Welcome home to this estate-like property sitting on a corner lot in Washington D.C., located minutes from downtown. Prior to home staging, the property was perfectly preserved in a French-country design style, mixed with a few political touches. It captured a local style of decades past.
Our home staging team at Staged Interior saw the design challenge as a need to merge the property’s style with a look that today’s home buyers would aspire to. Team Leader Trish Kim managed the project and found her first step, like in most staging projects, was to remove personalized, political and religious items. She then returned to the Staged Interior warehouse to replace some furnishings that required modernization in order to neutralize the space.
Living Room Re-imagined
The home showcased simple elegance with its over-sized windows, intricate millwork, moldings, and well-proportioned rooms. The living room did, however, require some switching out of furniture and different placement. Our team wanted to optimize the room’s traffic flow and create a functional living room that buyers could see themselves entertaining in.
While some furnishings were removed, we did keep many pieces like side tables to define new seating areas. We used our inventory to neutralize the room with an over-sized sofa, ottoman and side chairs. Perhaps the biggest change was made by defining a major conversation area with a neutral, over-sized rug. The rug helped connect the sofa with the fireplace across the room while still allowing for smaller conversations to take place.
Library Makeover
The library was right off the front entry and offered features like a fireplace, wet bar, and access to the patio. We cleared this room to bring in a modern vibe capitalizing on simplicity and light to spark interest from the start while touring the property.
We maintained the colors of the room, which reflected the stature of this historic property, as well as generated feelings of wisdom, confidence and stability. As a home staging company, part of our goal is to inspire buyers and showcase a lifestyle they could lead if they resided in the staged home. This room instantly updated the property with more neutrals and simplified visuals.
Kitchen Enhancement
Spacious and well-designed, the kitchen was outfitted with nearly everything that any chef could desire. Today’s buyers want a chef’s kitchen as well as a place to eat and drink while multi-tasking with family members.
The natural light in the kitchen was amazing, so our team wanted to bring in a seating area where the buyers could start or end their day in this space. We chose a round, high table that was easy to maneuver around. The height of the table and chairs also kept the eating area casual.
Sweet Dream Retreat
The home’s two upper levels offered 7 bedrooms and 6 full baths, some versatile enough to be used as either private bedrooms, guest rooms, or in-law suites.
The master suite encompassed a large walk-in closet with a dressing area and separate his and hers master baths. Like the rest of the property, the master suite embraced a French-country style and had many upholstered pieces.
To create the impression that this suite was larger than it originally appeared, we removed several pieces of big furniture. We also switched out a few pieces for those that the Team Leader, Trish Kim, knew were especially appealing to current buyers.
The Happy Ending
This four-level property was an unusually large staging project, taking two full staging days to execute. In the end, the house sold within a week, and for over the asking price! The effort was well worth it.
Helping sellers sell their homes quickly and for top dollar is always the goal of a staging project at Staged Interior. Want to learn how we can help you prepare and showcase a property for sale? Contact us today!
