• Affordable Updates to Enhance the Look of Your Home
  1) To add value and style to your home's interior

• Give your home a mini facelift with a redesign  Do you have cabin fever?  How about your home?  It’s a proven fact that the lack of sunlight in the winter can cause feelings of depression and fatigue.  Well, your home can actually suffer from this illness too and could actually be causing some of your symptoms of cabin fever.  So what can you do about it?  Redesign your home.

• Redesign Your World … One Room at a Time - Come on, admit it – how many of you are HGTV design junkies?  And how many of you are lucky enough to have a resident carpenter, an electrician and a crew of 20 to do the work?  Or an average TV show budget of $2000?  How about someone to do your hair and make-up before that exciting room reveal? 

• Interior Redesign: What You Need to Know About Hiring  a One-Day Decorator - Interior redesigners - also known as interior refiners, redecorators, interior arrangers, one day decorators, room makeover specialists and home stylists - bring a unique perspective to their clients' decorating dilemmas. While the business model of traditional interior design services is largely based on profits from the markup of furnishings and contract services which are resold to the client, interior redesigners are overwhelmingly service oriented.

• Should I Hire A Professional Re-designer? - Hiring a professional re-designer depends on you and your available free time, patience, creativity and much more.

• Consider Resale Value when Remodeling - Most often, a person’s home is their largest investment. It’s therefore wise to consider resale value when  undertaking any substantial remodeling project.

back to top

• FAQ’s - HOME STAGING AS A CAREER
  So you think you would like to become a Home Stager?

• Simple Bathroom Renovation Tips for Selling
  At all of my public talks on Preparing Your House for Selling home sellers want to know ‘Which are the most important rooms for selling?. My answer is always - the bathroom and the kitchen.

• 10 Home Staging Tips - Preparing your house for selling can be a daunting and overwhelming task whether you have lived in your home a few years or many. The longer you have lived in your home the more things you will have acquired. The intent of this Top 10 Tips for Successful Home Staging is to help you save TIME, MONEY & ENERGY.

• Company’s 2006 Results: Home Staging Can Make Substantial Impact on a Home’s Marketability
  From coast to coast, home staging is quickly becoming the industry standard in a competitive real estate market. Real estate agents have always emphasized the importance of appealing to a buyer's emotions when selling a home. New research now validates that theory and local data shows that staging before selling can bring profitable results in a slowing market.

• Setting The Stage For Success - I am a Professional Real Estate Stager & Interior Decorator. I am Ohio’s 1st. provider & instructor for Realtors® 2hr C.E.U. about the POWER of staging. My homes, (product), have sold in as little as ONE DAY! 84% sell usually in 30 days!
  What is staging? I am asked this ALL the time. Staging is a verb. It is the action of doing something. Staging can be from one end of the spectrum-renting & setting furniture up in vacant home to making over 200 suggestions for occupied or vacant home. So “staging” is a word used to describe many things.

• So You've moved into your new home-now what? - You've finally finished the paper-mill marathon that is closing on your new home.  Soon You'll be moving in- now what?  Keep the old sofa or buy a new one?  Stick with taupe or paint the whole place blue?  And woe to the bachelor who must face the labyrinth of drapes, sheers, blinds, scarves, rods, and rings. Tackling window treatments doesn't  have to be like plotting the Normandy Invasion, if your lucky enough to work with someone like Paula Henry of Simply Put Interiors in Reisterstown.

• Consider Resale Value when Remodeling - Annual Update Most often, a person’s home is their largest investment. It’s therefore wise to consider resale value when undertaking any substantial remodeling project.

• Safety First: Before Listing Your Home, Remove That “Block of Knives”  I have been professionally staging homes in Colorado Springs, Denver and the Front Range area for four years. Safety for the Realtors who show the homes I stage (or any home listed for sale), has long been a passion of mine.

• Consider Resale Value when Remodeling - Most often, a person’s home is their largest investment. It’s therefore wise to consider resale value when  undertaking any substantial remodeling project. Each November, REMODELING Magazine publishes their annual “Cost vs. Value Report”, comparing construction cost with resale value in over 50 markets.

• Selling your Home Vacant or Furnished? - There is ongoing debate among home sellers and realtors alike as to which scenario--vacant or furnished will bring sellers higher priced offers on their homes?  This issue is often overlooked by sellers because of the inconvenience of putting off the physical move until after a home is sold. After all, sellers want to get their lives back to “normal” as quickly and conveniently as possible, particularly when children are involved.   

• Get your Asking Price – or More - If you are thinking about putting your house on the market now and hope to sell, move and get settled as quickly as possible - home owners take note.  The average buyer has little imagination when it comes to projecting themselves into a resale home.  Even though you spent countless hours painting and decorating for yourselves it means little to the young couple viewing your home.  They may enjoy a cursory glance at your novels and the cute family snapshots adorning the walls.  They may be awed by your china and crystal collection.  But it will never feel like their home.  They won’t be able to get past your personal style.  You want them to feel at ease, welcomed and able to imagine themselves living there.

• Selling your Wonderland in the Winter! - While Spring is the most common time to put your house on the market, selling in the “off” season of winter can be a very shrewd move and have it’s advantages.  Think of it as the “Pre Season Market”. With fewer homes on the market, there is less competition. Get that buyer before the other house down the street goes up for sale in the spring. 

• Dressed to Sell: Staging makes the Difference - Within seconds of walking into a house, prospective buyers form an impression and know whether they want to buy the house or not.  In some cases they won’t even get out of the car, upon looking at the outside of the house.

