Montreal Real Estate Blog » Home Staging

Top 6 tips to transform your space for staging or for living

Sveta Melchuk — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:07:14 +0000

Are you looking for a quick and efficient way to brighten up your space and make it look its best without spending too much? You can use these tips for staging your house for sale or for your own enjoyment.

These are some tips from decorators which will make each room stand out (and make your friends jealous of your talents?)

Each room has to have a ‘focal point’ or a main attraction. Either the room already has a natural focal point or you will have to create one and decorate around it. The easiest way is to look for an architectural feature of the room, if there is one. We will give you some examples and the ways to accentuate these features:

Do you have a fireplace? If you do, you already have the main attraction! Depending on the age and the look of it, you can bring it out by either changing the bricks, or painting them. If you need to enhance the fireplace, add the artificial stone around and above it all the way to the ceiling or paint the wall above it a different color. Then add a mantel and place some accessories on it. Don’t overdo it though – just a few well-chosen ones will suffice. A nice painting, a couple of candle holders, maybe even an interesting mirror… Complete the area by placing an area rug in front of it.

If there is a Half-wall in the room and you choose it as a focal point, you can transform it just by changing its color. Any opening to another room can be accentuated by changing the trim around the opening or the inside of the opening. This unexpected look will be sure to catch your visitors’ eye. You can achieve a similar effect with a dropped ceiling; paint it a tone darker than the walls to bring it out.

Any window can be an accent as well, especially if they are big and interesting or offer a nice view. One inexpensive option to bring them out is to paint the window trims a different color than the walls. New blinds, shades and curtains make a huge difference! By choosing the window treatments of the same color as the wall, you will achieve a more elegant and formal look. If you are looking for a more casual look, select the window treatments of a complementary color. For all the details on how to decorate with shades, blinds and shutters, please read http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/decorating-windows-with-shades-blinds-and-shutters.html. An important tip: long curtains make any window seem larger and the current trend is to have the curtains slightly train on the floor for an elegant image.

An Accent Wall brings a wow factor to even the most ordinary room. Usually, the accent wall will be the one next to another focal point (such as a fireplace or a window) if there is one or it will BECOME the focal point of that room. In that case, it should be the first wall you see when you enter a room or a wall on the side of the room. For example, you could accent the wall behind the bed; choose one wall in the living room or the back wall of the dining room so the dining room table is set against its backdrop. The accent wall is usually a darker and deeper color than the other walls. Not sure which color to choose for your accent wall? Find a color you like in a pillow, curtain, sofa or artwork and match a paint color to it for your accent wall.

Most of us don’t have enough lighting. Brighten and lighten your space and you won’t believe the difference. New light fixtures will modernize your décor and you can use lamps to accentuate spaces and objects in the rooms, such as a fireplace, an artwork or even a nice plant. Three main types of lighting should be present in every room. The general lighting could be overhead or recessed lighting for the whole room. As it is usually not sufficient and some rooms (such as the majority of living rooms in North America) don’t have any general lighting, you need to add accent lighting in specific areas, such as table lamps or stand up lamps. Finally, don’t forget task lighting, where needed, to accomplish a specific task, such as kitchen bar lights, or a reading lamp. For all the DOs and DONTs of lighting, please read http://interiordec.about.com/od/lighting/a/Lighting-Dos-And-Do-Nots.htm.

Artwork and accessories are the final touch, subtle but very important. Lamps, decorative cushions and carpeting are only a few of the many objects that you can accessorise with to add a color to a space and harmonise it. For example, if you prefer neutral colors on your walls and furniture, you could accentuate the space with a favorite color – such as apple green, deep purple or orange. Just add some cushions, artwork, and a few decorative objects and spread them around the room.

Whether you are preparing your house for sale or doing it to enjoy living in it, do a bit of research, collect some pictures of the rooms and looks you prefer, get some paint samples and then try it. Best of luck!

Posted By: Sveta Melchuk. Founder of Home Staging Montreal, a Montreal firm specializing in Home Staging and Interior Redesign. Simple and effective solutions, to help you sell your property faster and for more money. Call Sveta at: 514-482-9776 http://www.home-staging-montreal.com/

Should your house be staged before you sell?

Sveta Melchuk — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:00:37 +0000

To Stage or Not to Stage – that is the question! - by Sveta Melchuk

Updated from the Home Staging archives. Originally published on Jun 18th 2007.

Staging a Home for sale will cost you money. Is it worth spending time and effort on it? After all, once the decision to sell has been made, you just want to get it over with as fast as possible, right?

First, did you determine the «right» price for your house? It should be based on certain objective criteria, such as the location of the property, sale price of comparable homes in your neighbourhood and today’s market conditions. But don’t forget the desirability factor…
While you can’t control some of the other criteria, you definitely have a say in the way your property looks, feels and is perceived by prospective buyers. Increase the visual/emotional value of your property and you will increase its desirability, therefore the price and the urgency to buy it from potential buyers. Why

Continue reading: Should your house be staged before you sell?

Would you like to rent your property for more money?

Sveta Melchuk — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:20:11 +0000

Posted by: Sveta Melchuk. Founder of Home Staging Montreal

Professional staging/decorating for rental of a condo or an apartment is becoming more and more in demand. If you are looking for executive rental income for your unit, the property has to be presented accordingly.

