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Martha

Bride's dressing room

Most brides will want to capture every moment of their special wedding day in photographs. Whether your photographer will come to your dressing area, or you will be taking your own shots, set up your bride’s dressing room for a gorgeous but practical background. Here’s how.

1. Choose the right room. It should be large enough to accommodate all the people and activities, bridesmaids, flowergirls, mothers, make-up artists, hairdressers, photographers. Choose one with adequate natural light; north facing windows are best. If there is direct sunlight, you will need drapes or curtains to control it. A closet is a bonus.

2. Clear out the room and clean it thoroughly. Perhaps when it is cleared you will decide to apply a fresh coat of paint, keeping in mind that the colour will be your backdrop.

3. Add only the furnishings you will need. If the room must also be used for a bedroom, you will still need a bed, but perhaps you don’t need the whole bedroom suite. If there is no closet, add a rolling clothing rack to handle the gowns. A comfy chair or loveseat will be great for relaxing as well as posing for photos. A large full length mirror will be required as well as chair or two for makeup and hairdos. Unattractive chairs can be slip covered. Add lamps to ensure adequate lighting for both tasks and mood. A sound system, games or TV will help everyone relax. Last but definitely not least, add a table or desk to hold all the grooming items. Position an attractively framed mirror above it. An alternative is to use a low dresser with attached mirror.

4. Accessorize appropriately. You might dress your grooming table with a beautiful white satin tablecloth. Assemble all the necessary beauty products ahead of time and arrange them in orderly rows. Arrange items like cotton balls, Q-tips, bobby pins, safety pins and other small necessaries in glass jars or candy dishes. You might add an attractive hand mirror or create a display of your wedding day jewelry. Green plants, a table fountain or tropical fish are also good to have, but, don’t overdo it if space is limited. If you are getting dressed in a sparsely furnished bride’s room at a church make sure you will at least have a table and a mirror. Even a card table with a cloth will do in a pinch.

5. Set up for photography. Diffuse harsh light from the window by draping it with white curtains or sheers. Sheers also add a soft feminine touch to your decor. Notice what is being reflected in your mirrors and what is visible through open doors. Non-wedding clothing and footwear should be concealed. Keep all non-wedding mess cleared as soon as it’s created. Remove used cups, dishes and towels. Wedding “mess” such as wedding shoes, dresses, grooming items and flowers add to the scene. However their packaging does not. Unpack everything and remove all the boxes, wrappings and bags from the scene. You can do this even if you are getting dressed in a hotel room.

Author, Martha Stanton-Smith, is a Canadian Certified Staging Professional and owner of Rearrangements home staging, Kingston, ON. Visit www.rearrangements.ca, or call Martha at 613-539-3233.

1. The number of new MLS listings of existing homes during 2011 will grow by 5.5% to a projected 6,890. The number of sales of existing homes will decline slightly (-3.1%) to a projected 3,100. The market will be getting a little more competitive for sellers. If you are listing your home in 2011, consider measures such as staging to help ensure it will be one of the 45% of listings which will actually sell.

2. The rate of price growth for homes will stabilize to follow inflation in 2011. Don’t assume past price growth rates still apply and make the mistake of initially pricing your home too high.

3. Overall new housing starts will continue to decline gradually reflecting demographic demands. The decline in starts for single detached homes will be partly offset by increased starts for multiple unit dwellings.

4. The population of Kingston area is projected to grow by 500 net, particularly in the 45 plus age group. Bungalows, condominiums and maintenance free home features will continue to be popular.

5. Mortgage rates are expected to remain flat. Unemployment rates are expected to remain below 6% and employment will gradually begin to increase in 2011. Our present level of activity in the housing market is projected to be quite sustainable.

