It can often feel like the bane of our existence because we have to manage it so much in this logistics heavy industry.
Pardon the pun, but sometimes stock can feel really heavy on our business.
That’s why I am joined today by Brooke Gillham, from National Storage, to talk about how you can increase the flexibility of your storage solutions.
If you’re looking to ease the burden of managing stock levels in your business, click HERE to listen to my full chat with Brooke.
Naomi x
Are you coming to the 2019 National Home Staging Symposium? You’re in luck! Brooke will be there to answer all your questions about storage solutions for the home staging industry!
With a change in season I find myself scrolling images for inspiration. Sometimes people think when winter comes around, you can’t have fresh flowers – totally not the case!
I love a beautiful arrangements of flowers. They can be used to either make a statement or to just add a touch of greenery to a room. Adding a touch of flowers can add a different element to the space, for example, making an area more cheerful, adding a hint of fragrance, adding a pop of colour or to even compliment or enhance the current style/design within the space.
The beauty of it all is there are no hard rules on how or where you choose to incorporate flowers. You can add them in your kitchen, living, dining or even your bathroom. The look you want to create can differ depending on whether you choose long and thin flowers or short and rounded shaped ones. You may find yourself varying the look and feel as the flowers need changing to truly create your own personal touch knowing you haven’t spent a lot of money.
Image from Homemaking cottageImage from Savor Home BlogImage from Hgtv.comImage from Alison Royer
The images included are some of my inspiring shots where the use of flowers complimented the entire design of the room.
Want to find even more gorgeous things to add to your spaces? Come shopping with me in Bali for my Buying Tour in August 2019! Click here to find out more!
Creating the perfect dining space is something we can all achieve and guess what?! It doesn’t need to be done with a big budget!
Many families or households don’t take the time to regularly use the dining table as a chance to get together and enjoy a good meal and great company.
Dining spaces can be designed to accommodate each household’s lifestyle and taste. From a small family breakfast table to a large formal dinner, there are no set rules as to what you can and cannot include in your dining space. As long as your end result is a space that feels inviting and comfortable.
Some examples of items you could include in different dining areas could be:
Something traditional or conservative…
a timeless timber table and chairs
timber buffet styled with simple candles and/or vases
Contemporary artwork or mirror
Something modern or eclectic…
a white timber table
colourful chairs
quirky console table styled with plenty of fun personal touches
modern artwork or unique wall feature
Image via House BeautifulImage via Theinspiredroom.netImage via Douglasfriedman.net
With the styling industry ever evolving and many of us wanting to keep up with these changes, we can be pleased to know that sourcing that ‘must have’ item is achievable. The current market caters for all budgets with less expensive items to very costly, it really depends on what you’re after and what you’re wanting to spend.
Either way knowing you can create a space that has been designed and styled specifically for you should mean plenty of enjoyable times will be spent around the dining table, in style!
Do you own your own home staging company? Why not check out our business resources like Standard Operating Procedure templates? They’re the perfect way to improve your processes and procedures!
Recently I have been working with a client that has given me no end of interesting blog topics to bring to you, this one is about how to choose the right “shade of grey”. Each time this client excitedly shows me a new home furnishing or interior element that is grey they often follow up by saying, “but it’s not the right shade of grey, why can I see brown in it?”.
That’s why I’m going to give you my five rules for choosing a shade of grey for my home or client – they are a simple and a great place to start.
1. Decide before you start whether you are wanting the coolness of a blue grey or the warm of a brown grey.
2. Be careful what light you are viewing the swatches under in the shop or showroom. Depending on whether the lighting is a warm yellow or a cool white light will greatly effect the way you see the colour.
3. Remember that the the human eye is not a machine and that the way you view colour is quite subjective. What is a perfect grey to you may be different for your partner.
4. Colour is also relative, when you are viewing what you think is your perfect shade of grey at the paint suppliers it is one of many colours on the paint swatch. The colours along side your choice will impact on how you view and perceive the colour you have chosen. Where possible use a neutral coloured view finder to isolate the one colour of interest to minimise the impact this can have.
5. Finally, consider the final resting place of the colour. All the elements of the room you intend to paint will effect the final product and result of your “shade of grey”. The lighting, the shadows and the colours and furniture around it. Make sure you test the paint on a large size card on the wall (A3 at least) and live with the colour test for a while before making the final decision.
With winter around the corner there is no excuse to put off updating the colour of your favourite space, maybe to a shade of gorgeous grey.
