubs with lids can be stacked for fragile items or for long-term storage of off-season things like seasonal decorations.
Awkwardly-sized items like furniture, bikes, garden tools, and sports gear won’t stack but still take room.

PRIORITIZE boxed items you may have to access during storage, so they can be packed close to the front of the unit.

GET your boxes from the paint store. They're free and they are all the same size -- four-gallon.

PACK things like dishes and framed photographs between layers of sheets and towels that you're packing as well.

AVOID storing items in containers that don't stack, if possible. Examples would be laundry baskets of toys, shopping bags of toiletries, or bundles of blankets. Boxed items stack straight so you'll fit more things into your space. Nest together odd-shaped things when packing the unit.

MARK all boxes clearly to indicate contents. Be specific. Write "Stuffed armadillo, ping pong paddles, high school yearbook, beer mugs, tennis trophies," not "family room stuff."

If strangers will be doing the moving for you, do not label boxes with valuables. Too tempting. They may disappear. Instead, number them and keep a master list of contents.

Write on the sides, not the tops of boxes. Mark what is fragile because they should be stacked up high when stored and also when packed for moving.

ESTIMATE the size of the unit you'll need. Here are rough guidelines.

5' x 5' unit holds a chest of drawers, a mattress set, and stacks of plastic tubs or boxes.
5' x 10' unit will hold furnishings of a mid-size bedroom, including a queen-size bed, dresser, TV, and a few storage boxes. If you have no furniture, calculate that it will accommodate 100 medium boxes.
10' x 10' unit will hold the equivalent of the contents of an entire family room or two full bedrooms.
10' x 15' unit will hold the contents of up to three bedrooms. Good for large items such as couches, tables, and chairs.
10' x 20' will hold the contents of a 5-bedroom house, including a refrigerator, washer/dryer, dining room table, chairs, and large boxes. Since you're probably not storing appliances, you'll have that much more room for boxes and furniture.

PROTECT your belongings. Don't take a chance on storing clothing, electronics, upholstered items, artwork, musical instruments, or family heirlooms in a unit that is not climate controlled.

CHOOSE a site that is convenient if you might be digging into your stored goods now and then. If you don't expect to need the stored items, you can probably save money by being able to choose from facilities less conveniently located.

ASK management if your unit will be available 24 hours a day. Is it clean and brightly lighted? Do you feel secure when coming and going? Is it easy to load and unload from your car?

STACK strong items on the bottom -- things like tables, plastic totes, and chairs. Stack to the ceiling if possible to use all the space you're paying for. Leave a narrow pathway so you can easily find items later.

CONSIDER off-site storage for things like an RV, a boat, or vehicle not being used. It will improve your curb appeal.

Every time I've used a self-storage site, I was able to stage my home more effectively, and make our moving day go more smoothly. I hope these tips do the same for you.

Be sure to download my helpful homestaging eBooks for other ways you can make staging a home easier, faster, and more profitable.

I Hope Santa Likes Biscotti

Friday, December 24, 2010

Here's sending out my best holiday greetings to family, friends and blog followers. Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoy your holiday season, and have all your wishes come true in 2011!

Staging Your Home Cheap-Chic Style

Thursday, December 23, 2010

If there are garage sales and thrift stores where you live, you can stage your home on the cheap. And be chic about it, too.

To put my own opinions to the test, I challenged myself to see how many times I could stage one table in my own home, using second hand items I'd purchased over the years, along with some things from dollar stores.

Keep in mind that I do not do professional staging for a living, so I do not have a warehouse or storage unit full of props to use. I am not a hoarder, but I don't throw many things away. I don't buy many things either. At least not at full retail prices.

This habit means two of us are able to live in a 1700 square foot home, using all the rooms, and nothing looks cluttered. Even the garage. Honest.

Don't ask about the closets.

Here are the results of my challenge.

I used a table I bought fifteen years ago for $10 at the Tobacco Barn in Asheville, North Carolina. I painted it white and lightly distressed it. Other than the table, every setup here is completely different.

1. COASTAL DECOR. The thrifted $2 frame holds a print that was gifted to me years ago from my Connecticut sister-in-law. The two glass hurricanes I bought recently for 99 cents each, and here they hold some dollar store polished rocks and dollar store greenery. All three plates are thrifted at 99 cents each. All the shells are either collected on the beach or thrifted. I added some dollar store votives to the clear 49-cent dishes on the bottom shelf. Total cost: about $25.

2. ECLECTIC GROUPING. There's no theme here, just a collection of pretty things. Anchoring the setting is a $15 framed Asian print I was ecstatic to find at Goodwill this year. Ordinarily, I would hang it higher, but I hesitated adding another hole to my wall. Most second hand stores sell hardcover books for $1, even when they are coffee-table size, like these. The plaster obelisk still has its $3.99 price marked on its underside. The orchid was $2.00 at a garage sale, complete with flower pot. Milk glass is plentiful at second hand stores, and the little compote become mine for $1. I've used it to hold a garage sale $1 candle. I love the shiny metal box with a metal bow, especially since it cost $1, same as all the ornaments in the large plastic dollar store bowl. The basket and the tray were each about $3, Salvation Army finds. Total cost: $34.

