What I’ve been up too lately….

(please excuse the bad photos. digital photo classes are next on my list of things to-do)

A few weeks ago, a very nice gentleman contacted me about helping him prepare his house to sell. It had been vacant for about a year and he was frustrated with the lack of interest in his property.

I had a great opportunity to work on a re-hab in   the East Atlanta Village area. The contractor and owners decided to keep some of the retro features of the house and update other areas. Once the house was staged, we all wanted to move right in. See for yourself…

So far this house has been on the market for a few weeks and I heard through the grape vine an offer is in the works.  Vacant houses can not get that kind of action. Give me a call for more information about vacant home staging.

Nan Johnston
Southern Staging & Redesign
770-251-0608 home/office
770-301-4786 cell

Usually, sellers that have already relocated have these expenses x 2!  Can you imagine how quickly that can drain your resources? 

Studies show that vacant houses that are not staged prior to going on the market on average stay on the market for 9 months!

This house only took 3 days to sell after going on the market.

That’s a huge relief off this sellers shoulders!

Now they can move on with their life and enjoy their new home without worrying about the expenses of carrying the previous house.

Feel free to contact us for more information about vacant staging.  It may be less expensive than you think.

*Beachy Cottage update…this house was in MLS only 1 day before it received an offer.  Other buyers were purchasing another property, saw this online and wanted to cancel their current contract to purchase this house without ever visiting the property.  Unfortunately for them, the house was already under contract.  Vacant houses can not get this kind of reaction!

Last week, I met a lady from out of state that was preparing her house in GA to sell.  The house had been a rental for several years, needed some TLC and she was in town to oversee the work. She is a Realtor and a home stager herself and had very specific ideas of what she wanted in the way of home staging.  She wanted “beachy-cottage”.  Of course, I love that look and have no problem creating it, but it’s not possible to rent beachy-cottage furniture from any rental company that I’ve ever worked with.

So I had to get to work and make it happen.

Furniture was painted….

an ugly table was repaired and painted….

Loveseats were slipcovered….

an old trunk was found, washed and shellacked….

At the same time I also worked on this “zinc” finished pot and wooden duck. I was so excited about finding accessories to spray paint, I forgot to take some before photos of these. Let’s just say the duck was typical duck colors, nothing wrong with that, but our house is dark and I’m ready to lighten up.  The same goes for the “zinc” like pot…DIY’ers are faux painting items to look like zinc, but it is not a look that I’ve been able to work with over the last 10 years, so white it becomes. 

We have this dark hutch that E refinished years ago and it looks great with the old and the new mixed in together.

See the “zinc” finished pot in it’s new coat of paint? It’s full of real seashells and included with all of the other white-ish accessories, really brightens up the shelves.

Is there such a thing?  Well I’m hear to tell you folks, that there is and it’s not ceramic tile that I’m talking about!  It’s a loose lay vinyl plank.   What?

It’s time to find a replacement floor covering for a property that is about 30+ years old, has old sliding glass doors and when ever there’s a blowing rain, water will leak under the sliding glass door.  Or seep in through the tracks…it’s difficult to tell.  Anyway, needless to say, the carpet gets wet and has to be seen about right away to prevent mildew, mold, etc. 

I’m not a big fan of ceramic tile.  I just don’t like the way it feels under foot.  I love hardwood floors and carpet…I even like a good laminate or vinyl floor depending on the property and room.  So I was researching online and found this site https://www.floorstoyourhome.com/ claiming that they had a water proof flooring solution that was not tile.  Hooray! 

 I online “chatted” with a fellow from this company about my particular situation and asked his advice on what he thought would be a good solution to this water thing.  Floors To Your Home has several different types of flooring for damp areas. He recommended Tuff Guy Loose Lay Vinyl Floor. I’ve watched all the videos, researched the local box hardware stores (you know who I’m talking about) and asked different flooring companies, and haven’t found anything that sounds as great as this product. 

So, I ordered samples and they have arrived.   I must say, I’m impressed! 

Sherwin Williams has a new online tool that anyone can use to instantly turn any photo online into a color palette pulled from more than 1500 Sherwin-Williams paint colors.

Go to www.letschipit.com and they will take you through the entire process.  You can add a button to your toolbar and once you find any photo online that you want to try, click on the “chip it” button in your toolbar to activate, roll over the photo to preview then “chip it”!  A color palette will be created that you can save for future reference.

You can even use this tool on your personal photos that you’ve saved on your computer.