Do you want to come on the shopping trip of a lifetime? Join me for my Bali Buying Tour this August 2019! Click Here to find out more!
Lets face it, sometimes it’s easier to hide our mess behind closed doors – but I really do love open shelving, for so many reasons!
Luckily, open shelving does not have to look like a cluttered mess. When styled right, it can add so much character and interest to your space that you might want to do away with all your cupboard doors!
Check out these great options below.
Modern Desk Accessories design by West Elm
Don’t think of open shelves the same way you think of storage, it’s not about squeezing in everything you can!
Instead, make your open shelves the feature of your room.
By using simple floating open shelves you can create so many different looks depending on what you accessorise the shelves with.
They can totally be functional too, just a more presentable version of what you’d usually store away!
Want to attend our National Home Staging Symposium before spots run out? Get your tickets below!
Research into home buyer psychology tells us that we have just 30 seconds to make a first impression when selling our home.
So you need to nail the look and feel of your property if you want to sell faster and for more money!
If you want to get prepared before the property stylist comes to perfect your space, here are three things to avoid doing during the process:
Declutter
A lot of clients tell me that their homes feels comparatively empty when it goes to market. This is where the idea of cosy vs clutter comes in.
It’s often difficult to differentiate between the two when it’s your own home, however it’s essential not to get this one wrong. The best rule is to try to avoid the “cosy” look when selling your home. Having too many accessories, personal photographs and other items in an attempt to create “cosy” will actually make the property seem cluttered and lose its appeal to the broader market.
Stick to stylish, understated and sophisticated accessories. There’s a fine line though, you don’t want your property to feel cold – but the property stylist can help you bring in warmth with great styling choices.
Living area styled by Naomi Findlay
Not being able to look past your own personal style
This is an area of great concern when you are styling a property for sale. You have to remember that your personal taste is not necessarily that of the market. When selling, you need to appeal to as many people as possible so remember – when you have your home styled for sale it is not about you (I know that hurts but it will help you when you sell, trust me).
This is why bringing a professional in can be the best thing you could do to increase your chances of selling for more.
Keep your styling neutral
Choosing furniture that is the wrong size for your space
The use of furniture that is too big or the wrong shape can drastically affect the way a potential buyer sees your home. It’s all about scale and making the space feel light and airy. If your bedrooms are small, your choice of furniture could either emphasize the tiny space or completely transform the feeling for a potential buyer.
Your home stager can work with you to choose appropriate furniture if yours is the wrong fit.
Are you a home stager? Want to boost your career? Come to the National Home Staging Symposium! Click below!
When you work in property styling, knowing how to create gorgeous vignettes is essential!
But what are vignettes? And how can you make them amazing?!
Vignettes are small arrangements of bits and pieces usually placed on coffee tables, book shelves, benches and anywhere that can hold specific items to bring texture and warmth to a space.
The ways in which vignettes are arranged is not random, even though it can look that way. In order to have a successful and aesthetically pleasing vignette, it is necessary for the items used to be specifically picked for a particular reason.
A vignette can be as simple as a small house plant next to a book on a coffee table. These items are commonly used in vignettes because plants are not only aesthetically pleasing but they can also create a positive and calming atmosphere in the area.
Coffee table books are often used in vignettes as they are intriguing and can make guests interested in the overall arrangement of the vignette.
Small artworks, candles and magazines are all used in vignettes to create interest and pleasing aesthetics in an area such as a coffee table.
The idea behind vignettes is that you are able to create your own small artwork that you can change whenever you please.
When styling vignettes it is of utmost importance to ensure that all items used are of different textures, shapes and sizes. While vignettes may seem easy to style, it can be difficult to create an arrangement that makes you and everyone who sees the vignette say “WOW!”.
Using different colours, textures, shapes and sizes that all work together is the most effective way to create an amazing vignette, but it is all about trial and error.
Where you put your vignette can also determine if your vignette works or not as well. A vignette may look awesome on a coffee table, but it may look a little too much on a book shelf. It’s all about figuring out what works best in the space.
If you’ve created a gorgeous vignette, tag @NaomiFindlayOfficial on Instagram and we’ll share it with our audience!
Styling a master bedroom in a home for sale can be tricky. The majority of time spent here is for sleeping and for this reason, many people have a complacent attitude when it comes to styling the master bedroom.
But the key is the create a space that oozes comfort, tranquility and space. So how do you create a space that attracts buyers?
Read on for my top style tips…
Having a pleasing master bedroom is more than just the mattress. When it comes to putting your house on the market, it’s all about practicality and aesthetics so choose gorgeous pillows, play with different colours and textures, and use light to your advantage.
