Another Home Staging Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there were two lovely ladies living in the beautiful neighbourhood of Kitsilano. Let’s call them Lana and Chelsey for the sake of this tale. You see, Lana and Chelsey were ready to transition out of condo living and make the move into a house. They had their hearts set on a house in an up and coming area of the city and wanted to ensure their condo sold for top dollar. Their fantastic realtor called us and asked us to go and take a look at the property.

I arrived at their condo, tucked into a cozy street in the heart of Kits and looked up to the penthouse. My imagination was already triggered as I could already visualize their view of the city line. I was greeted by the smiling faces of Lana and Chelsey who warmly welcomed me to their home, offering me a variety of beverage choices. Not long after arriving, a beautiful grey cat was weaving around my ankles and purring; what more of a welcome could one ask for? We’ll call the cat Norm for the sake of this tale.

We began the tour of the condo and I was immediately struck by its size: 1100 square feet, which is unheard of in Kitsilano! They had already started on de-cluttering and packing items to be moved into their storage unit (read: dream clients) and Lana prefaced the conversation with, “Please don’t hold back on making suggestions; we’re willing to do what it takes to sell this place and we want to do it properly. We have a storage unit arranged and have lots of room left.”

As we chatted, I discovered that they love to have dinner parties and entertain. They had a large wooden table with benches in the front window which was clearly their entertaining zone. While I personally liked the piece, it was just too big for the room. It was also taking up far too much of the view, which was going to be a selling feature for buyers. Keeping with my goal of creating solutions that don’t turn my clients’ lives upside down, I noticed that their dining area wasn’t being utilized as a dining space so my wheels began to turn. They knew the table was likely going to be stored but wanted to hear it from me before they did so.

Norm the cat was ever present during our meeting and was one of the sweetest cats I had ever met. It was clear he was a huge part of the family but it was important that Norm had alternate plans during open houses and viewings. I asked the girls if Norm had any friends he could have play dates with and they laughed; they already had this covered; Norm was going to hang out at the neighbour’s place to be out of the way.

So the two biggest challenges had been uncovered: current dining table and area and the friendly face of Norm. Solutions: store the table and bring in a few pieces of furniture to use the space to its best advantage, not to mention bring in a dining table so Lana and Chelsey could continue to entertain.

We called in our trusty movers, Go Truck Go, and they arrived with a small load of furniture and art to be used in the condo and left with a load of oversized furniture that was going to feel right at home in their new house. The girls went to work, we got to work and a few short hours later, their condo was ready to be listed.

Lana and Chelsey were very pleased with the outcome; they appreciated that I considered their lifestyle before creating my staging plan. They could still have people over and Norm still had free reign of the condo 90% of the time. In fact, they wanted to have people over to show off their new place!

I’m so pleased to say that their condo sold in under one month for full asking price. Lana, Chelsey and Norm are now living in their new dream home and Norm has made the move from being an indoor cat to an outdoor cat. And they all lived happily ever after…

We used the existing belongings of Lana & Chelsey and chose their orange throw pillows as our inspiration for the art work. We created a seating area near the window, using small scale, low back chairs to draw attention to the view without obstructing it.

*Moral of this feel good tale? Staging your home doesn’t have to turn your life upside down; find a home stager who believes this and creates plans that meet your needs and jives with your lifestyle. Your home can show beautifully AND be lived in at the same time and that’s a fact.