These predictions are based on CMHC semi-annual report “Housing Market Outlook, Kingston, Fall 2010″. You can download the full report here: https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/catalog/productDetail.cfm?cat=99&itm=19&lang=en&fr=1294067907339

2011 Colour Trends are more cheerful

While the colour guru’s have already planned our palettes far into 2012 and beyond, most of us don’t pay much attention to what we can expect for the new year until right around the end of the old one. Here is the forecast for colours in 2011. They are not so much trendy as they are simply building on previous trends developed over the past two or three years.

Several companies release useful information on predicted colour trends. None conflict. They are just different ways of describing what’s happening. In each release for 2011, there are a selection of bright and clear hues as well as many sun faded, dusty shades.

Pantone has declared Honeysuckle Pantone 12-2120 their colour of the year. It’s a vibrant pinkish red. You can download the Pantone Spring Palette here http://www.pantone.com/downloads/articles/pdfs/FCR_SPRING_2011.pdf You’ll see it’s a mix of warm and cool colours which will combine with last winters colours to give your spring wardrobe a lift.

Branding experts at Landor Associates have released an interesting report predicting trends many areas, including colours. It’s available here: http://landor.com/index.cfm?do=thinking.article&storyid=837&sct=8&s=8&a=229 Colour expert, Jack Bredenfoerder, catalogues his predictions using an analogy to fire. He tells us we’ll see fire-inspired reds, oranges and ambers, and lighter golden browns. Bright clean blues continue, more aquatic and watery in balance to the fire colours. Greens are reminiscent of the forest floor. Grey’s continue in charcoal, smoke and ash and graphite black. Some taupes and browns are back. The purples will take on more lavender and blue tones as you might see at the bottom of a flame.

If you subscribe to the newsletter on this blog, http://www.sensationalcolor.com/liveinfullcolor/ you can download the Sensational Color for Your Home 2010/2011 Trends Report. It’s well illustrated with examples of the 2011 colours used in various rooms.

Benjamin Moore’s website shows three collections in their Envision 2011. http://www.benjaminmoore.com/bmpsweb/portals/bmps.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=fh_color_hiddenPage&np=public_site%2Fapplications%2Fcolor_collections%2FEnvisionColor2011#/view_swatches/view_all/2116-20/ Their colour of the year is vintage wine, a rich hue with deep brown base and hint of smoky violet.

Sherwin Williams has four downloadable colour cards for their four palettes. Start here http://www.sherwin-williams.com/pro/paint_colors/explore/paint_color_trends/2011/index.jsp You’ll see there are two with bold and bright colours and two with soft and faded.

ICI-Dulux colour of the year 2011 in this teapot

ICI/Dulux has a downloadable Color Futures 2011 report here: http://www.colourfutures.com/ It’s a good one to provide ideas on how to combine the various new colours into room schemes. Be sure to also download the Notebook from the same page. Their pick for colour of the year is a light airy citrus yellow with a slight green edge.

While the colours have evolved a little from the previous year they are not abruptly different. However, I find the overall feeling much more optimistic compared to the drab greys and near blacks that have predominated in our stores all winter. It will be uplifting to watch their arrival.

In a blog entitled “Perfectly Perfect – Almost” the author of Buy-ology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy tells about European cosmetics company that wanted to save money by cutting the length of their commercials. To see which parts to cut they used a neuro-scientific tool based on EEGs. They were able to scientifically analyse which scenes were the most emotionally engaging by measuring consumers brainwaves. Then they tested a 30 second version created from the most emotionally engaging scenes and found it caused test subjects to choose the product 35% oftener.

Consumers today are looking for products that are authentic. Lindstrom says:

“The thought of gigantic factories churning out millions of cookies, or food being injected with additives that boost the ‘natural’ color or enhance the aroma, or irradiation processes that keep old fruit looking new – well, all these sophisticated processes just seem to generate feelings of enormous distaste and even horror in the minds of consumers.”

