Since creating the “to be continued” blog, I’ve been closing each post with the words “dwell in possibilities.” I must confess that I borrowed this phrase from the great poet, Emily Dickinson. I saw her quote and realized that it summed up what I am doing as a professional home stager and interior designer.

I am most grateful to Ms. Dickinson for her insightful and inspiring phrase.

Regardless of the size or price range of a house, my objective is to find the possibilities in that house. I am looking for those unique features of that house and finding possible ways to accentuate them for the potential buyer. I am analyzing those unusual spaces that buyers find difficult to understand upon first glance and finding possible functional uses for those spaces.

In the end, my mission is to help the potential buyer see how they could dwell in the possibilities of this house!


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Staging Magic in Maple Ridge – From “Bug-a-Boo” to British Colonial

Sometimes I am asked as a professional stager to make sense of a space.  This is usually the result of potential buyer’s asking “What would I do with this room?”

This is exactly what happened when I opened an email from a Realtor enlisting my help with a new listing in the historic Maple Ridge neighborhood in Tulsa, OK.  According to this Realtor, the home had a unique back room that he thought I could do something with.  As you can see in the “before” pictures, the room had multiple angles that made its function unclear.  In his words, the room was a real “bug-a-boo.”   

This room was a large windowed space that had been added on as a sort of pool room/sun room.  This creative Realtor had a vision to step it up to a more updated and sophisticated space worthy of 2012 entertaining.  His vision involved enclosing the angled areas to include a media viewing area (the angled areas became the closet housing the media equipment).  Our first meeting in the space included the contractor who suggested a bar area at the west end of the space.  Where there was previously a pool table, I saw a conversational area.

As you can see from the “after” pictures we created an atmosphere of gracious and carefree entertaining.  I wanted to give the room a fresh look that would be true to the age of the house.  The British Colonial style felt very natural in a home that was probably built in the early 1900s.  You can find more photos of this home on our website at http://www.transitions-home-staging.com/18th-Street---Tulsa.html

And so I put my staging magic to work to create this fresh look with a feel from another place and time. 

Using furniture and accessories, this large area of questionable intent became three obvious entertainment spaces.  The pub table and shelving are surrounded by windows and overlook the beautiful yard and pool.  The streamlined sectional and large ottoman are centered in front of the large flat screen television (equipment out of sight and in the media closet).  The three sea grass wingback chairs form a conversational circle with a metal table to hold drinks and refreshments.

What was once a space that created more questions than answers and did not live up to the elegance, charm and historical significance of the rest of the house became one of the best features of this fabulous house.  We went from “bug-a-boo” to British Colonial.

This Maple Ridge home is located at 1201 E. 18th Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma and listed by John Sawyer (Sawyer Wallace Home Collection- Chinowth & Cohen (http://www.cctulsa.com/getagent/show.php?uname=jsawyer )

The before and after pictures demonstrate what a visionary Realtor, a professional home stager and a talented contractor can do in a very short period of time for an open-minded and trusting homeowner!  With that combination, the possibilities are endless.

Dwell in possibilities

Cindy

P.S.  This staging project was so much fun and so successful, the homeowner and Realtor decided to keep going and  I was hired to stage the entry and formal living room.  So, literally this blog post is “to be continued”.

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