• Staging lets home sing for a sale - "It's a nice house with a beautiful fireplace, but it doesn't have the sparkle," admits her broker, Maura Bang

• What should I do to get my house ready?  - Paint the kitchen mint green.

• Staging 101 - Staging is HOT now, but…

• The way you live in a home and the way you sell your house are two very different things!” - Your house is probably your biggest asset; selling it can be one of the most important decisions in your life.

back to top

• What Is Green Design and How You Can Bring It Into Your Home: Seeing Green? No, not the green-eyed monster, but eco-friendly decorating in your home. Also known as sustainable design or environmentally friendly decorating, using these products can have a healthy impact on people and the planet.

• Spring Decorating Tips: Just when you’re ready to repeat the end-of-winter mantra “I’m so tired of winter,” a faint warm wind brushes your cheek, blue skies peak from behind a gray cloud, and the hue of green begins to color the hard brown earth.

• Decorating Children’s Bedrooms Our House, Their Room If you are planning on decorating your child’s bedroom, to avoid fights, hassles and headaches, let them be involved in the planning stage.

• How to find inspiration for your next decorating project I always receive calls from desperate clients who just don’t know where to start with their decorating project and they always ask me what I would do with their room. Well, as a decorator it isn’t up to me to decide how to decorate your room; it has to come from you!

• Now is the time to take a NEW LOOK at the things that you are surrounded by in your home, because what we surround ourselves with reflects who we really are. If you like what you see - good for you, if you think you need some changes then I hope my article will help you with that.

•  How to Select Art for Your Home - Selecting art for your home can be an exciting adventure and a source of enjoyment for years to come.   Keys to success are figuring out what kind of art you like, how it will fit in with the rest of your interior design plans, and how to exhibit the art to the best effect in your home. 

• The One Day Way to Decorating Your Home -  Great Decorating does not necessarily mean it has to cost a lot of money or take a great deal of time. The things that make a home fabulous are using elements in unexpected ways. Just because they call it a china closet...doesn't mean you have to store china in it. Don't get hung up on what the original purpose of the room was....use it how it works best for your lifestyle. Just because they called it a dining room doesn't mean it can't be a sitting room. Think outside the box and have fun with your home!

• Real Life Designs - Creating a space that is multi-functional as well as interesting can be easily achieved by dividing the space into several smaller vignettes.  The living or family rooms are usually the rooms where maximum usage is most desirable. With an abundance of larger homes on the market, creating a space that feels warm and inviting can pose a challenge. As in the case of many urban dwellers space can be a costly luxury.  Both of these dilemmas can be easily resolved by utilizing the space to create smaller rooms within a room.

• Rejuvenating Your Space For Spring - Ready for spring, but your room still reflects winter?  It doesn’t take a lot of time or dollars to transform your winter setting into an inviting spring space.  Every room needs a lift come spring to keep the vitality alive!  Let your space welcome the new season along with you. 

• Taking the Guesswork out of the Guest Rooms - There are many things you can do to make guests feel welcome, even if you have only a small amount of space to offer. The ultimate goal is to make your houseguests feel comfortable, welcome and to be able to discover their own little place for privacy.

• Secrets to a Sensational Room... using what you already have - Are you confused as to how to ‘pull a room together’? Do you want your home to feel more spacious, warm and inviting? You might be tempted to add another chair, piece of artwork or accessory hoping it will magically transform the room.

• Add 'Finishing Touches' to your Fall Fix-up List - Most homeowners know what type of fix-up work needs to be done on their homes before winter settles in.  Whether it’s installing storm windows, painting, weatherproofing or shutting down the irrigation system, there is plenty of challenging exterior projects to tackle. 

• Working@home: How to create a Functional Home Office - The home office has come a long way and statistics confirm its growing allure---more than 50 million Americans work from home in some capacity, according to the American Internet Users Survey. 

• "Shelf Esteem”…from bookcase to showcase!! - Your books tell stories and so should your bookshelves.  Along with your collectibles, memorabilia and framed photos, they give visitors and guests a glimpse of who you are….your interests, talents and hobbies.

• Bookcases.....They're Not Just About Books! - Most of us treat our bookcases as the "catch all area" in our Homes.  The telephone books, magazines, DVD's and anything else we don't know where to store, gets crammed full in our bookcases.

• TO COLOR OR NOT? THAT IS THE QUESTION. - Imagine living your life in black and white.  Perhaps you'd see some shades of gray.  But a gray rose?  A black apple?  A white snowman?  OK, that one works, but you get my point.

• Decorating for Fall - As the leaves begin to change color, we’re reminded once again that Autumn is in the air – time to cozy up the house and get ready to celebrate the season with a little redecorating.

• Home Improvement The Redesigner’s Version:  Creative, On a Budget, and In An Afternoon!

• Tips on Hanging Artwork - Hang pictures at eye level --about 5½ feet from the floor.

• Holiday Decorating Tips for the Busy Woman - The holidays are upon us and so is the stress and pressure of making sure everything is perfect for your family and friends.  Here are ten simple tips to decorate for the holidays and still enjoy this time of year yourself.

• Garden Style - Long winters and cool springs make us crave to be outdoors and in our gardens once warm weather hits. Extend your garden year-round by decorating your home in Garden Style.

• Window Treatment Tips – Dress Up Your Draperies On A Budget - An important element in our home décor is fabric window treatments. So often we search for the right style only to find that the curtain or drapery is not available in the color we want.

back to top