Staging Your Home for the Holidays, Part 3

We are in the final stages (pardon that pun too!) of analyzing what you can do to get your home ready for the holidays using professional home staging techniques. These steps are the most fun because the visual impact of them is the biggest, and the mood is completed.

First and foremost you want to ...

Declutter. Take down or move those piles of things that have been sitting on your "hot spots" -- your flat surfaces that just tend to collect the junk. Ideally, you would go through them and sort it right here and now, and see this as sort of a "spring cleaning" for the holidays. However, time is of the essence in completing your staging for the holidays, so if you can't tackle the project now, place the clutter in a box (clearly labeled) and put it in a closet or basement. I recommend going immediately to your calendar and making an appointment with yourself at some later date to go through it, so that "out of sight" doesn't end up being "out of mind" and something important gets left unattended.
Remember you are acting like the stage crew for a play ... every piece in the room should contribute to the story, the beauty, the mood ... everything else should go. If it's functionally necessary, find a way to disguise it in a cupboard or cabinet nearby. Throw away that old sponge, upgrade your kitchen towels, away with the pile of papers!

Houston Interior Designers & Decorators

Robert Young Architects

Room Transformations: If you have a room that has become your "junk room" or otherwise wasted space, consider re-purposing it into something unique and useful to you and your holiday guests. Some families prefer to eat in the eat-in kitchen, so their dining room could easily become an entertainment area.

Butler Armsden Architects

Add a loveseat or an armchair to a small space or a stairwell nook to create a cozy corner just right for a houseguest, a glass of wine, and a book. Rugs and throws make it look complete.

P2 Design

Brennan + Company Architects

Even if you already have a table in a room, consider a smaller table nestled beneath two windows or in a corner space to create a cozy nook perfect for a chess match, a game of checkers, or two pals that need a quiet moment to catch up.

Amy Lau Design

Accessorize: This is one of the biggest and least expensive ways to transform a room. Add accent pieces in trios and other odd number pairings to create a focal point or a vignette.

Kerrie L. Kelly

Look through your yard to see what flowers, foliage, and even branches could be used to bring a little of the outdoors in.

Laguna Beach Media & Bloggers Dana Nichols

Make you linens soft, luxurious, bright colors, or soft colors, depending on whether you are trying to soothe or wow your guests. You can make you bathrooms feel like a spa with a few towels, 

And you bedrooms have that getaway feel of a bed and breakfast with luxurious sheets and bedding.

Cardea Building Co.

Contemporary Bedroom by Rancho Santa Fe Interior Designers & Decorators Shaw Coates

See our two part post on how to get the perfect bed in 5 easy steps: Part 1 and Part 2

Now that you know how to get your home that perfect look for your guests for the holidays, you can get to work, knowing that you will be creating the entertaining capital for your family and friends to spend the holidays.

~Natalee

Staging Your Home for the Holidays, Part 2

Welcome to Staging Your Home for the Holidays, Part 2. (Part 1 can be found here.)Today we are focusing on projects with mid-range time constraints. If purchases are not necessary, these steps could be done the week before your guests arrive. However, you might not realize you are missing that one essential piece until you begin, so process of thinking about your furniture, space, and lighting should start now.

Make furniture groupings: Make visiting easy and convenient over the holidays by arranging your furniture in groupings. If you have a large space, consider multiple furniture arrangements in the same room, as seen here. Use rugs, side tables, coffee tables,  to anchor the groupings.

Norcross Architects & Designers Cynthia Karegeannes, Registered Architect

Grettworks

John B. Murray Architect

Victoria Hagan

Bridgehampton Kitchen & Bath Designers Hampton Design

Get creative with the seating arrangements to add more seating to your space. Look at these awesome ideas: bar stools and console table behind the couch ...

... or a bar table in the corner of living room.

Also, look beyond what is ordinary. Consider putting furniture in rooms that typically hold a different variety of furniture.A dining table in your living room ...

Elad Gonen & Zeev Beech

And be creative with the furniture you already have. Turn a bed into more seating -- a few pillows and a throw can turn a bed into a daybed or a chaise.