3. CONTEMPORARY LOOK. The dollar store frame holds a thrifted black and white print. The lamp is a $2 garage sale purchase. The second hand shade cost me $1.50. A dollar store charger holds Goodwill wine glasses at 59 cents a glass, and a Salvation Army vase holds dollar store lemons. The flowers are from the dollar store and the "silver" vase is from Goodwill. An aluminum $3 thrift store platter holds goblets from the same place, plus a gifted bottle of wine. ( I'd fill the bottle with water for staging.) The $4 ice bucket is thrifted, too. Estimated total: $20.

4. TROPICAL COLOR. In this example, I gathered props that reflected the global look I wrote about here. Would you believe that the wall art is actually a wrap-around, cotton, batik print skirt, spray-starched and taped to a thrift store, unframed, painted canvas? The painting was $4, and I am not going to count the cost of the skirt, because I've owned it for decades, and it was not "harmed during this filming." The Japanese-style, rice bowls were each 99 cents at Habitat for Humanity, and they hold four, $1 candles, stacked to look like two pillars. Love their color because it matches this (inconspicuously chipped) 50-cent garage sale vase I have filled with dollar store orchids. I can never resist wicker baskets like this square, $3 one. The wooden box is a garage sale $2 find. The round basket was $3, and the flowers and plant came from the dollar store totaling a hefty $4. My cost: $21.50

5. FLORAL INSPIRATION. The artwork cost me just $4.99 at Goodwill because the colors in the print were faded. I performed surgery on the print, refreshing the colors with inexpensive watercolors and marking pens, then putting it back under glass. Linens like this $1 pink table runner are common and cheap at second hand stores. The wooden candle holders cost me $2 for the pair at a church thrift store. The peonies are a dollar store purchase, and I put them in a $2 clay pot I painted white, on a $1 pink and white plate. The hotel plate serving platter set me back about $5, and the shells together were about $10. Total: $26.

I hope my challenge and the results give you ideas for staging your own home. Don't turn up your nose at thrift stores. They are treasure houses for the DIY home stager, letting you easily decorate cheap-chic style. Experiment with whatever objects you've found in your own closets and at garage sales and thrift stores to stage your home beautifully and economically.

Download my eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar, and you'll learn other ways to save money when you stage your home.

Furniture that Makes Rooms Look Larger

Monday, December 20, 2010

Homebuyers want space for their money.

Sure, they look at the numbers -- square footage, number of rooms, dimensions of rooms -- but they are also influenced by how large the rooms feel.

How do your rooms feel? Big or small? Here are four kinds of furniture that make spaces seem bigger.

Curved pieces expand a room because they force the eye to keep moving.

When you are deciding what furniture to store and what to keep for staging, send the square stuff to the storage unit.

Leggy pieces of furniture keep the room feeling light and airy. They show more floor and that always makes the space seem larger.

If you have furniture with covered legs, can you show them off., Lose the tablecloth. Shorten the slipcover. Remove the bed skirt. What a difference!

In this tight bedroom, a spider leg table in the

corner lets more floor show and works so

much better than a solid nightstand. Photo: Decorpad

Monotone colors make for a seamless look. When a room is furnished with some painted pieces, color-coordinate them so no one piece stands out. They needn't be all the same color, but making them all the same value (on the scale from light to dark) will enlarge the room. If you have mismatched upholstered pieces, dressing them in matching slipcovers will have the same effect.

Low-profile furniture lets a buyer take in more of the room at a glance. Don't make buyers' eyes take a roller coaster ride around the room. Not only does low-profile furniture make a room look bigger, it makes it feel less formal and more comfortable.

A low-profile buffet seems to increase space in this foyer. The wainscoting

and the choice of lamp style and bowl style accentuate the low lines.

And the mirror opens up the space even more.

Photo: Eric Roth Photography via House of Turquoise.

Transparent, translucent, and reflective furniture makes a room feel bigger than it is. There's no surprise here, because you can see right through the glass and Lucite, and reflective surfaces like mirrors and polished metals bounce light around a room to confuse the eye about where a room's perimeters really are.

These classic Lucite chairs almost disappear, making for a

more accommodating dining room. Photo: Decorpad

Get the look, get the book

I offer lots more tips on how to select and arrange furniture in two of my homestaging eBooks, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and For Top Dollar, and my book on Furniture Arranging. Think big, and create rooms that make buyers think your home is big.

Top Photo: Wayfair

Painting for Staging? Here's Touch-up Tips

Monday, December 13, 2010

I did some interior painting this week for a woman who wants her house on the market as quickly as possible.

