Staging is Marketing….

OK…it’s one thing to LIVE in your home in a manner that’s comfortable and/or practical for you. After all, it’s YOUR home and you should live the way you want in it!

But….. when you’re selling your property, this changes. Although this is one of the hardest concepts that a seller can grasp, the truth is that once that FOR SALE sign is posted out front, the home becomes a showcase for BUYER attention and interest.

One lesson a successful seller must learn and acknowledge during the process of preparing their home for sale is that it’s not about YOUR lifestyle anymore. It’s all about the buyer now. Rooms need to function as they were intended so there’s no discrepancy as to their purpose. It’s very simple, actually. Once that concept is grasped, the quicker the property will sell…remember: your dining room is a DINING ROOM. It’s not an office. It’s not a laundry center. It’s not a play room. And in some cases, it probably shouldn’t be used for storage…..

lightening up staged spaces….

This funky renovated loft downtown was decorated with a beautiful dark brown velvet sofa and chair and accessorised with dark accessories.  The feeling you got when you walked in was an overall heavy feeling.  Cozy, but heavy.  To keep costs down while trying to infuse some lightness into the space, especially given that we are into the summer months, we just changed up the accessories.  Exchanging a lighter area rug, switching out the dark chair to a lighter colour and adding white pillows and vases make a huge difference in the way the property feels now when potential buyers walk in.  Mission accomplished! 

property sits for 9 weeks prior to staging….

This beautiful property in West Vancouver was listed for 9 weeks and not a single offer…..we were called in to stage the house and there was an accepted offer after the first week.

I think the before and after photo’s speak for themselves.  The living room was the right off the main entrance and looked dark and traditional.  We brought in contemporary furnishings in light colours and kept the existing art, using that as the colour pallet for the accessories.  The result was a room that looked spacious and airy, much better for the many grey days we experience on the west coast!

Staging a “kid’s” living room back into a space for grownups!

Clients with three small children used the main living room as a wrestling area for play.  Thankfully they did realize that they needed to appeal to the “grown-up” buyer Using the existing sofa (and an area rug we found in another room), we just added a few grown up accessories, chairs and coffee table and moved the toys downstairs to the giant playroom that was already set up for play.  The Realtor was thrilled with the new look as it will make for much better photo’s on the MLS….

“We were referred to Spacelift by our Realtor, who raved about how great SPACELiFT was. Well, they did not disappoint – in just one brief in-home consultation and a day of work, Lisa and Jill fully transformed our house from the typical (read: messy, cluttered, disheveled etc) family home (we have 3 children under 7), to a swanky, chic showroom for DINKs! We were very impressed with their work, communication skills and team spirit. We would strongly recommend them to anyone requiring staging services (in fact, we are going to hire them to help us decorate our NEW home too)!” Eve & Charles Chang

dedicated to the kids...fine for living

staged for grown ups in mind.....

SPACELiFT staged event features Trevor Linden as the star……

BestBuy/FutureShop media event

We had the opportunity to stage a “set” for a media event put on for Best Buy/Future Shop by LG Electronics. They wanted the boardroom to look like a “media” room featuring their newest electronics.  We rented furnishings from FLUFF Rentals, set the stage and then…….got to meet Trevor Linden, the star of the show.  He was gracious as always and spent 1 1/2 hours signing autographs and hanging out with fans.  We love our job!!!!!!!!!

“Lisa and her team were fast, flexible and a pleasure to work with. They were able to meet all our staging needs and her eye for style really helped transform a mundane corporate boardroom into a cozy living area.”  Cam Gordon on behalf of LG Electronics

Trevor Linden

 

Shangri-La staging sells in 15 days

We had the opportunity to stage a condo in the beautiful Shangri-La last month and the property sold in 15 days for above asking price!  The client sent us his testimonial which we would like to share….

“I have sold many homes before but never tried professional staging so this time my family decided to give it a try and the outcome was outstanding. We will say this was our best move ever. Lisa and Jill did a job that far exceeded our expectations in many ways. Their attention to detail, reasonable pricing and ability to transform an empty space to a spectacular living space helped make potential buyers feel at home. We were able to sell our property above market price within 15 days in a market downturn. I would say this service is a must when it comes to selling real estate. I am looking forward to working with SPACELiFT again on future properties.  E Lui

Watch us in action giving tips on how to redesign your home on a budget!

