A Great Remodeling Resource For Home Stagers, Real Estate Agents & Flippers
May 12, 2010
If you are a home stager, real estate agent, remodeler or flipper, and you don’t know about Van Dyke’s Restorers you should.
Its available as a print catalog or an online catalog here.
Why is this such a valuable resource for Los Angeles home stagers, real estate agents and remodelers? They have pretty much everything you could possibly need to handle missing parts and pieces for a vintage or older home.
Home stagers and listing agents are often asked to repair or replace missing cabinet and drawer pulls, switch plates or light fixtures from the older homes they stage or list.
Here’s just a small sampling of what they offer.
Their prices are very reasonable. Check VanDyke’s Restorers for your home staging, remodeling, real estate restoration or flipping needs.
Eleven Expert Tips To Make Small Rooms Feel Larger
March 8, 2010
As a professional home stager in Pasadena and Los Angeles, one of my primary jobs is to make smaller homes feel larger, or at least, feel as large as they really are.
Here’s a list of my tips for making a small home feel larger. You can use these tips whether you are staging your home to sell or if you are planning to stay, but just need some help dealing with smaller rooms. These tips will work with either vacant or occupied homes:
-
Pare down what you need to have in a smaller room to the essentials. Do you really need a chair in your bedroom, or can you sit on the bed to put your shoes on?
-
Clutter makes a room feel smaller. Lots of smaller items, like your Hummel collection or your bowling trophies displayed on every horizontal surface, eat up visual space. Only display 3-5 items at a time. Store the rest and rotate them out of storage throughout the year. Not only will the room feel larger, but each item displayed will stand out more.
-
Use fewer pieces of furniture. Its better to have one larger dresser than 2 smaller ones.
-
Use appropriately sized furniture. Having a large sectional in a small family room will highlight how small the room is.
-
Cooler colors recede, so painting a room a pale blue, green or gray will make it feel larger.
-
Show more hardwood. The larger the expanse of hardwood, the larger the room will look. See how the room looks without an area rug.
-
Try using one larger area rug instead of several smaller rugs.
-
Use fewer patterns on upholstery and bedding. For instance, use a solid color blanket or bedspread on a bed in a small bedroom to make the room feel larger.
-
Strategically placed mirrors make a room feel larger.
-
A well lit room feels larger.
-
Minimize window treatments. The simpler the better. Shutters, blinds or simple drapes (no flounces, ruffles, strong patterns or complicated valences) take up less “visual space”.
These home staging tips work if you are staging to sell or just want to make the home you are living in feel larger.
If you need some help figuring out how to make your home feel larger, consider hiring us for a home staging consultation. You’ll get some expert home staging and interior design tips from the Real Estate Staging Association 2010 Professional Stager of the Year. Prices start at $250 for a verbal consultation or $350 for a comprehensive written consultation. Its the best “bang for your buck” and it’s a great investment in preparing your home for sale, or making your home more livable if you are planning to stay.
8 Tips to Stage your Bedroom with Feng Shui
December 16, 2009
Los Angeles Home Stager tips to Stage your Bedroom with Feng Shui – Start 2010 Right!
Here are 8 tips for staging your bedroom with Feng Shui. Invite better sleep, better health and positive changes in the bedroom by staging it with Feng Shui. With the New Year approaching, now is the perfect time to invite positive change into your life.
Recommendations about Feng Shui remedies will vary from school to school and practitioner to practitioner.
Despite the fact that different schools have differing “cures”, following are some basic changes you can make that apply to all bedrooms. We can affect many positive changes in our lives just by applying intention – putting the energy into making a change and welcoming that change into our lives.
In Feng Shui and in life, the condition of the bedroom can influence your health and your relationship with your significant other.
If you don’t have a significant other, but would like one, the condition of your bedroom will effect your ability to “call in” love. Our goal is creating a calming environment that welcomes intimacy and affection. Of course getting rid of clutter to make room for whatever this new energy will bring is always high up on the list.
Follow these steps to increase the quality of your sleep, health, love and general well being:
1. Your bedroom should be used for sleeping, romantic interludes and getting dressed. NO TELEVISION! NO COMPUTER! NO DESK! NO TREADMILL (AKA place to drape your clothes). Read a book in bed if you must, but only when you are alone. Don’t read self-help books or business books in bed. Electronic devices like TV’s and Computers are greedy for your time. They are constantly calling your name… “Watch me, Bill”, “Just one more comment, Janet”. Don’t make your spouse or partner compete for your attention. TVs and computers are very stimulating and they activate your brain. Watching or using them just before bed will prevent you from falling asleep quickly or sleeping soundly. Give your brain a chance to shut off and relax before bedtime.
2. Make sure you have a comfortable mattress….not too firm and not too soft, and definitely not saggy. This is one of the best investments you can make for your health and well-being. If you cannot afford a new mattress, then purchase a high quality mattress pad. Some of the new ones have a layer of memory foam that will turn your bed into a pillow top mattress. If you can afford a new mattress, now is an ideal time to purchase one. There are some amazing sales going on right now.
