Same Sofa Different Pillows -- Another staging job!

Hello there!

I finished up a fun staging job on Friday and wanted to share some photos!

Recognize the sofa?

It's the same one that I used in this house:

Isn't it amazing how changing a few pillows and accessories can make such a difference?

(FYI, those sweet little polka dot chairs are from HomeGoods!)

The chairs that match the sofa above were paired with a blue suede sofa in the adjacent family room.

Did you notice the 'dated' blue and cream striped wallpaper?

Hopefully not at first, as your eye went to look at the furniture.......that's what real estate staging is all about!  

This house was 'vacant' so it was super easy to stage.

As long as you're here, I'm gonna show you a few photos of the staged bedrooms...

I went a little crazy throwing turquoise and mint green together in this room.  Again, another mix of 'high and low' furnishings.  (Antiques vs. HomeGoods)

I fell in love with this sunburst mirror from HomeGoods and it played a special part in this room...

It worked well with Pottery Barn bedding, HomeGoods pillows and an antique dresser and accessories.

 Check out the blend of pillows in this next shot.

Now notice, how one more pillow makes it pop!!

The master bedroom is a pillow playground....

The blue floral pillow on the chair below is a knock off of  F.Schumacher's Chiang Mai Dragon! 

(Yes, from Home Goods!) 

I love my job!

Happiness!

Before and After Bedroom

Well, because I can't help myself......

 I redid my son Jackie Boy's room recently.

Seriously.  Stop me.

But I do have to thank my boys for being troopers when I say 'I think I'm gonna change a couple of things in your room'. (Remember Petie Pie's room?)

Anywho, here's Jackie Boy's room before:

Then I bought this kantha quilt on Etsy.

And everything changed.

 See the Euro Shams?

 I made them out of a curtain panel that I fell in love with from West Elm!

The decorative ikat pillows are from Pottery Barn.

The coverlet is from Ikea.  Super cheap affordable!

I'll share more about the vintage chinese screen and antique rug soon!  I promise!

Smiles!

The Cosmic Swirl

 Karma.  Meant to be.  What goes around comes around.  Things happen for a reason.  Good things happen to good people.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  

To me, it's what I call the 'Cosmic Swirl'.

Okay, so if you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I make pillows.  I reupholster vintage furniture.  I am a real estate stager.  And you may remember, that I was knocked sideways by the death of my father last Fall after putting my mother in a nursing home (for alzheimer's) last Summer.

So here's the deal.

My family lived in Northern California in the early 1960's and we moved to Hawaii when I was 3 1/2 years old.  

This is a photo of me and my brothers on Halloween at our house in California before we moved to Hawaii.

(Notice how the older brothers have the faboo homemade Halloween costumes and I'm wearing one of my brother's baseball uniforms.  I'm guessing my mom got tired after making the first two costumes). But notice the fence post people, because that is important....

Long story short.  Lovely life in Hawaii.  I mean seriously!

Went to highschool with this dude, who is now the President of the United States!

Oh and my prom date was this dude:

But I'm digressing.

On my dad's death bed, we talked about that darn house in Northern California and how he and my mom tied my brother's bedroom doors together with rope on Christmas Eve, so that they wouldn't escape and see what was under the Christmas Tree!  (Eegads, nowadays, my parents would have been cited for some sort of child abuse for that!)

Anywho, back to me.  Of all things, I was asked to stage this house.

Notice those little fence posts.  Just like those in my little Halloween pic above.

Yup.  My house as a child.  How amazing is that?

Seriously.  The Cosmic Swirl.

Before pic of the current owner's living room:

After I staged it:

It sold for a six figure sum over the asking price.  Amazing!

I like to think a couple of things....

That perhaps there was a little 'shout out' from the universe from my deceased dad.  Maybe the universe was saying something like 'here it began -- and here you move forward-- we were a family in this house, and now you are a woman with your own family.....'

Or maybe the universe wanted to remind me of the sink where my naughty middle brother would get his 'mouth washed out with soap'  -- is still in existence.  Seriously, the same sink from the 1960's....

Amazing!

Summer lovin'

I'm loving these colors inspired by summer!

necklace//ginger jar//dress//pillow//clutch purse//dinner napkins

Cheers to summer!

Anatomy of a staged room

Greetings peoples!

Here's a little dissection of the living room of a house that I staged last week.

I wanted to share this because this is a serendipitous mix of 'high' and 'low' items that came together to help sell this house on the first day it was listed!

The homeowners had moved out and I was left with a blank slate, so close your eyes and imagine an empty room.  

Now open them, and looky here:

I'm trying to get fancy with my photography editing, so I've created a little map with numbers that can help explain where I got all this stuff.....

1.  Coffee Table from a local consignment shop (approx. $49)

2. Pillow from Z Gallerie (last year) $69.99, but I sell similar (custom made) in my Etsy Shop (tra la!)

3. Pottery Barn Pillow (on sale for $19.99)

4. Home Goods!  How great is that mirror? It was $59.99!

5. Lamps from a White Elephant Sale!  $17 for the pair! Seriously!

6.  Faux plant from Home Goods!  (Have I mentioned I love that place?)

7. Vintage artwork from the flea market (can't remember the price, sorry!)

8. Rug from none other than Home Goods!  $199!

The sofa and the two club chairs were the homeowner's own.  How lucky was that?

Oh and one final final....my favorite thing was the frog on the coffee table!

Yup, it was from Home Goods! ($7.99)

Love!

In case you were wondering...

Remember when I talked about this GORGEOUS FABRIC that I found on Ebay?

 It's a vintage Lee Jofa print on linen.  Great colors, super fun and crazy pattern.

I initally thought I'd be using it to reupholster a cool chair or two.......

But instead I made pillows!  

A local client of mine snapped them up and added them to her collection of other pillows that she's purchased from me.

 Seriously, you gotta love blue and white gingham; a huge Quadrille ikat print and a vintage Lee Jofa all together....

The mix of these pillows is pure.......

Pillow Love!

Creating a vignette on a tray

One of my obsessions  passions, is to constantly switch things around in my house.  

I recently picked up an orange lacquered asian tray at the flea market and created a new centerpiece vignette for my dining table.

 The dining table used to look like this:

Then I switcher-ooed the light fixture ....

And found that the table needed a bigger centerpiece to balance out the new fixture above.

Eventually, I'll find a rug to place under the table to finish off the space -- but one thing at a time, right?

I'm totally digging the vintage candle holders from Etsy that I blogged about last week.

The rest of the items were just stuff that I had from other parts of the house, and I added the orchids from one of my favorite haunts...Trader Joe's!

In case you're wondering, here's what the rest of the room looks like:

And the flip side of the room:

Featuring Sherman's favorite spot.

It's nap time!