She wanted to spend her money and time where they would do the most good.

I think my client's situation is a common one, and I think the approach she and I decided on is a good one. I'm calling it the "You Had Me At Hello" approach.

The idea is to make the first few rooms the prospective buyer sees so enticing that he falls head over heels.

For my client, I worked on making the foyer, living room, dining room and kitchen -- the rooms that a Realtor would naturally be showing first -- as attractive and fresh-looking as possible.

I painted the walls in these three rooms. The rest of the house was clean, decluttered and attractively staged. The budget and time for painting bedrooms, bathrooms, and halls just wasn't there. The Realtor agreed that the decision made sense.

The bathroom walls in this house, as in most houses, had been painted semi-gloss, so they were easily washable. Hallway walls cleaned up with a Magic Eraser.

Good Question

Why didn't I just touch up walls that had smudges? Well, we tried that, and the paint Ms. Homeowner had stored didn't work for touch-ups. I tested it in an out-of-the-way corner (behind a door that opens in), and I could tell when it dried that touch-ups would give walls a case of the measles. The paint was leftover from a three-year-old total repaint, but wall paint color can change even over that short a time.

So what if the walls in the kids' bedrooms have some smudges and pencil marks, and the master bedroom walls have a few nail holes? Big deal.

By the time the Realtor winds the tour through the bedrooms, house hunters will have already decided if this is their true love, based on the space, floor plan and other features.

Get the Look Get the Book

My $4.99 eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar, gives other ways to stretch your painting budget, plus much more. Get the facts, download it now, and start staging today!

Thrifty Holiday Decorating

Monday, December 06, 2010

The song says it all. "There's no place like home for the holidays." You're selling your home, so why not capitalize on the nostalgia of the season by making it as warm and inviting as possible to visiting house hunters?

My friend Tricia, who once upon a time blogged at her site, A Rosy Note, knows how to use soft colors and beautiful textures to make a house a home. Her dining room pictured here is decorated for the holidays with pink, red, silver, and greenery.

At holiday time, adding greens like this rosemary plant and poinsettias are a natural. Imitate this look and you have all that's called for in a staged, seasonally appropriate room.

The staged home

When your home is on the market may not be best time to splurge on over-the-top holiday decor. Going all out with lights, ornaments, garlands, collections, wreaths and bows has a few disadvantages.

One difficulty is that seasonal decorations could take money from your staging budget, a budget that will buy you props that will look good now and still look good in January.

Another problem with going overboard with holiday decor is it can distract from the natural good looks of your home. Some buyers may even think the theatrics are hiding problems.

And then there's the time factor. Between the usual celebrations and keeping a home show-ready, you have enough to do.

The solution

What's best for home staging is to place some big and inexpensive seasonal decorations in the right places.

A simple grouping of thrift store glassware could go anywhere -- a mantel, a dresser, a kitchen counter, or top of a bookcase. Forget the fresh flowers and fill them with silk or paper flowers. You say your silk chrysanthemums are yellow and your silk carnations are pink? Spray paint them red, white, or pale green.

An outside entranceway, whether a front door, back door, or even a side door, begs for a seasonal touch. The budget-happy approach is to use what you have and use what nature provides. Yes, I had to purchase a couple of $5 kale plants, and some pansies.

I sprayed bare branches with silver paint, collected pinecones, and put them in ceramic crocks I own. The bow is made from a $2 vinyl tablecloth.

Even those of us who love to decorate don't enjoy the part about taking it all down. One easy decor item to put up and take down is a wreath. Wreaths are usually large, one-piece affairs, unlike intricately decorated Christmas trees, or collections of teddy bears and Santas. You can hang or prop a wreath in all kinds of places, and you're home free.

Foolproof formula

When in doubt, go with something bright. Now's your chance to bring out serving pieces that live most of the year in the back of a cabinet or closet. Even if you have already decluttered, shop your home for silver, brass, and glass. Then add some shiny strings of beads and some silver or gold ornaments, but nothing so precious it might grow legs at an open house or home tour.

Kitchens are so important to buyers that the more homey and at the same time luxurious you can make yours, the better. I love a simple but glitzy circle of faux gold berries or plastic ornments, which would be fast and frugal to imitate using craft store and dollar store finds.

Readers of my eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar know that I'm big on greenery as a prop for staging. In fact, I like to see some kind of living or pretend greenery in each room. The book includes a list of what every room needs to appeal to buyers.

Happy holidays!

I hope the holidays you celebrate next year are in your new home, decorated exactly to your heart's content, as elaborate or as simple as you want it to be.

DIY No-Sew Cafe Curtains

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Every home stager wants to get as much natural light into rooms as she can.

That means no heavy draperies or sun-blocking shades. There are plenty of possibilities – from lightweight curtains and sheer drapes to pull-backs and Roman shades.