This made me reflect on whether we can make staging more authentic. We’re often tempted to strive for perfection in our staged product. We work hard to hunt down the right pieces to stage vacant homes, especially new models. We are all tempted at times to be more like decorators than stagers. We love it when we can get the magazine-like shots for our portfolios. Of course, when we stage occupied homes using homeowners items, it’s easier to keep it real. But sometimes even there we might get carried away in our search for perfection. We banish TV sets, hide the kids toys, super organize the closets, even set the table for grand dinner parties. Who lives like that?

For the staging to sell a house, it has to be believable to the buyer. If it has a stereotypically staged look, will it be effective? Won’t the obviously staged home raise questions about what the seller is trying to hide?

Here’s a family room in a home where I did a consultation. The homeowners followed my recommendations and sent me an after picture.

Family room before staging

Family Room After Staging by Homeowners

The staging days given in the Canadian Staging Professional(TM) three day training always produce some very “real” staging. It could be because the students have to work exclusively with what they find in the house and have only half a day to get the work done. It really brings out creativity and teamwork. The houses look amazing afterwards.

Author, Martha Stanton-Smith, owner of Rearrangements, is a Certified Canadian Staging Professional who helps serious home sellers in Kingston, Ontario get full worth for their homes. She completed her staging training in 2006. Visit her profile here:

Rearrangements offers a 15% military discount on labour.

Since Kingston has a large military base, I have often been privileged to consult or stage for military families. They are all unique of course. But, I have noticed a few trends which can sometimes present an added challenge to staging.

I have noticed that these families have a very diverse collection of furniture and accessories. I have encountered coffee tables from Germany which literally require a platoon to lift, carved benches from the middle east used instead of a sofa, castle sized wall units and artwork from all over the globe.

Carved bench was the main living room seating before staging.

After staging, more buyers would expect to see a sofa.

It makes the staging work using homeowners belongings very interesting. The results are always eclectic and striking when you manage to sucessfully pull together such a variety of pieces.

The other thing I have noticed is that sometimes houses get passed from one military family to another over a decade or so and the fixtures and finishes start to look a bit eclectic too. This is not such a good thing. For example, we had a home with a modern sleek brushed nickle finish over the kitchen island and not ten feet away over in the dinette table hung an ornate painted metal fixture shaped like flowers and leaves.

Sometimes only one room was the focus of a previous redo and might have been customized in a whole different direction than the rest of the home. For example, we saw a modern home with neutral colours that had a victorian bathroom finished with burgundy ceramic floor tiles, wainscotting, a clawfoot tub with ornate feet and burgundy wallpaper. Sometimes a room is what it is and all we can do is make sure it’s clean and tidy and accessorized as well as possible given the circumstances.

Beautiful, but very inconsistent in a modern suburban home.

Then there is another trend I’ve come across which makes me sad. It’s stressed spouses left on their own as their member partner has already been relocated. These ladies are trying to do too much with not enough and really appreciate whatever help I can offer.

When military personnel are relocated quickly and often, they run the risk of buying into a less desirable neighbourhood or overpaying for a home. Then when they have to leave in a couple of years it will be a struggle to recoup their investment, even after a contribution to costs from the Canadian Department of National Defense. Staging is a valuable tool to help elevate buyer perception of their houses when they have to sell.

Perhaps that’s why the DND, under Relocation Directive APS2009 Section 8.2.11, allows members to use their Personal Benefit envelope for a Home Staging Consultation. Several staging companies here, including Rearrangements, offer military discounts under the Kingston Military Family Resource Centre’s program.

Author, Martha Stanton-Smith, owner of Rearrangements, is a Certified Canadian Staging Professional who helps serious home sellers in Kingston, Ontario get full worth for their homes. She completed her staging training in 2006. Visit her profile here:

If you live in a town or city that was founded more than a hundred years ago, you may be called upon to stage some period homes. Although the basic premise is still to make the property as attractive as possible to as many likely buyers as possible, the operative word is likely buyers. After all, someone who really enjoys contemporary style architecture likely will not be shopping for a period home.