3. If you recently ended a long relationship with someone who shared your bed, you should replace the mattress so you are not absorbing their energy every night. Send them, the bad memories and the shared mattress on down the road. If you cannot replace the mattress, then strip the bed, open the windows and beat the mattress with a baseball bat, broom stick or your fists, if necessary. This will raise a lot of dust. Wear a dust mask. When you are finished (and feel better) vacuum the mattress (both sides) and box spring and then re-make the bed with fresh new bedding and blankets. Again, there are some amazing sales right now on sheets and comforters. Under any circumstance, dispose of the other person’s pillows – donate, give away or throw away.
4. Purchase the highest quality sheets you can afford – high thread count sheets, preferably Pima, Supima or Egyptian cotton Sateen. Good quality sheets are not inexpensive but they will last a long time. We just got rid of sheets we got as a wedding present 10 years ago, and only because we upgraded to a king size bed. They just got softer and better with age. The more luxurious your bedroom the more you will feel relaxed and comforted by being there.
- Sheets and bedding in the red/yellow family represent warmth, passion and excitement. The stronger the color the more energizing. They are fire colors. This would include the full spectrum of reds, oranges, yellows and some purples hues that are more red than blue. It also includes pinks, pale oranges, pale yellows and pale lavenders.
- Sheets and bedding in the blue/green family represent calm, cool and relaxation. They are water colors. Think of a bubbling brook or the Mediterranean Sea. This would include the full spectrum of blues, greens and purples with a blue cast. It includes the palest blues, pales greens and palest purples. This is my personal favorite and my bedding and drapes are done in pale Mediterranean blues, which is balanced by pale yellow walls.
- White sheets are clean and pure. White is a metal color, although whites can run the gamut from warm white (influenced by fire) or the palest blue (influenced by water) among other elements. White denotes ever expanding possibilities.
- Animal print sheets are very energizing and ‘active’. You probably won’t get a lot of restful sleep on animal print sheets, (and you may not be able to find someone who is willing to share them with you in the long term) but you may have a lot of ‘fun’ of the animal kind! Animal prints are best confined to accents so they don’t overwhelm the restful energy of your bedroom.
5. Position your bed so that you have a clear view of the door (entry to the bedroom). Do not have your feet pointing toward the door (this is the way they will carry you out if you die in bed, according to old Chinese superstition). Ideally, your bed will be positioned against a solid wall and not in front of a window. The head of your bed should be touching a wall. Solid headboards are preferred over open headboards (they give the feeling of greater security)
6. Clean your bedroom from top to bottom. If you have drapes wash them or clean them according to the manufacturers instructions. If they are clean, but just a little dusty, take them outside and give them a good shake. Wipe down the walls. Vacuum under the bed and get rid of all those dust bunnies.
7. Make sure your have two night stands and two working lamps, one on each side of the bed. If you don’t have a partner, but would like one, this creates a space for them in your life. If you have a partner, and want to keep them, this lets them know you value them and are concerned for their comfort.
8. Remove family photos from your bedroom (do you really want them to ’see’ and participate in everything you do?) Photos of people should be limited to you and your significant other. Artwork should be calming not energizing.
The new year is just around the corner. Welcome the new year with a clean, relaxing, uncluttered bedroom. In Feng Shui, the condition of the bedroom will influence your relationships, sense of well-being and good health. Follow the above steps and welcome more restful sleep, more fulfilling relationships, better health and greater well-being in 2010.
For more information about home staging using Feng Shui read Stage Your Kitchen With Feng Shui – Start 2010 Right!
Huge Silk Trading Company Sale on Fabric & Drapery
October 31, 2009
Photo Courtesy Silk Trading Company
Photo Courtesy Silk Trading Company
Huge Silk Trading Company sale on fabric, furniture, throw pillows & drapery 50%-80% off!
OK, there’s some good interior design news and some very bad interior deisgn news here.
The bad news?
It appears Silk Trading Company is closing their Los Angeles store. Silk Trading Company has long been a favored destination of Los Angeles interior designers and fabric junkies. We’re losing a wonderful resource. Silk Trading was a great place to shop for high end designer fabric that could be purchased off the bolt without having to order it from a design center showroom.
The good news?
All of those gorgeous silk & linen fabrics, sumptuous ready-to-hang drapery and beautiful silk throw pillows are now on sale for 50%-80% off. I bought several yards of a stunning gold silk brocade and some very unique wedgewood blue linen with an embroidered floral pattern. Both of these will be turned into throw pillows and bed shams for use in my Los Angeles homes staging projects.
While I was shopping, I heard another interior designer, who had made a large purchase exclaim “Wow, I just saved my client $10,000!”
Disclaimer: It was very difficult to get information from the sales people regarding the future of Silk Trading.
I was told that the sales are ongoing in the Los Angeles and Atlanta showrooms. I was lead to believe that those are the only 2 stores that remain open. I’m not sure if they will continue as an on-line store or not. I hope that they are not, in fact, going out of business, just restructuring. I will be sad to see them go, as I have shopped there for many interior design clients over the years. I’ve purchased custom and out-of-the-box drapery from them as well as hundreds of yards of upholstery fabric and throw pillows.
The Los Angeles store is located at 360 S. La Brea on the corner of 4th.
I’m not sure how long they will remain open, so if you are in need of a gorgeous fabric fix, head on over as soon as possible for the best selection.
And, as always, if you need any interior design or home staging assistance, call Michelle Minch at (626)441-8975. I’ll be happy to help.
Subscribe In A Reader
Networked Blogs
Blog Rankings