Problem view?

But what's a stager to do when there’s a view from the window that doesn’t exactly help sell the property? Neighbors with ugly yards, a factory, the back of an apartment building, a busy road, or a construction site are all common problems.

No one can make these things disappear, but a clever stager can minimize the impact by helping buyers forget the problem. Enter curtains that let in light but hide the view.

Easy solution

Here is my spin café curtains that are DIY-friendly, even to someone with no sewing skills. The lower portion can be kept closed to conceal some outdoor unsightliness, and the top can be kept open, hopefully revealing blue skies, mature trees, or a distant view.

What I like about these cafe curtains is that they are reminiscent of a natural sisal rug bound in black, or a traditional woven reed tatami mat used for flooring in Japan. The way I see it, anything classic in a staged home is a bonus.

The mats I chose to work with can be purchased dirt cheap in summer by the beach. Amazon sells them all year long for about $6 each. They are called beach mats, picnic mats or yoga mats, and they measure about 3 feet by 6 feet.

What you need

2 straw beach mats

Yardstick

Pencil

Scissors

Grosgrain ribbon to edge the mats, 7/8 inch wide, about 6 yards for each mat used

Grosgrain ribbon to make loops, 3/8 inch wide, about 2 yards for each mat used

Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Dressmakers straight pins or masking tape

Dressmakers marking pencil or chalk

Having a table large enough to accommodate the length of the curtain helps. It doesn’t need to be big enough to lay out the whole mat, because the mat folds over easily. Protect your work surface from hot glue drips if necessary.

Install hardware

If you do not have curtain rods installed, do that first. I used spring tension rods that sit inside the window frame. I chose black because I liked the way it looked with the black ribbon loops. The curtain rods, top and bottom should match.

Measure for the curtain

Measure the distance from the top of the curtain rod to where you want the curtain to end. The lower curtain should end at the window sill. The upper curtain should end just below the lower curtain rod. That figure minus one inch is your curtain length. If your window has an upper and lower sash, both curtains will probably be the same length because the rod will fall in the middle.

Cut the mat

First you'll divide the mat in two. Heat up your glue gun because you’ll need it as soon as you cut the mat in half. If there are cloth ties on the end to tie the mat as a roll, cut them off. Fold the mat in half crosswise. With scissors, cut on the fold. The mat will want to unravel, so run a bead of glue down the edge to seal the stitches that have come loose. Don't worry if you lose a long reed or two. You may have to scrunch some of the reeds back in place and stick them down with glue. The ribbon will cover your glue repair.

Glue the edge to prevent unraveling.

If your upper and lower curtains are different lengths, decide if you are making the upper or lower first. With a pencil, measure and then mark the length on one of your grass mat panels. Draw a line across the width of the panel to the correct length, and with scissors cut on this line. Going in this direction, across the reeds, the mat does not unravel.

Measure the right curtain length and draw a line.

Cut on the line to shorten the curtain.

Attach ribbon

Lay the mat right side up (both sides are probably the same, but one side may look better) on your work table. Lay a length of 7/8-inch ribbon along the edge that will be the length of the curtain. Cut the ribbon the length of the curtain, plus an inch on each end. You might as well cut the ribbon for the other edge at the same time. My curtain panels were 25 ½ inches long. So I cut two lengths of ribbon 27 1/2 inches long.

Cut ribbon longer than the curtain.

Glue ribbon onto edges

Secure one end of ribbon by placing a dab of glue in the outermost corner of mat. Both sides of grosgrain ribbon are the same, so there's no right or wrong side. Align your ribbon by placing the center of it directly over the glue dab, so that the ribbon is centered over the edge of the mat, allowing the extra inch to overhang the end. Press on top of the ribbon so it sticks well to the glue.

Add a dab of glue to the corner of the mat.

.Press end of ribbon into glue, leaving 1-inch overhang

Add an 8- to 10-inch line of glue along the edge of the mat. Pull the ribbon straight, lay it down on the hot glue, and press it flat with your fingers. You can feel where the edge of the mat is, so you can line up the middle of the ribbon with the edge of the mat as you go. The ribbon should look like a perfectly straight line.

Lay a line of glue 8 to 10 inches long.

Lay ribbon in glue, feeling the edge of the mat underneath it.

Pull back the ribbon after each 8- to 10-inch run, so that you begin the next line of glue where the last line of glue stopped. This will prevent any gaps where the ribbon is not affixed. You should have a 1-inch overhang of ribbon at the end. Trim the ribbon to a ½- inch overhang.

Next you want to glue the ends of the ribbon to the back of the curtain. Let glue cool for a minute. Turn mat over. Lay a thin line of glue along the cut end of the ribbon. Quickly wrap the ribbon around the edge of the mat and press it down onto the back of the mat. It’s neater if you put the glue on the ribbon because you know it will be hidden behind ribbon.