The bed is the major part of a master bedroom, and is usually the focal point of the room. Simple bedding such as a white cover is best. This can be dressed up with a throw and pillows of a variety of colours.
Not all master bedrooms have a lot of wardrobe space, and buyers will wonder if there is enough room for clothing so consider adding stylish clothes rails and a chest of draws to showcase alternative storage solutions. As long as the furniture is scaled to suit the size of the room, it shouldn’t look crowded and can in fact make the space feel complete.
Lighting is another key feature that is of utmost importance in the master bedroom. Natural light is always a plus, but it is understandable that this is not always available.
Downlights, side table lamps, tall feature lamps and candles are all great ways to make the room feel more comforting and, most importantly, makes sure the room is well light.
Accessories and art are also great ways to make the room shine and add interest without deterring buyers.
We have scattered some of our favourite master bedrooms below! As you can see, there is no strict formula when it comes to decorating the master bedroom but all designs contain the features mentioned above.
Art is one of the greatest ways to give homebuyers a vision when they walk into a property!
They may visualise their existing home decorations, be inspired by new colours and consider how to improve their own style and ideas.
But the way you present your wall art can make or break the impact it has on the buyer – and as many of you know, attention to detail is of utmost importance when staging your house to be sold.
So what are the 4 key things to remember when you are hanging wall art?
1. Keep artwork in scale with the space
The biggest mistake most people make is hanging a picture that’s too small for the space. If you put a page-sized portrait on an expansive wall, it will be totally lost and ignored. To figure out how large a picture to hang on your wall, measure the width of the space (say, the area between two windows) and multiply that number by .57. The result is the ideal width of the painting you should centre in that space. This bit of arithmetic is based on decorators’ tried-and-true proportions, but you of course have a little leeway. You can also group smaller photos together to reach this number — just be sure to account for additional spacing between each.
2. Hang artwork at eye level
Many people hang their pictures too high on the wall, thinking that there’s a lot of space to fill toward the ceiling. Not so! The centre of your artwork should be at eye level of the average person — (roughly 175cm). The one exception is with lettered signs, which are typically designed to be seen from a distance and can therefore be hung higher than eye level if you like.
3. Make sure your art is lit correctly
Be conscious of the lighting around your artwork. Some art will only shine when light dances onto its surface in the correct way so ensure you investigate the light from windows and any artificial sources. Also be wary the beauty or detail of your favourite piece doesn’t get lost if it’s catching some rays.
4. Use art to accentuate the room
If you have beautiful tall ceilings, use art to draw your eyes upwards by hanging one piece on top of the other, rather than the more traditional way of side by side. Use ornate detail to embellish or highlight art pieces, and vice versa. Choose art that brings out the best of the room, and can help mask the less inspiring elements of a room.
If you stick to these four simple rules, you’re sure to be pleased with how your works of art transform the walls and ‘wow’ potential homebuyers.
Want to boost your career in home staging and learn from experts in your industry? Attend the BIGGEST home staging event in the country at the 2019 National Home Staging Symposium! Spots filling FAST – save your seat here!
I wanted to share something with you today that I was reading on my phone earlier, so you’ll see me looking at it a little bit. It’s about clutter and money.
There’s an amazing, good friend of mine, as well as an amazing business woman, called Denise Duffield-Thomas from LuckyBitch.com. Go over and check her out. You’ll find the stuff that she does absolutely amazing.
I was reading the morning about this really great piece she wrote about decluttering. I see a lot of home stagers doing some of the things that she talks about in her blog.
You’ll see in here that she talks about clutter and decluttering is great for money manifesting. She goes on to talk about all the different things that maybe we are doing with our clutter.
For example, in our office spaces, are we holding onto a desk someone gave us when we first started our businesses because we feel that we need to have more money or be a bigger business before we then give ourselves another desk?
A little like – and this is a phrase that Denise talks about, as interesting as it sounds – beggars can’t be choosers. “Someone gave me this when I first started business, so I’m going to keep using it.”
I really want you to head over and read this blog because this is absolutely amazing. It speaks about if we’re holding on to some of the things that we were gifted and we feel we have to be grateful for in our businesses, we aren’t opening up opportunities for new energy, new money and new abundance to come in.
I see this a fair bit in home staging. I see it with people’s stock. When I first started and I was getting stock in and I was like, “Wow! My business is growing!”