Period Homes, Inc.

Consider bringing your patio furniture inside ...

Innovative Designs

Lighting

Dark rooms are a turn off (pardon the pun!) so make sure you have adequate lighting for the holidays. It's any easy fix! Expert home stagers say there should be at least 100 watts for every square foot of space, and there should be a mix of ceiling lights, floor lamps, table lamps and task lighting. Here's on Better Homes and Gardens tip: "Wall sconces can uplight walls or ceilings making rooms look bigger." (Psst. We offer a variety of finishes on our sconces, so if you're interested in one of these, you can send us an email to get more information about your choices. Contact us at stylishbeachhome at gmail dot com.)

Don't pass up the chance to make these simple changes that will transform your dining room, living room, or any other room in which your guests will be celebrating the holidays with you! Here are some products from StylishBeachHome.com that will get your creative juices flowing ... See you tomorrow for Part 3 of Staging Your Home for the Holidays.

Staging Your Home for the Holidays: Part 1

I'm very excited today to begin our three part series on Staging Your Home for the Holidays. Home staging is the art of presenting your home almost as you would a movie set -- no clutter, no miscellaneous objects lying around, and every part of the scene has the purpose of giving the right impression and telling just the right story.

Home staging is a popular tool among savvy home sellers; it gives buyers the very best first impression so that a home will sell quickly. It can also be a very successful way to get your home ready for your guests for the holidays. After all, we want to give our guests a great first impression too. It can be done with just a few small changes to your current decor, and yet the impact can be huge. Look at the before and after photo below ... all that I can see that changed are decluttering, lighting, and paint, and bedding.  What a difference!

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Stop and think for a second about what "story" your home is telling, because you can "Pin" all night and all day, but until you recognize the problem and plan the solution nothing is going to happen. All those lovely pins do not have to become reality (only some of them do) in order to really get your home ready for the holidays. Ready to get started?

We are beginning with things that might take you the longest to do but will last for the few weeks remaining before the holidays. You'll want to backwards schedule to find your time-frame for these projects, but my advice would be to jump right on it, in case you have an unexpected sickness or mishap that throws your schedule off a bit. There are some last minute touches that you'll tackle just days or hours before you welcome your guests. If you did them now, you'd be re-doing them every day. On the flip-side, these changes are short term lasting projects: achievable but requiring a bit of forethought. (Unless you are like me, and painting could very feasibly be something you are doing the night before guests arrive.) For getting your home ready for the holidays, start here:

Paint in neutrals: If you have a room that needs to be repainted, consider painting it in a neutral color. This approach will allow you to keep your current furniture and accessories while still giving it a fresh face to brave the company. Neutrals come in a great variety of colors, so there is still room for finding "you" in the color you choose, but with less commitment than bright, bold palettes require. Check out our Pinterest Board Coastal Paint Colors for lots of neutral paint color ideas, and check out our posts here and  here for even more ideas.

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San Francisco Interior Designers & Decorators Lisa Rubenstein

 Chevy Chase Interior Designers & Decorators Sightline Art Consulting

Ardmore Interior Designers & Decorators Amy Barrickman Design, LLC

Paint something bright or dark: Pick a small room like a bathroom and give it a fresh coat of some deep or bright paint.  Choosing a small room makes the project do-able before the holidays, and gives your guests something to ooh and ahh about. Time to have fun with this one!

Yorkshire Design Associates

Lexington Design-Build Firms Feinmann, Inc.

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Finish Projects: Repair that piece in the wood floor, put that knob back on the cupboard (or while you're at it -- replace your hardware!), paint your kitchen cabinets. Whatever the project that you've been putting off, plan to knock it out right now. Knowing that you'll have a house full of guests to appreciate your hard work will be great motivation! We've pinned several tutorials on how to DIY, so check out our board Decor Tips and Tricks.

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What are you going to start with? Make your plan. Make a list of supplies. Set a date with yourself (and some friends/family) to get started on these projects that will make your home ready for the holidays!

~Natalee