Lay a thin line of glue along the cut end of ribbon.

Press the glued ribbon down on the back of the mat.

Repeat on other edges

Glue the ribbon along the edge of the opposite end, first making sure you have right side up. Measure and cut ribbon for top and bottom edges as before, adding two extra inches. Glue ribbon to top and bottom edges. Wrap the ends around to the back of the mat just as you did to the first two edges. You should have all 4 edges trimmed in ribbon.

Turn mat over and glue end of ribbon to corner of mat.

Glue ribbon to top and bottom edges.

This what the back of the curtain looks like at one corner.

Cut the ribbon loops

Calculate how long the loops should be by wrapping a piece of ribbon around your curtain or drapery rod. Add an extra inch. I wanted a 1 ½ inch long loop to show, so I needed 3 inches for each loop, plus another inch for gluing and slack. I cut my ribbon into 4-inch lengths. Cut your ribbon into the lengths you need, for example, longer than 4 inches for a fatter curtain rod.

Calculate how long to make loops by wrapping ribbon around the rod.

To figure how many loops you need, fold mat in half, right sides together. Using a dressmakers straight pin or a piece of tape, mark where the fold is on the back side of the mat. Open the mat, and working on the back side, mark where ribbon loops will go.

My curtain width was 34 inches. I placed a pin on the fold, in the center, 17 inches in from each edge. Using a yardstick I measured and marked with pins points at 8 ½ inches in, and then at every 4 ¼ inches. In other words, divide, then divide in half again to determine points that are equally spaced. Or eyeball the placement, and mark with pins, figuring one loop at each end, one in the middle and the rest spaced equidistantly.

Use pins or tape to mark where the loops will go.

Attach ribbon loops

Dab two small dots of glue on one end of each cut ribbon, then fold and press to make a loop. So that all the tabs will be the same length once they are glued on, mark with a dressmakers pencil a line 1/2 inch in from the cut end of each ribbon.

Mark 1/2 inch in from cut end of the ribbon loops.

With your little mark facing up, align each ribbon loop with a pin or piece of tape, whichever you used to mark where loops should go.

Align each loop with a pin, and with the edge of the mat.

Be sure your mat is wrong side up. Align the little mark on the ribbon with the edge of the straw mat, and with the pin or tape you used to mark where loops should go. Place a dab on glue on the curtain, and press ribbon loop onto glue. Glue down all the loops, keeping them perfectly aligned, equally spaced, and at right angles to the top edge of the curtain.

Hang your curtains

When the glue has cooled thoroughly, remove one end cap or filial from each of the curtain rods. Thread the loops through the rods, and replace the end caps. Hang the upper and lower rods, each with two curtain panels.

The grass mat filters the sunlight and adds texture to a room.

Space the loops along the rod, and adjust the folds of the curtains so they hang evenly. It's true that some of the original cotton fabric trim will show on the reverse side. Unless you hang your curtain in a window that faces a porch where people sit close to the house, no one will notice.

My cafe curtains for a 31- by 54-inch window cost me about $21.00 including the two tension rods at $2.60 a piece, and two mats at $2.50 each. If I had to buy mats from Amazon, my cost would have increased by only $7.

Typical price for a beach mat, in season.

I paid $10.05 for all my ribbon, but you could pay less if you shop online. Purchased online, you can buy 20 yards of 3/8 inch solid color ribbon for only $2.65, or the same amount of 7/8 inch ribbon for $3.90.

My straw mat curtain lets in light but gives me privacy. I love it.

Get the look, get the book

My eBook DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar, and my eBook No-Sew Curtains and Draperies to Stage Your Home give you loads of thrifty decorating ideas for making your home attractive to buyers, including how to arrange furniture you already own, how to choose paint colors that work for you, what to buy second hand, how to make window treatments without sewing, and how to use mismatched or out-of-date furniture.

What Home Sellers Can Learn from Todd Smith

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Since it's Thanksgiving Day, I wanted to share a post from blogger, author, and entrepreneur, Todd Smith. Todd's comments have to do with cultivating a grateful mind, an important habit for all of us, and especially for people who have a home to sell.

What's your position?

Many home sellers are simply wanting to get out from under a mortgage they aren't able to keep up with. Others might be a few steps away from foreclosure. I hope you are not one of those. I hope you have decided to sell your home for all the best reasons -- a new job, a more suitable home, a more desirable neighborhood, better schools, or purely for the adventure that a change brings.

When you visit Todd's site, Little Things Matter, be sure to read "Meet Todd," because he has an interesting personal story about how he worked to become a successful real estate agent. Whether you are an agent, or someone who works with a Realtor, you'll be impressed with his attention to detail as a formula for success.

Start small because small is important

While I've designed my site to give you advice on staging your home to sell faster for a good price, Todd offers up an abundance of smart information on all kinds of life skills, from managing your time and your money, to building better relationships and losing weight. His stress is always on the small but important details.