Your pre-staging recommendations for updates should keep in mind the existing style of the home. Fixtures and fittings that are in keeping with the general style and period of the house will age more gracefully than very contemporary ones. However, if you have a 1980 style renovation in an 1890 house you could either bring it back to a period look or try for a 2010 look.

If almost all the original details have been stripped out, it might be more feasible to bring the decor up to modern day looks. However if there are lots of period details remaining, you might be able to reverse the clock. There are lots of reproduction products which reflect earlier styles while providing comfort and function that today’s buyers want.

Staging rule of thumb is to stage rooms as they were originally designed to function. In a period home we might not always do that because some rooms might have been designed for something no longer needed for modern living. Keep in mind how the typical buyers will want to live in the home and show it as being workable space for their lifestyles.

I owned a late Queen Anne house built circa 1905 with a large dining room separated by a double door from a small, square front parlor. Previous owners had made a rooming house out of the place and installed a large plywood closet in the large dining room. They had damaged some of the trim, but mostly it was still intact. The ceiling also had been damaged and covered over with ugly pressed board material. Hardwood floors had been covered over with two different kinds of carpeting.

Dining Room before repairs

When the closet was removed, the damage fixed, and floors refinished I went ahead and swapped the functions of the two rooms. I made the front parlor a formal dining room and the larger room into a living room. The living room furniture had much more breathing room and the place appeared much more liveable.

Dining Room repurposed as Living Room

It worked, because I had five offers on the home in the first week after listing it. Two years before the previous owners had it on the market all summer and couldn’t get a sale. They were almost ready to give up when I bought it at a greatly reduced price.

The first home I staged in Kingston when I started Rearrangements was a period home with wonderful original features intact. In the dining room there was a plate rail above high anaglypta wainsotting. The paint colours were in keeping with a period home, but made the rooms rather dark. The staging challenge was to draw attention to architectural features and at the same time make the rooms seem bright and homey for a family.

We added art and some gold chargers on the plate rail to draw attention to it. The tablecloth and fresh flowers brighten up the room. In the adjacent living room we added three lamps.

Dining room after staging

Stagers usually ask sellers to remove wallpaper, but in an older home you might recommend this with caution, especially if budget is tight or if time frames are short. You do not know how many layers there will be and older wallpapers were not as easy to remove. I have encountered layers of paint or plaster mixed in with layers of wallpaper which made complete removal impossible. On older plaster walls, the wallpaper may actually be holding together the plaster and when you strip it off you will have to re-skim coat or re-drywall. You might be able leave the wallpaper if it suits the period of the home and is in excellent condition. If wallpaper works anywhere, it could be in a period home. It can camouflage uneven walls and odd angles that you might find in such a home.

Just because you have an older home with period features doesn’t mean you have to fill it with antiques. The staging has to respect the home but even more so, the potential buyers. You may still want to stage with quite contemporary furnishings and art for sophisticated, urban professional buyers.

One of my favourite homes was an ornate victorian owned and renovated by a young, single, female lawyer. She stayed true to the period with almost all the finishes and fixtures. However, she used modern art and scandinavian style furnishings to decorate. These had the perfect scale for small rooms and a simplicity which played up the ornate details of the home’s woodwork, windows and fireplace. It proved to me that old and new can be an attractive mix when done properly.

Staging character homes is still staging, but it’s a pleasure to do because it makes you think a little harder and you know the results will never be ‘cookie cutter.’

Author, Martha Stanton-Smith, owner of Rearrangements, is a Certified Canadian Staging Professional who helps serious home sellers in Kingston, Ontario get full worth for their homes. She completed her staging training in 2006. Visit her profile here:

Here is a unit that I staged in preparation for it to be rented out.

