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!

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

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?

Have you been seeing a lot of orange lately?  We sure have!  It is popping up everywhere; in fashion, jewelry and home decor.  Open up any magazine or catalog and you will see that Pantone has once again started a new color craze since announcing Tangerine Tango as their 2012 Color of the Year.  Pantone describes the emotional connection of this color; “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy”.  We think it’s a fun, energetic color that pairs well with green, pale blue, white and other lighter neutral hues.

This color attracts a lot of attention so we have some tips on how you can introduce this color into your own home without regrets or your guests feeling they’ve walked into a room from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Start small.  Just introducing a few decorative pieces will have high impact.  It is cost effective and a fun, easy way to introduce this color.  Once you start looking for it, you will find decorative pieces everywhere.

If you want to decorate a larger space with this color, mix in some pattern and a neutral color.  This will help break up the space visually and it lets your eyes easily move about the room.  The neutral color you choose should coordinate with the outlying neutral colors in your house.  This will give the entire space a more cohesive look.

We think this color has high-impact when used as an accent color in a fun print

Or you could go bold with a full wall treatment

Or, if orange is your favorite color you could fully commit with a large furniture piece

We want to know, will you be doing the tangerine tango?

Living Room Before

We didn’t think this was sending the right message.  While it may not be fair, furnishings have a direct impact on the perception of a property.  Old, worn out or outdated furniture decreases the perceived value of a home.  Additionally, furniture that is inconsistent with the style and period of the home will look awkward and won’t capture a buyer’s attention. Considering the style and color palette of this particular home, we brought in staging furniture to help showcase it’s intrinsic charm and do justice to it’s historic elements. We selected furniture that, while current, also speaks to the period specific qualities of this this unique home.  Matching furniture to a home’s style, scale and color scheme presents a pleasing and cohesive message that buyers respond to.

Living Room After

In other words – Style Matters.

Staged With Color

Based on results, the home was just neutral enough – it sold on the first day!

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.

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.

As is a recent graduate of the Art Institute of Portland, Kirsten has a great set of skills.  But it was this line in her cover letter that captured our attention: “Being able to utilize family treasures to enhance one’s personal space is a true test of design.”  With that said, we knew she was the one for us.  As the busy summer season is well under way we couldn’t be more pleased that Kirsten has joined the team at Chancellor Designs.  Welcome Kirsten!