Home staging and decorating share that same need for attention to detail. Decorator/designer Eddie Ross said that one of the things he learned while working for Martha Stewart was that details are what make the difference in crafts, table settings, decor...whatever.

Don't let D.O.M spell doom

Paying attention to details, and keeping a thankful mindset are especially helpful when your home has been on the market for a longer time than you expected. I talk about the challenges of living in a home that's seen too many days on the market in my eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar.

I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving, counting your blessings. My readers will be among the many blessings I count.

Ten Ways to Rock the Global or Boho Look

Monday, November 22, 2010

I usually advise against ethnic decorating for staging, but the global or boho look is so handsome that I wanted to find a way home stagers could use it.

Global decor is characterized by its cultural diversity, its love of color, texture, and pattern, as well as its emphasis on items made by hand from natural materials.

From a staging point of view, though, global decor has some problems. First, it tends to be dark or muddy, with undertones of browns -- not crisp and clean. Secondly, some demographic groups prefer a more red-white-and-blue approach, more Ralph Lauren than Pier 1.

Finally, ethnic decor can give off an artsy or eclectic look that's not understood or appreciated by less sophisticated buyers.

Unique objects can be distracting and confusing to some people.

But if you want to make your rooms memorable for people who are looking at multiple homes, the slightly exotic flair of global decor might be the way to do just that. Global design is more likely to resonate with buyers in more metropolitan areas than in small towns, and more with younger buyers than older ones. Still, some elements appeal to everyone.

To make global decor appropriate for staging, here are tips.

Limit the wild stuff

Photo: Elle Decor

This San Francisco room belongs to Monelle Totah, who is vice president of design at Williams Sonoma. It manages to capture the fun vibe of global design and still look sophisticated. For home staging, one zebra rug is gonna be enough for the whole house! Go easy on the bizarre. Not only is it distracting, but you want buyers to relate to you in a positive way, not wonder what the heck kind of person lives here.

Keep the color scheme simple

Even though this room uses modern materials like glass and steel, the look is ethnic because it's accessorized with bold, handmade objects. The room is grounded by a simple color scheme of black and white. With touches of wood, the effect is one of comfort and richness. Simplicity's important to keep house hunters from feeling overwhelmed.

Accessorize with whimsy

Touches of some humor make a room more friendly to buyers.

While global style often counts on bold carved or painted masks to create that well-traveled look, a home stager will get better mileage from whimsical and abstract art.

Also on the list of what to pack away: paintings of saints, statues of Buddha, crucifixes, Krishna shrines, and other religious artifacts. Buyers can have emotional reactions to the connotations these items carry.

Buy from fair trade sources

You can purchase decor items like trays from the importer, wholesaler, and retailer, Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit fair trade organization that markets handcrafted products made by local craftspeople from more than 130 artisan groups in 38 countries. Through their website and stores, you can purchase decorative and useful items from around the world and know your money is going to the people who make them.

Collect your own props

When you travel and when you are out and about in nature, you can be staging your home at the same time! Be on the lookout for found objects and souvenirs that fit with a global look. This could include a Navajo blanket from your trip to the Southwestern U.S., or the acorns you gathered on your walk in the woods. Of course, shells are always a favorite decor prop, whether collected or purchased.

Use natural materials

Natural materials make global decor
warm and real. Photo: Flynnnside
Out Productions via HGTV

Global style -- also called tribal style -- focuses on natural woods and fabrics, and other organic elements.

Think tropical woods like mahogany, teak, walnut, and other dark stained woods. Textiles should be silks (or silk look-alikes), cotton, and linen.

Wicker and rattan are perfect, are not expensive and contribute to a textured, layered look. Bamboo is one green product that's currently showing up in all kinds of ways, from flooring to fabrics to cutting boards.

An area rug of sea grass, jute or sisal will set the tone for a room built around natural materials.

The danger here for someone staging her home for sale, is veering too far into rustic territory. Most buyers feel more confident when they see familiar objects. They prefer to be surrounded by what they consider to be luxurious rather than what they see as unrefined or primitive elements. It helps to know your market, and who your most likely buyers are. Oriental and dhurrie rugs are classic and safe.

Your props have to work for staging. This means that faux finishes, if convincing, can help you create a natural look. Perhaps you'll choose to turn a laminate countertop or plastic plant container into one that looks like stone, or paint a group of picture frames to imitate ebony. That's just good staging.

Don't forget that greenery, real or silk, is one of the best ways to give a room some life. For the style we're talking about here, tropical plants with big leaves, as well as wild grasses, will contribute to the look.

Lay on the textures

A variety of textures make the room look interesting. Nubby rugs, smooth walls, glassy metals, and some pillows with interesting textures and rich colors, all add up to a room that makes buyers want to stay a while.

