Are you as anxious for spring as we are? Whether you’re decorating to dwell or decorating to sell, here are some tips to introduce spring into your home.

One of the easiest and affordable ways to update a look is with pillows.  Just swapping out the pillows on your sofa with a lighter fabric will give your whole room an instant update.  Spring is the time to have fun with bright patterns, texture, and color.  If you have extra time and money you can take this a step further with light colored slipcovers for your furniture.  You can also switch out your drapes with a cotton or linen material if you have something dark and heavy such as velvet.

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Plants and flowers are always beautiful in a home, but now is really the time to ‘branch’ out and go for the greenery.  The simplicity of a few spring branches goes a long way.  To take this a step further reach for the glass. Try incorporating glass bottles, vases, or lanterns into your decor.  This invokes the feeling of summer entertaining and as an extra bonus the sparkle that comes from the light passing through is natural and beautiful.

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Add a pop of bright color as an accent in one of your main living spaces.  Go for the coral color in the family room or turquoise blue in the kitchen.  As in the kitchen below, adding small accessories in the same color adds freshness and whimsy to the room.

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Finally, go for the simplicity of white bedding.  What better room to exude the feeling of serenity and peace than in the bedroom.  As a bonus, white bedding goes with most any color scheme.

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If it isn’t obvious, we take our queues from Mother Nature for seasonal decor.  After a morning walk with the birds singing, the trees blooming and the sun peaking out (somedays) we’re inspired to bring a little spring inside. Happy Spring!

This home sold in January after just two days on the market!

Sold!

It gets better…in just two days, there were 3 offers.  When the dust settled, the property sold for $15k over the asking price.  Seriously?!?  What does it take to get these kind of results?  We refer to it as the three “Ps”.

 PRICING – PRESENTATION – PROMOTION

We defer to our expert realtor partners to advise the seller on pricing and then follow up with marketing.  In between these two steps is our job, presenting the property.  When staging a vacant property we follow these guidelines:

• Showcase the home’s assets
• Minimize possible objects

Staged To Sell Dining Room & Living Room

Staged To Sell Living Room

Are you seeing what we’re seeing?  Brass is back, baby.  It is no longer the odd man out, the sore thumb in a room or something to be embarrassed about.  The latest trend in finishes is brass.

Brass Bar Cart

For so long it was the clearance priced fixture at any big box store.  It seemed on a daily basis HGTV was showing their viewers how easy it was to spray paint old brass chandeliers for an instant update and every Salvation Army across America was flooded with brass fixtures.  If you, like most everybody else, made these changes to your home, don’t worry it was still time well spent.  Because just as the case with most things that “come back”, the new brass is not the same as the old, shiny, yellow brass we all grew to hate.  It has rich bronze undertones and more of a aged, rubbed metallic finish to it.

Brass Bookcase

The span of love to hate is wide when it comes to brass.  If you plan to sell in the near future we don’t suggest using brass in staging your home as we know it won’t sit well with some potential home buyers.  But when staging to dwell, we think that there is nothing wrong with incorporating trends in to your home if you truly love them.  There is no such thing as “in” or “out” of style if you decorate with what you love, your style will always fit you.

We want to know is it catching your eye, are you liking the new finish?   Are you open to welcoming the new brass into your home, or is this something that you are going to pass on?

We’re having a great time preparing for the NW Natural Street of Dreams! It is truly a designers dream to work with so many great vendors as we create just the right look for the two homes we are staging for the show.  Throughout this process, we continue to keep this year’s theme in mind: Reclaim the Dream: Bold, Fresh, Sensible, Smart.

In this year’s Street of Dreams, attendees will discover a new meaning to dream living.  To us, that means that, even in this post-recession world, “the Dream” CAN come true.  These homes are inspired not by the lives of Hollywood’s extravagantly rich and famous, but by the wonderful lifestyle we lead right here in the Northwest.
 
You won’t find infinity pools or indoor basketball courts, but what you will find are creative and inspiring homes, full of great spaces for cooking, playing, relaxing, entertaining … or even doing all of those at the same time! The homes we are staging are called “Koderra” and “Cascade Splendor”.  At 4,006 and 5,130 square feet, respectively, these homes are combine spacious luxury with warmth and comfort. Of course, you will still find the wonderful, unexpected and “Dreamy” details that the NW Natural Street of Dreams is famous for.  Giant indoor planters bring the outdoors inside for a seamless indoor/outdoor living and entertaining space in Cascsde Splendor.  An oversized sculpted tub with a waterfall faucet makes the master bathroom in Koderra feel like an at-home spa.
 
We can’t wait for you to see what Chancellor Designs does to bring life and style to these fabulous homes.  We know you’ll leave the tour feeling inspired to live YOUR dream!

Artist's Rendering of Koderra.

August means one thing to those of us living in the world of home design—The NW Natural Street of Dreams! Each year, we look forward to experiencing this tour.  Amazing homes filled with wonderful interior design…its right up our alley!  But this year, we plan on doing more than just attending. We’ll be part of the show, providing our interior design and home staging services to two of the show’s five dream homes.

We are truly passionate about home design and it felt like a dream come true to be asked to be involved in one of the Northwest’s largest home shows!

Working with a talented team of vendors and builders, we will help bring the dream to the Northwest.  Dreams come to us in many forms. Yours might be the home of your dreams crafted to your every need and desire, ours is to design it just the way you imagine it. The Street of Dreams allows us to exercise our design muscle in a high-stakes showcase for all of the Northwest to see.

We hope you will be a part of our dream and join us in celebrating our efforts at the show August 6-28 at Brentwood Estates on Bull Mountain. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do! Stay tuned to our blog as we take you behind-the-scenes leading up to the show.