Home Staging in a nutshell consists of one thing.  Sleight of the eye. 

Just as a magician distracts his audience in order to covertly perform a trick, Home Stagers can distract attention away from warts and on to gems.

I heard about some people who were surprised when the homeowner was inside when these prospective buyers viewed the property.  The house was/is an example of curb UNappeal.  The visible exterior consists solely of a garage door, plain and without even a window.  Because the house is situated on the downward slope of a hill, this is all you can see from the street.  Inside is no better:  tiny chopped up rooms, awkward flow, low ceilings, dingy carpets, horribly outdated baths and kitchen.  The house has one shining star, a beautiful in-ground pool situated on a long backyard ending in a glen and a creek. 

The homeowner did a fantastic job directing the prospective buyers’ attention to the back of the house, where the pool was visible.  They wrote a contract that night.

Home Stagers can do this sort of thing without such personal intrusion.   

Tomorrow: My Top Home Staging Tips

More rain is on the way. *frown*  I still do not have any of my pots planted outside, but who has lingered long enough to notice? This is the latest it has ever been for me.  Will it ever dry up? 

While we wait for the sun to stay out, I am repeating two fair weather articles here that ran last year in my newsletter.

Coordinating garden plants to architectural style is the first step toward what Realtors elusively refer to as “curb appeal”.  Curb appeal is a phrase created for the real estate market to describe the critical overall first impression a home makes upon approach. It is important to consider your home’s external appearance when developing a design plan.  Of course, no rules are hard and fast, but consideration of the color scheme and architectural style of a home as well as the visual space.

A long low ranch will need different plantings than a tall townhouse. Some styles, like the ubiquitous brick colonial, can be equally appealing with formal English landscaping or carefree perennial cottage gardens. Scale is the key here. A large home needs large beds with similarly scaled trees and scrubs. In this case, a tiny border bed of azaleas and low lying annuals looks silly.

Consider color as well. Use orange, yellow and red flowers with warm tones of brick and siding. Purple and green look wonderful against pale brick and gray or taupe siding.

Beware of garden clutter! Too many tschotkes can ruin an otherwise beautiful garden. One flag and one statue is enough.

Adding some blooming perennials to landscape beds can add color to the exterior of your home. It is not as scary as it seems. The first three are even easier than annuals; they are often found in commercial settings.

Rudbeckia Goldstrum Black eyed Susans grow easily and bloom most of the summer
Coreopisis Lacy and heat tolerant
Hemerocallis Stella de Oro Everywhere for a reason

Slightly more challenging, but well worth it are these…

Delphinium Tall and truly blue, stunning to behold
Echinacea Like a purple daisy
Heuchera Gorgeous deeply colored leaves that look like red wine. Looks awesome with purple salvias, annual purple fountain grass and and a little accent of chartreuse green
Geranium Johnson’s Blue Nothing like the annual type, low with small flowers

Any big box home improvement store will have this list, but for help and quality plants try a nursery.