The more time house hunters spend in your home, the more emotionally invested they become, and the more likely you are to see a purchase offer. Retail stores and online sites know this rule. They encourage lingering, making the most of the time customers spend with them.

Add handmade accessories

Look for one-of-a-kind items like bowls, baskets, sculptures, rugs, and tapestries. Many retail stores and boutiques offer unique collections of decor accents like pillows, frames, and candlesticks. Thrift stores can be a treasure trove of unusual, ethnic props. Shop World Market, Boho Luxe Home, and Island Woods for ideas and products. Avoid anything crudely fashioned because it could cheapen the look you're aiming for.

Keep it informal

Incorporating some formal touches will add elegance. Many Americans, especially older ones, tend to equate quality with poshness and formality.

To keep the global look from looking too casual, add formal flourishes like pairs of chairs or pairs of lamps. Some shiny surfaces like glass, metals and mirrors push a room towards more formality. In this photo, the matched chairs and sets of pillows, plus the sparkling chandelier, all the mirrors, and a glistening silver tray keep this room from looking too informal.

Add authentic items

Photo: http://www.featheringanest.blogspot.com

Pulling off the tribal look with aplomb isn't difficult when you mix in some traditional arts. One example is batik, a distinctive fabric print made by painting designs with hot wax before the fabric is dyed. It has a look all its own.

You can count on the traditional arts and crafts of any country, including Native America, for decorative elements.

You can even mix pottery from Mediterranean countries, textile wall hangings from India, wooden picture frames from Bali, lacquerware from Japan, punched tin from Mexico, painted tiles from Morocco, and bark paintings from Africa.

I talk about what styles of interior decoration work well for home staging and which ones don't in my eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar.

The appeal of global decorating is its richness of textures, variety of patterns, and saturation of colors -- techniques you can incorporate into almost any home. Frugal DIY home stagers can easily imitate this warm and relaxing style because they can find many of its characteristic elements at flea markets and second-hand stores.

So, pretend you're taking a trip around the world, and have fun with this approach to staging. Adding some international flair will inject the kind of style that will make your home the one that buyers remember.

Girl's Guide to Painting Your Front Door

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Yes, you can paint your own front door, and do it perfectly!

What makes this a girl's guide rather than a uni-gender guide?

First, you'll paint the door in place, so there's no need to pull hinge pins and lug the door somewhere to put on sawhorses.

And like a real lady, you'll get beautiful results without making a mess. You'll do it the right way. My way. If that's not female thinking, what is?

Do not paint a door the way most HGTV hosts paint a door, with it closed, and starting in the middle. So wrong. I've painted many doors, both interior and exterior. These are my best tips.

Test your door

Even before you decide on a color and go to buy your paint, you'll need to know if your door was painted the last time with oil paint or latex paint.

If you put latex paint on top of glossy oil paint, it will not adhere, and it can begin soon to flake off.

Testing is simple. Dip the corner of a rag in rubbing alcohol. Rub the moistened rag on the paint surface. If any paint comes off, it is latex paint. If no paint comes off, it is oil paint. If you have a door painted with oil paint, you will have to apply a bonding primer, or else use oil again.

You do not want to use oil, and in many states, you cannot even buy oil paint anymore. Talk to your paint supplier about a good bonding primer.

It helps to know the names of the different door sections.

Timing is everything

Choose a day that's good for painting. Since you'll have to keep your door open, it's best if it's not too hot or cold. If your door is a metal one, it's especially important that you not paint on a day so hot that the metal is hot, because your paint will dry too fast, making it difficult to get good results. A windy day isn't good either because the air is full of junk.

You need a day when it's okay to leave the door ajar for a few hours. Start when you have more than an hour of undisturbed time because you can't walk away mid-project. If you start late in the day, you want a two-day window of good weather.

Have a plan

Read these instructions. That's the girly way. Gather your supplies. Here's the list:

Work clothes and gloves, because you're bound to get paint on you.
Fine sandpaper, about the same grit as one of your emery boards.
Clean rag, damp on one end, dry on the other.
Broom and dustpan, because debris in wet paint is problematic.
Dropcloth
One quart latex exterior paint, either semi-gloss or satin finish, but you'll use less than half of that amount, in case you want to use something you already have on hand.
Stir stick
Clean work bucket (empty 1-gallon paint can or a plastic bucket)
Paintbrush, a good one, 2 to 3 inches wide
Masking tape (optional)
Step stool if you are under 5'5"

First step: Prep

With the door closed (just like on television!), sand the entire surface. Open the door, and sand the hinged edge and around the perimeter where you couldn't sand with the door closed. Fine-grit sandpaper is good for most doors, but if there are rough spots or drips, or lots of trash in the last painter's paint, use a medium-grit to start with.

Place something immovable behind the door so you can paint it in an open position without it moving or fighting you. Use something heavy, but soft enough that it won't scratch the interior door surface.