The Redesign feature on CBC Living has now been aired!  If you click on the link below and enter SPACELiFT into the search box, our redesign segment will come up.  It is the second segment after the snowshoeing…..  There are before and after shots as well as some tips on how to redesign your home using only existing furniture and accessories.

People are trying to cut back on spending in today’s economy.  Spending more time at home with friends and family is becoming more important.  Redesign is a great way to give your home a new look without the expense of buying new furniture.  We will come in and “shop” the home.  With fresh, new eyes we give the rooms a new look, often without spending any money on new items.  We find that most home owners have some really great things, they are just not shown to their best advantage.  Sometimes the art is hung wrong or the colour of the feature wall needs to be changed to pull the whole room together.  From a designer’s perspective, we see things in a different light and we love stepping back at the end of the day, having the client walk in the door and be amazed at the transformation of their home!  Hope you enjoy the feature! 

http://www.cbc.ca/livingvancouver/columns_topics.page?

FL!P!T & SPACELiFT featured on CBC Living

What a GREAT start to the year! 

 Jill and I did a consultation before Christmas with a client who was looking for help with some de-cluttering and a redesign before their second child was due in March.  Days after we met with them, we were contacted by CBC Living and asked if we were interested in having them film us in action for a segment they were doing on Redesign. 

Were we?!?!?!  You bet, and we had just the client…..They opened their home (and lives!) to us and the world and were really excited about the whole ordeal.  It takes a special type of person to open their private space and we really appreciated their enthusiasm.

 We had an exhausting but very fun day of filming.  The redesign work was done at a crazy pace because there were only 6 hours to film the before and after.  The filming took the most time with take after take to get it just right.  (being a newbie to filming, I was a little nervous…)  This didn’t leave much time for the actual redesign so we were frantically placing pillows and hanging art, not ideal by any means but the end result was fantastic.  The clients were happy, the camera man and producer were happy, we were happy…..

 The show will be aired on March 10^th, 3:00 CBC.  If you miss it, the shows are all archived.  I haven’t seen the final show but I know the 6 hours of taping is being cut down to 3 minutes……that’s show biz!

 

 

HOLiDAY HOME TOUR

We had the opportunity to decorate a beautiful home for a Holiday Home Tour this weekend.  This tour is to raise awareness for ovarian cancer with all proceeds going to BC Cancer.  Local merchants loan decor from their stores and Vancouver home stagers set up the homes for Christmas.  This table setting was my favorite part of the home we decorated.

We are going to do the tour today and be treated to some beautiful homes that will be decked out for the holidays.  With my eggnog latte in hand, festive decor and music, this day will most certainly put us in the Christmas mood.  Cheers!

Home Holiday Tour Christmas Table

HGTV iS MAKiNG PROSPECTiVE BUYERS PiCKY!

Home staging and design shows on HGTV are geared towards helping home owners make their property look better so they can make more money on their investment. These shows make potential buyers picky but they are reaping the benefits! 

When buyers go into a home now, their expectations are high and if they don’t see nicely furnished, clean and uncluttered homes, they are disappointed.  Do you want disappointment to be the first impression of your property?  It will take a lot to change their minds after that.  Take all the advice you can get from these shows, magazines, newscasts.  It is everywhere. 

These are the before and after shots of what a staged home can look like after packing away the clutter, taking up the carpet and adding paint. 

before de-cluttering

after staging

This property had a tenant living in the home when the home owner hired us to do the staging. After packing up all the clutter, (yes, there is a fireplace there!), pulling up the powder blue shag to reveal beautiful hardwood floors, repainting and a new light fixture…………..Viola!  Amazing.  We used only the home owner’s existing furniture and added a few accessories, keeping the costs down. 

A picture is worth a thousand words…………..and the staged photo is what made it to the MLS site, not the before.  Enough to draw many prospective buyers through the door.  All you can ask of your stager…………   The rest is in the pricing!

Canuck Place Tree at The Sutton Place Hotel

Canuck Place Christmas Tree at The Sutton Place Hotel

The Sutton Place Hotel hosted 12 Christmas trees decorated by local designers for the month of December.  Come down and vote on your favourite tree and all donations will go to Canuck Place.  We trimmed our tree in our company colours and had the decor donated by Cupcakes, the original cupcake store, in Vancouver.  They made up snowflake gingerbread cookies and cupcakes with turquoise “icing” to fit with the theme. 

There are so many great trees to enjoy and each one is unique to the designers that decorated them!

Have a wonderful holiday season!