Huge Transformation in Every Room

As I walked into this home, the first thing I noticed where the beautiful large windows, the stunning slate tile, the perfect hard wood floors and all the arched doorframes.  The house felt like a warm hug with lots of character so I couldn’t wait to transform it to it’s full potential.  Then I noticed it’s amazing exterior property and backyard oasis.

Inspiration

Since the slate tile was a dominant feature throughout the house, it was extremely important that they painted the main living spaces in a colour that enhanced the slate.  Their previous colour also worked with the slate but the colour was a bit dark.  We chose a light neutral taupe that completely changed the look of the house. I was grateful that they hired a professional painter for the job since there was A LOT of painting to do and if the job isn’t done right, it’s a waste of money and time.  A bad paint job can actually hurt the sale of a house.  This painter did a fabulous job.

In order to not overwhelm everyone, I wanted to do this project in stages.  The house quickly transformed right before our eyes.   Once the painting was all done, it was time to rearrange a lot of furniture and then put the Style back in the house.

Outgrown the House

It’s very common to see families who have run out of bedrooms with a growing family so they have to convert some main rooms for bedrooms.  That’s great for your own living if it’s functional, however, when selling your house you have to showcase the room so it will appeal to the masses.

This room was actually the formal living room but it was turned into a bedroom since there weren’t enough rooms for the kids.  If you notice, the blocked off French doors on the left side has the family room on the other side. I was so impressed with this teens artistic abilities on the black board behind her bed. I felt terrible asking them to paint over it.

Yes, this is the same room 🙂  They moved the bedroom furniture downstairs and brought their downstairs leather furniture and tables etc. upstairs to create a lovely living room.

The piano was brought in from the office.  The room looks so elegant in the new paint colour. The wainscoting and French doors really gives the room personality.

Open Up Spaces

The homeowners were very creative in blocking off the French doors leading into the living room with a  huge TV wall unit to make the room work for them, but I couldn’t wait to see it all opened up.  It took me a while to figure out how to rearrange the furniture and yet still be as functional as possible for the busy family. Living in a staged house is difficult!!!

The room need to be painted, furniture needed to be rearranged and then it was styled with rentals from Styled & Staged.

Once the walls were painted, the fireplace really stood out and became a focal point.  We removed the area rug to showcase the lovely floors and one of the ottomans so it wasn’t too heavy looking.

Removing the two side towers of the TV unit allowed us to put the TV on this smaller wall.  Now the living room and the family room are opened up to one another.  There is so much light as well now that the sun flows through the house. They still have the same amount of seating which is very important.

Adding new drapes throughout the main floor helped with the colour flow and gave a nice cohesive look.

Home Executive Office

More and more people who live in rural areas are able to work from home so it’s very valuable to have a functional and attractive office space to work in – especially on the main floor.

This is ‘supposed’ to be the formal dining room but since the kitchen has enough space for a huge table as well as bar stools at the island, I felt it was more important to showcase it as an office.  They already had the perfect furniture for it.

After the room was painted we updated it with the same steel blue drape panels that matched the rented artwork.

Removing the piano and putting it in the formal living room gave us more space.  The room needed some greenery for softness/life since it only had hard surfaces (wood, glass, tile etc.).

Great Entertaining Area

This is a good reminder why it was so important to hire a professional painter when you see how high the walls go up.  Since they were painting, I asked them to remove all the valances for a more current feel.  Let the buyers decide how they want to dress the windows but at least they have perfect painted walls.

Now that you see the layout, you can understand why there was no need for an additional ‘formal’ dining room.  The kitchen was perfect the way it was.  It just had the same paint job.  This is a great house for entertaining with the open layout and the backyard is it’s own little oasis.

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to cool off in the pool or relax in the hot tub.  I would have been happy to just lounge on the deck 🙂

Master Retreat

Luxurious master bedrooms area very important when selling your house.

Removing the swag drapes and valances immediately brightened and updated the room.  We didn’t want to have to paint this room since there was so much painting elsewhere so I brought in bold drapes and accessories to keep it cozy and dramatic.

Once again removing the swag valances made a huge difference.  I carried the same bold orange from the master bedroom so you can tell the two rooms go together.  I pulled the brick orange tones from the slate tiles.

Just keep the bathrooms simple when staging your home so it appeals to the masses.

Kids Room with the Wow factor

If you live in Ottawa, chances are you are a Senators fan so we left the theme in this room.

Subtle changes like removing the bookcase at the end of the bed (it helped open up the room) and adding matching bed linens made a huge difference.

Removing all the glass and metal shelves in the corner and putting the book case there instead made the room feel so much larger. Removing the black wooded box above the window also make the window feel larger.

A Pop of Colour

It can be challenging to photograph white rooms since they don’t show any depth and you want your rooms to be remembered when buyers are looking through the MLS photos. I needed to add a bit of colour.  The first thing I wanted to do was to rearrange the furniture.  It’s always best when you see the bed if you’re standing in the doorway.

By rearranging the furniture, the room looked larger since the bed didn’t block the window.  Keeping the bed white, and adding colour to the outside walls expanded the room visually and made it look wider.  The side panel drapes give some additional colour to the room.

Enhance What is Staying

Although the bathroom was bright, cheery and colourful, it didn’t enhance the slate tile or the vanity counter top at all.  Painting it in the same colour as the other rooms and adding a simple gray shower curtain completely transformed this room.  It’s hard to believe it’s the same room.

This whole transformation was done in just over a week of really hard work.  The homeowners were very pleased with the outcome and wished they had done it years ago.