Sweep the floor all around the door and get rid of all dust and loose stuff. Lay a drop cloth under the door and cover up or move away anything that can be damaged by paint, like your welcome mat, flower pots, porch floor, brick steps, handrail, or furniture. Use the damp rag to wipe down the surface of the door.

If you see mildew on the door, wash it with a 50/50 solution of bleach and water, then wipe with a clean damp cloth. Make sure the door is dry everywhere before continuing.

Cover with masking tape anything you think you will have trouble painting around cleanly, like the doorknob, knocker, house numbers, or the rubber sweep along the bottom edge. I chose to just paint around the doorknob, sweep, house numerals, and glass.

Pop the lid

Open the paint, and carefully stir it with the stir stick. Pour all of it into the work bucket and stir again to distribute any solids.

Wipe the lip of the paint can with your brush, and use your rag to clean off any paint that dripped down the side, so you'll always have a legible label on your paint can.

Replace the lid on the can and get it out of your way so you don't back up to admire your work and trip on it.

When doing this part, end the paint edge
in the grove so it's easy to get a straight line.

Edge it

Paint the hinged edge first. The rule is when a door is painted different colors on two sides, each of the side edges gets a different color.

The hinged edge gets the outside color when the door swings in. If your door swings out (the way storm doors do) the leading edge -- with the knob -- gets the exterior color.

The door I'm painting had painted hinges, so I had to paint them again. If your hinges are still metal, paint around them, or mask them with tape.

Keep a clean line on the edge so paint doesn't wrap around to the inside of the door. Use the damp edge of your rag to clean any paint that goes where it shouldn't.

Next, I painted around the house numerals, the glass, and the knob.

Do the reveals and panels

If your door has raised panels, paint the reveals next. Then paint the panels themselves. Double-check that no paint is dripping down the corners of the reveals.

The final up-and-down strokes should cover
the ends of your crosswise strokes.

Paint cross pieces

Next paint the rails, starting with the top one, continuing to rail #2, then rail #3 which includes painting around the knob, and finally #4 at the bottom.

When you paint the bottom rail, keep paint off the flexible rubber sweep, unless it was painted already by the last painter, in which case you might as well paint it again.

Paint up and down

Finally, paint the stiles. If you can manage it, make the final brush strokes on the two side stiles go from top to bottom in one stroke.

Start with the stile on the hinged side, and finish with the knob side, keeping a clean, straight edge because that's the edge you'll see most often.

To get a clean line on the vertical edge of the door, lightly load the brush with paint, and lay it crosswise at the edge, patting the paint lightly as though you were applying blush, or frosting a delicious chocolate birthday cake (fantasizing here). This way, you're letting the natural edge of the door make painting a straight line easy. Then, make a vertical stroke to smooth out the paint surface.

Start the edge strokes like you are frosting a cake.

While the paint is still wet, check every square inch of the door's surface to be sure you don't have drips or runs. Latex paint dries quickly, so depending on the temperature of the day and of the door, you may not be able to do overbrush strokes. But you can dab away drips.

What's the roller story?

I often use a small roller to paint doors because it leaves a stippled surface that usually levels out to give you a uniform surface with no brush strokes. Brushstrokes aren't necessarily a bad sign, as long as they are smooth and even.

If your door is one large flat surface, I recommend using a small roller after first cutting in the tricky parts with a brush.

If you choose to use a roller, you could finish
the job with your roller at this point in the project,

Pickup time

Wait until the paint is thoroughly dry to remove the drop cloth.

Meanwhile, pour your paint back in the original paint can and wipe the lip and clean off the label if there is paint covering any lettering. This way, you'll always have a record of what is in the can.

Mr. Lucky is saying to me, "Be sure to tell them to use a good brush."

Okay. Use a brush that has a tapered tip. I'm not talking about an angled brush, although that would be fine to use. A tapered tip means the bristles will end gradually, like a layered haircut, not bluntly. Tapering is what gives you good control of the paint.

Wash your brush well, even if you will be using it the next day. Use warm water and a little dish detergent to help dissolve all the paint on the brush.

Drying, Here is when a storm door helps protect your
door until it is completely dry. If bugs fly into the
wet paint, let them die, and then pick them
out of the dried finish of the open door.

I always switch to latex gloves for this operation because whatever chemicals are in paint to make it dry fast, are hard on a girl's hands. If you got an early start and you are putting two coats on the door in one day, you could wrap your brush bristles well in plastic wrap until it's time for the second coat.

The second coat always goes faster, because the prep work is done and the surface is smoother.

Watch paint dry

The longer you can leave the door slightly ajar, the better. Closing it too soon could off-set the paint onto your trim or gasket, and that's never a good thing. But isn't your newly painted door pretty?

Since your entrance is such an important part of curb appeal, painting a front door is something every gal should know how to do.

Download my eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar, for more helpful tips and techniques to make your DIY home staging effective and easy.