Starting to Stage Bacon's House

Home Staging In Portland

When I grow up...  Now that you have that Pussycat Dolls song stuck in your head... or maybe that's just me. 

I check out lots of blogs. I watch HGTV till Hunky Husband wants to poke his own eyes out. I cruise Pinterest for hours. I'm writing this blog, taking pictures and linking.  But what I really want to do is become a Professional Stager like Miss Maureen of Room Solutions Home Staging in Portland, Oregon.

• with a storage space full of inventory furniture to stage vacant properties
• with classes under my belt and certifications
• with fancy association buttons to put on my web site
• with all the answers for my clients on how to sell their homes quick & for top dollar

In the mean time, I'm helping my friend Bacon (really, that's her last name) get her house ready to put on the market before her husband leaves on his next deployment. 

this is a day time photo with flash, like I said daaaarrk

Martha Stewart Rainwater
via Home Depot

We have to start with paint.  Her living room is a dark taupe and a gorgeous shade of Ohio State crimson. The fireplace surround is white builder grade tile and the mantle is Ohio State Gray.  It matches her husband's fan flags -- it is perfect for them to live in. GO BUCKEYES! It is a comfy, cozy cave.  However, the dark colors suck every bit of light out of the room. For listing pictures, we need to brighten & lighten. Primer + paint and it will sound like a good episode of House Hunters.  "I love the light. Good space. Great light in here."

We live in sunny Florida and the room has 20' vaulted ceilings and glass doors that open out to the back yard.  Once we throw on some Martha Stewart colors in Behr paint in a light gray tone, it will sparkle and glow.  

Martha Stewart Enamelware
via Home Depot

We are trying test boards of Rainwater and Enamelware on sheets of foam core. I think the Enamelware is a little too blue, but every paint does funny things in different light.  -We shall see. Either of the sea glass gray tones will really pop against the dark hard wood floors.  We are also going to try this trim trick I found on Pinterest to visually bulk up the baseboards.

via Pinterest

Her kitchen cabinets are the same dark gray color as the mantle.  She was afraid we would have to repaint them all.  Then I showed her the pretty two-toned scheme that Miss Layla has in her The Lettered Cottage kitchen.  Perfection. So, we can paint just the uppers and trade out hardware.

Miss Layla in her TLC kitchen

Martha Stewart Sea Anemone
via Home Depot

The kitchen opens into the living room so the two colors will bump up against each other in one corner and have to play nice.  We are going for a fresh green yellow (and crossing our fingers that it doesn't come out looking like lime sherbet).  For now, Sea Anemone is the front runner.  It looks so pretty against Rainwater and the lower cabinets.

via Pinterest

Bacon just loves the look of white subway tiles. They are classic and cheap economical per square foot. Her next door neighbor and my Hunky Husband are awesome tile guys and their rates are reasonable (coke & pizza till the job is done).


As we start projects, I'll include some before shots.  This is the dreamy post about all our wanna/gonna ideas.  I also have to let Bacon scrub her house before I take any pictures. She is one of those clean for the cleaning lady, stage for the stager kind of girls.  I'm so thankful she is letting me share her house with you.  We are both crazy country girls, so I'm sure there will be some shenanigans along the way to share, too.



Hunky Husband is also going to price out one more project for us. The kitchen is on the smaller side and doesn't have a lot of storage, but it does have super high ceilings.  I think it would be great to build boxes on top -- it turns standard height cabinets into extra tall ones. 

boxes with crown via Remodelaholic

We want to be very careful with the budget.  Every dime that goes in needs to really come back as a quarter.  I'll let you in on every way we stretch it (like color matching any fancy color into Behr paint).  You can also check out this project as it grows on my Pinterest board -- Bacon's house.

just bec