Then, as I got more and more stock and I wanted to turn it over, there was this ridiculous attachment to the stock that I had first because, “Oh, gosh. I need that. I need to be grateful. That’s where I can from.”
It wasn’t until I had the most epic garage sale that suddenly my business started to flourish. I got rid of all that old stock that was tying me down and that I wasn’t even really using. I was getting a warehouse full of clutter.
This is something that’s really important in home staging.
Look at your stock, look at your inventory and avoid it becoming clutter. It is the main commodity for many home stagers who have higher for making money.
Why do we allow a money making item to become a cluttered item?
Why don’t we cut it loose and allow more space in our warehouse, more space in our energy, more space in our business for abundant stock, customers, clients and agents coming in.
This is one way that I find a lot of the home stagers that I mentor and that are on our memberships are a bit attached to clutter. But I want to share with you from my phone here. I love reading Denise’s stuff.
She had some other great top tips and I wanted to read you some of my favorites about decluttering in the business because it’s so important; just as it’s important in life, it’s essential in business.
The first one is a really great one about unsubscribing to emails that you don’t want anymore. Deleting old contacts out of your phone.
Backing up and cleaning off your computer. If your desktop looks like a mad woman’s breakfast, clean that up. You’ll be amazed at how good it feels.
Shred old documents. Old documents that you don’t’ need, get rid of them. There is no need to have that clutter and store them.
This is a really interesting one: clean up your Facebook feed. It doesn’t mean you have to defriend people or unlike people, but if there’s someone that’s on your feed and you just don’t want to see their stuff anymore, make sure you remove that from your feed.
The other one that I love, which is really interesting is deleting websites and getting rid of the histories in your browsers. That can be really interesting.
Then, one of the last ones that I want to read to you – and this is a great one – is say no to networking groups that have become an obligation and not a joy.
I believe massively, guys, in the five people that we surround ourselves in are the people that we’re going to become and the people that we’re going to be the biggest reflection upon us.
That could also be said for networking groups. Many of us got involved in networking groups, which can become clutter in our calendar and clutter in our life.
Take Denise’s massive inspiration. Head over to LuckyBitch.com. I want you to get on and read this because it’s a really amazing blog.
I want you then to have a look in your warehouses for cluttered stock; I want you to look in your offices for all those things that you feel you should be entitled and that you’re really gifted to have and you need to keep and I want you to look in your computers and in your phones.
Rid yourself of that clutter and that will open up the energy for abundance and more business, more wealth and more opportunity to come your way.
Thanks so much for listening, guys. I’ll be back again soon.
When you are preparing to your put property on the market, chances are you want the best price possible. Often times, this means hiring a stager to give you the best chance at getting the highest return. If your budget is tight and you have furniture space, the best option in home staging is to have your property partially staged. This means that when a home stager comes into your property to have a consultation and quote your property, they will inform you of what furniture can stay and what furniture can go. However, if you want to best use home stagers to your fullest advantage there are a few things you should do before having the consultation.
De-clutter
De-cluttering your property is a must before it goes on sale and before you have a consultation with a home stager. Remove the stacks of DVD’s, CD’s, bookshelves stacked high with odds and ends, piles of things you have been meaning to clear out and anything that doesn’t have a spot. Not only will this help in the moving process but it will make your property seem a lot nicer and bigger instantly.
The reason for this is simple, you don’t want your valuables to be damaged in the sale process. If something is special to you but it does not go with the theme of the property, removing it prior to a home stager coming in is a good idea so someone else doesn’t have to tell you to remove it. Similarly, removing images is a must! Potential buyers don’t want to feel like they are walking through someone else’s property so family photos are unnecessary.
Remove toys
Even if you are living in the property during the sale process, limiting the amount of toys used to a small box that can easily be packed away in the car during open homes is a great idea. Toys are not necessary when displaying a home as a family home. Not only that but toys in the home during open houses make the property feel as if it is someone else’s and potential buyers cannot fully imagine themselves living in the space.
Keeping your yard in immaculate condition during the sale process is of utmost importance! Street appeal is the first thing that draws a buyer in so ensuring that the yard is looking amazing, with trimmed hedges, cut grass and clean footpaths is absolutely essential!
There is no point hiring a stager if you are going to shut down every idea they have. Home stagers are experts in design and the real estate market, which means they know what sells and what doesn’t. If you hire a stager but then rearrange everything as soon as they leave, then the whole process was a waste of your time and money. Chances are you are not an expert in the market, and the property design does not have to be to your personal taste, or even to the personal taste of the stager, it just has to be that of the market.