Some of the apartments are quite new and others require some cosmetic renovations before decorating for rental. Some clients need help with managing the total project from beginning to end and taking care of things such as:

Make the list of what needs to be updated
Purchase all the materials, tiles, light fixtures, etc.
Provide renovation team to do the work
Provide cleaning team
Purchase all furniture
Purchase all accessories
Purchase linens, towels, even dishes if required
Decorate the apartment for rental

Decorating for rental involves some clever and creative thinking. We want it to look nice but we don’t want to spend a lot.

Continue reading: Would you like to rent your property for more money?

How to Make a Small Room Appear Bigger

Deya Bautista — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:21:43 +0000

Updated from the Home Staging archive. Originally posted on May 08, 2007.

Small rooms are the bane of the home decorator. How do you achieve a pleasing look that doesn’t feel cramped and claustrophobic? Without to have to build an addition or knock down walls, you are limited to a few, but effective, decorating tricks that create the illusion of space.

Use color to your advantage

The strategic use of colour and light is the best way to achieve this. Choose light shades of paint or wallpaper for the walls. Lighter colours reflect light making for a brighter room. Use an even lighter shade of the same colour or white for ceilings and floors. A darker colour on the ceiling will make the ceiling look lower and tends to make the walls look as though they are closing in.

Avoid harshly contrasting colours. In fact, a monochromatic colour scheme that carries throughout the room into fabrics and accessories is very effective. Steer away from too many patterned items. The goal here is to blur perspective

Continue reading: How to Make a Small Room Appear Bigger

Posted By: Deya Bautista - Real Estate Broker working as part of the McGill Immobilier team. Specializing in high end condos in downtown and Old Montreal. For buying or selling contact Deya at: 514.917.7889 http://montrealrealestateblog.com/

Les rénovations les plus payantes

Sveta Melchuk — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:00:35 +0000

Comme vous pouvez constater, il est possible d’accomplir beaucoup avec des petits moyens! Une professionnelle de home staging saura vous conseiller dans les priorités et les démarches à faire pour bien préparer votre maison à la vente. Cette étape est cruciale avant de compléter le tout avec un home staging pour un effet irrésistible!

Tout le monde souhaite maximiser la vente de sa maison mais est-ce que vous savez par où débuter?

On doit bien se préparer afin de réussir et cela prend un peu de temps, un peu d’argent et, surtout, de l’effort!
Dans cette partie de mon article, je vais discuter de la première étape – les travaux de rénovations qui augmenteront la valeur marchande de votre maison. La deuxième partie de l’article portera sur les astuces au niveau de home staging (ou la valorisation résidentielle) – à ne pas manquer!

Il faut distinguer, bien évidemment, les travaux majeurs des réparations et améliorations cosmétiques. Si vous avez l’intention d’habiter votre chez soi encore pendant quelque temps avant de procéder à la vente de votre maison, allez-y pour des rénovations majeurs mais surtout celles qui sont rentables.

Selon l’Institut canadien des évaluateurs les rénovations les plus payantes sont

Continue reading: Les rénovations les plus payantes

Renovations that generates the best return on investment

Sveta Melchuk — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:00:05 +0000

Everyone would like to maximize the sale of their house, but do you know where you should be starting?
It’s imperative to prepare well in order to succeed and that requires a bit of time, a bit of money and some effort.

In this article, I would like to cover the PRE home staging steps, namely the renovation work – which projects are more important, when and what will be your return on investment?

The first and foremost question is whether you are planning to live in your house for a while and enjoy the fruits of your labour or are you ready to move out.�

Continue reading: Renovations that generates the best return on investment

Home Staging – 10 tips for better sale

Sveta Melchuk — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:22:34 +0000

Are you interested in selling your house fast and for top dollar?
If the answer is ‘YES’, then you need to get it ready to look and feel its best. The concept of Home Staging is not new and is used extensively in the USA and Western Canada to market real estate.

These Home Staging tips cover some of the things you can easily do yourself at a minimal cost.

Before you do anything, you have to stop thinking of your house as a HOME and start thinking about it as an investment, for which you want the largest return possible.
If you don’t have pictures that show your house at its best, you are probably missing out on dozens, if not hundreds of potential buyers.
Curb appeal (or, lack of thereof) can deter a visitor from wanting to pursue. The exterior of your house has to be clean and taken care of.
Buyers want to see space, above anything else. You have to declutter, so the visitors can focus on the house and not on your stuff.
Chipped paint, loose or missing tiles, broken door handle, a closet door that doesn’t quite close properly can become a BIG turnoff for a potential buyer. Fix!
Painting is the cheapest way to transform a room! Repaint main rooms in fresh, neutral colors.
Refresh and update. Simple things such as a new bed ensemble, a few decorative pillows and two nice table lamps will transform a bedroom.
Make the house as neutral as possible to please a variety of potential buyers and their lifestyle and taste.
Make sure there is sufficient light in every room– you can’t have too much light!
Space optimization and proper furniture and accessories placement is essential. It will give a home a warm and appealing look and feel and create the WOW factor.

So, a small effort will pay of at the sale time. Stage your house-sell your house WELL!