Rental apartment dining room staging

Rental Apartment living room staging

In rentals, the staging budget is likely to be quite low. Here here are a few ideas you can take from our project:

• We used a plastic patio table with sheets draped over it.
• The dining room art was borrowed from home.
• The chairs were on clearance for $18 each but we had to recover mis-matched seats.
• The end tables in the living room are folding TV tables. One was light oak so we covered it with black cloth.
• The cube tables were a thrift store find and the accessory on them is a magazine.
• The sofa was another thrift store find at $10 and it was covered with a slip cover, also from the thrift store.
• The black fur throw is actually a black fake fur coat from the thrift store.
• The artwork from the sofa also came from the thrift store, but you could use inexpensive posters or canvas art.

Here are a few low cost items which help with staging and can be left for the new tenants:

• A new shower curtain, clear for small bathrooms.
• Inexpensive blinds which may avoid new tenants nailing up sheets or blankets over windows.
• Paper towel on the paper towel holder.
• A new door mat.

Here is what the owner of our project apartment had to say:

“My tenants rent my condos over the competition because they like all the little decorating touches. They alway say the suites are the nicest they’ve seen for the money. In fact, one tenant begged to keep some of the artwork and furnishings in the place, as he didn’t feel he could recreate the look.

I’m getting top dollar for my properties just because they showed so well. In one case, other suites with equivalent square footage and layout in the same building get almost a hundred a month less. I feel this is due to the face-lift Martha gave the place.”

Author, Martha Stanton-Smith, owner of Rearrangements, is a Certified Canadian Staging Professional who helps serious home sellers in Kingston, Ontario get full worth for their homes. She completed her staging training in 2006. Visit her profile here:

The Canadian Staging Professionals(TM) announced the recipients of their Annual Awards for 2009-10.  In the category of Community Involvement Program of the Year, recognizing best practices in community involvement and corporate social responsibility activities during the year, the recipients were Martha Stanton-Smith of Rearrangements and Sandra Muis of Enhanced Homes.  These two Kingston, Ontario CCSP’s were recognized for their participation in the Kingston Interval House Transitional Housing Apartments community designer program.

The community designer program involved seven local interior designers and the two CSP’s.  Each volunteered to design interior decor for two suites in the Transitional Housing 19 unit apartment complex named ‘Robin’s Hope’ which opened July 1, 2010.  This creation of warm and homey interiors was the final step in a year long renovation project to convert an old office building into safe housing for women and children who have been victims of domestic violence.

Each participant was given a modest budget and a list of criteria from KIH.  The process involved several meetings to collaborate with the project coordinator and other designers on choice of blinds, standard furniture purchases and an array of paint colour selections.  Subsequently, each designer was responsible for shopping for the soft goods, lamps, rugs, artwork and accessories which will personalize their chosen spaces.  In March, the volunteers donned hard hats and safety boots to take pictures and measure their suites.

During the final week of June the volunteer designers loaded in their purchases and dressed all the rooms in time for opening ceremonies.

Martha Stanton-Smith commented after the completion:  “We all were a bit surprised by the amount of time this project took us, but in the end we were pleased by the results and gratified to have helped the women and children.”

The occupants of “Robin’s Hope” will be women who have been living the Kingston Interval House Shelter, were unable to find suitable affordable housing elsewhere, and will be participating in ongoing KIH programs.  Allowed length of stay in the transitional housing will be up to 364 days.

Kingston Interval House provides emergency shelter in a 25 bed facility opened in 2004.  The average length of stay in what was only meant to be an emergency shelter had been growing every year because of lack of suitable safe, affordable housing in the community.  In response, KIH decided in 2006 to create this transitional housing facility.  It is hoped that it will reduce the average length of stay in the shelter and thereby increase the total number of women served each year.

With funding from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the City of Kingston, KIH was able to purchase a suitable building.  Heather Kembel of Colbourne and Kembel Architects designed the conversion which took a vacant three storey office space and made it into nineteen apratments and several multipurpose rooms.  Three of the suites are barrier free and one of these is fully wheelchair accessible.

An innovative feature of the project is the ‘swing’ bedrooms which will open to suites on either side as necessary.  This means that some of the suites can be expanded from studio apartments up to two bedroom units  giving ‘Robin’s Hope’ the flexibility to accommodate families of various sizes.  However, it added to the challenge and need for collaboration among the volunteer designers and stagers in the community designer program.

The complete list of the Canadian Staging Professionals(TM) awards for 2009-10 is here:  http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs011/1011125928046/archive/1103434640765.html. The Canadian Staging Professionals(TM) provides staging training internationally.  Author, Martha Stanton-Smith, owner of Rearrangements, is a Certified Canadian Staging Professional who helps serious home sellers in Kingston, Ontario get full worth for their homes. Visit her profile here:

Emotional connection is key in the home selling process too. Research has proven that emotion plays a huge part in important buying decisions. As with speed dating, viewers tour your house for only a few minutes. The difference is nine times out of ten a first impression has already been made from an internet search.

You probably have a strong connection to your home and the items in it. That makes prepping it for sale as emotionally charged as seeing your beloved daughter beginning to date. We let go of our children so they can lead their own lives. And sometimes we have to let go of our home or some belongings so we can enjoy new opportunities.

The process by which a girl gets ready for an important occasion – perhaps the speed date – has many other similarities to preparing a house for the market. She may agonize over her weight. Too fat, too thin? When we start to get our home ready to sell, we usually need to put it on a ‘diet’ and de-clutter. We may even slim down the furnishings, putting some into storage to make the home look more spacious.

Perhaps your daughter will worry about appearance of her teeth. If your daughter`s teeth were crooked it might serve no purpose to get braces just two weeks before the big day. Likewise, when staging a house for immediate sale, it`s probably not effective to do a complete kitchen renovation. But, recognizing that a big shiny white smile is popular, our dating daughter might get a whitening treatment. Similarly a tired kitchen could be given a facelift with hardware and paint. The wise home owner tries to meet the beauty norm for houses to attract the widest group of potential buyers. This de-personalizing would involve removing family pictures and pre-packing collections. It would require stripping wallpaper and taking down very personalized draperies. It might mean toning down theme rooms or highly personalized decor choices.

Most girls love new shoes and jewellry. These finishing pieces can make an outfit look more expensive and in style. Hardware and light fixtures are often called the jewellry of the home. Changing them is a quick update and upgrade. New shoes could be compared to flooring updates.

A trip to the hairdresser is often part of the little lady`s preparations. She knows changing her hair will dramatically change her whole look instantly and inexpensively. In the home being prepared for sale, painting the walls and trim makes the big change quickly and economically. The difference is that the home seller should choose neutral and widely appealing colours rather than a unique expression of personality.

Then our little girl will typically engage in some personal scrubbing and polishing. For the home sale, one of the most cost effective things we can do is clean, clean and clean some more. It`s so important to be meticulous because it sends a message that you have taken good care of things. Home buyers find other peoples` grime a turn-off — just like greasy hair and dirty fingernails would be a turn off on your first date.

As the hour approaches for the big date (or the open house) it`s time to get dressed (or staged). Our daughter might choose a dress in her best colour. The dress that gets the most attention could show a little skin. When dressing the house, it`s time to add colour for focal points and to tie the rooms together. As for showing some skin, with a house we should show some windows. Lighten and brighten. Draw back the window coverings and turn on the lights. It`s time to meet the boys, or the buyers, as the case may be.

And the analogy continues. If you make a connection at the speed dating party the person could ask to meet you again. That`s like viewers asking to arrange for a second look at your house. It`s a good sign. But it`s still no guarantee that there will be a proposal (offer), a pre-nuptial agreement (negotiations) or marriage (a sale.) Just like your dating daughter, the homeowner needs to keep everything looking good until the keys are handed over.