When it comes to Staging your home remember to think – MONEY! Today’s buyer is picky, and looking for the PERFECT home. You know, the one that looks like a model. They no longer are willing to walk into a well-used home to visualize!

Because of the huge inventory of homes that builders are now sitting on – and paying interest on – realtors and homesellers are having to find new ways to compete more than ever before. Builders, as most know, have been merchandising their model homes for years because they know this is what it takes to get their homes sold fast, and for more MONEY. They simply figure in their cost of merchandising as a cost of doing business, knowing they will net a large return on their investment! Also, new home builders have begun lowering prices, offering HUGE incentives i.e. free upgrade packages, paying closing costs, and even putting a car, color of your choice, in the garage for you in order to boost sales and reduce their inventory. These are the builders you, as individual realtors and sellers, are now in competition with!

As a professional designer in Central Florida, I have worked with these builders for more than twenty years. I can tell you what is involved in Merchandising a Model Home versus Home Staging an existing home. You will find there are many more similarities than differences when the existing home is well staged.

In the following are highlights of some of these similarities and differences:

* Remove all clutter – In Home Staging this is a fundamental rule. Remove all clutter from every room . . . including closets and drawers. (Trust me, the buyer will be looking!) Don’t forget corners and countertops, and remove unnecessay pieces of furniture that you have inherited from your Great Aunt Gertrude. Get rid of it. Decluttering makes rooms look and feel larger, (remember they are buying square footage) as well as sends the important message to the buyer that “this is a home that has been well loved and cared for!”

In Model Merchandising our job is much easier. Noone has yet ‘lived’ in the home so we don’t have years of ’stuff” to declutter. We do have to know when enough is enough though. Accessories and furniture are used to profile a lifestyle, create memory points, emotional connections and the WOW effect . . . all which will translate into a ‘great first impression’ when people enter the home. But good model merchandisers know when it’s time to stop. Their main function is to showcase the model so the HOME takes center stage . . . NOT the furnishings. This translates into open, airy, light, balanced . . . and yes . . . UNCLUTTERED rooms.

* Check your walls – In Home Staging the premise is to depersonalize the home as much as possible. While you enjoy your walls that are galleried with family photographs and hand made works of art from your children – your potential buyer will not. And neutralize the color choices for your walls overall, to appeal to the broadest band of buyers. Note: I said go neutral on walls overall!As in model merchandising, I would still recommend you use bolder colors to accent key areas or architectural details to give the home wamth and personality.

In Model Merchandising, designers generally will have more flexibility to create their own story because noone is actually living in the home. We research the demographics of the area, and are able to specifically target that market. For example, we may show you a teenaged girls bedroom who happens to be a cheerleader for the local high school – or possibly a boys room, who obviously is on the football team for your State University. If the home is located in a golfing community we will make sure to include a set of clubs in the master bedroom closet. In both home staging and model merchandising, the goal is the same . . . to sell your buyer on the home . . . both as a product, and a lifestyle!

* Aroma – In Home Staging, smells always need to be objectively and gently addressed by the stager – as an outsider. Homes that have been lived in have inherrent odors, which are often not detected by those living there, as they have become desensitized to them over time. Check soft agents, (i.e.carpeting, drapery, fabrics on furniture, etc.), as these fibers will absorb odors. Do a PET CHECK to remove any stains or signs of Felix or Fido! If these odors cannot successfully be steam cleaned out of the fibers then REPLACE, REPLACE . . . REPLACE! Nothing can kill a sale faster, or cause a bigger price reduction than offensive odors that could, and should have been previously addressed!

InModel Merchandising, creating pleasant aromas matter. Again, though models are easier as there has been noone yet living there, we still pay very special attention when addressing this to detail. We often have to caution the sales people NOT to cook their lunches or burn bags of popcorn in the microwaves. People will buy not only what they see . . . but what they smell!

Natural, clean scents are preferrable for both homes that have been staged or merchandised. Fresh flowers, potpourri, herbs, and of course fresh air. Open up the home as much as possible before showing. Avoid unnatural scents such as plug ins, sprays and oils as a consideration for those with allergies. These methods are often even more offensive than the odors you’re trying to eliminate!

* Setting the Mood – For Home Staging and Model Merchandising alike, this is a very important component to successful selling. Open blinds, turn ALL fans and lights on, have soft classical or smooth jazz softly playing in the background . . . SET THE STAGE!

Remember, home buying is an emotional purchase, and, for most of us, one of the largest investments we will make. Home Staging statistically has been proven to be one of the most effective and affordable ways to give realtors and home sellers a much needed competitive edge for this slower market . . . transforming homes into a showplace designed to appeal to the broadest range of potential buyers!

With today’s house prices soaring high space in our home is usually a luxury we can’t afford. That is why space saving tips and space saving furniture are a must especially in the bedroom when you have so many vital pieces of furniture that you can’t live without. There are many space saving bedroom suites available today and if you have kids who have a mountain of toys you will definitely want to have a look and consider some of the options.

When choosing your bed have a look at some bed furniture that has storage within them, many divan beds have options where you can have a draw on one side or even on both, this is a great space saving idea to put your clothes in or extra bedding that is quite bulky to store. Or if the divan bed option is not really to your taste choose a bed frame that has space underneath where you can store boxes or and other bits and bobs that are out the way but are easily accessible.

Sliding door wardrobes don’t offer you any more space within the wardrobe but it’s a space saver on the outside. When you have a wardrobe with doors that open out you eat into the space available within the bedroom, sliding doors gives you the same function of a wardrobe but gives more space around your bedroom and so you can place the bed or a chair closer to the wardrobe than you could ordinarily.

Choose a bedside cabinet with drawers within them. There are many styles of bedside cabinets and some of them are of a design without any drawers within them. They may look visually stunning and stylish but having drawers within your bedside table is a life saver for space, some of them have up to 3 drawers which can be used for knick knacks or clothes or books etc.

Choose cabinets that can be placed on the wall high up and out the way. With the cupboards being high up they will not overcrowd the bedroom too much and give you mountains of space for all your belongings.

These are just few space saving tips for your bedroom furniture, so before you choose and buy your bedroom suite have a look to see if you will be able to store away all of your things, or if you can choose are more storage friendly bedroom suite.

 

Nowadays the modern decoration concept has taken a transition to care for home furnishings and home decorations, and bedroom “soft decoration” has gradually formed a hot topic that people concerned about increasingly.

As to start with “soft decoration”, you could only get a warm and romantic home. At this gold autumn, the home decoration began to entered its prosperous time, many friends began busy and they are bound to in the face of numerous home decoration products and room design styles, so which kind of home design should to choose?

Top 3. Continental Court Style



Continental’s court style design particularly about extravagant habitudes, in a European luxury style design house there are commonly full with laces, complicated creases and luxury brand European-style furniture, thus to create a luxurious style, with soft bed, complex crafted crystal lights, a resplendent bedroom with thick European flavors just constituted.

Continental Court Style curtains are generally fitted with double design water wave valance, curtain cloth commonly use those flashing fabrics in elegant pale gold and raw white color.



Top 1. French Romantic Style

The living room is cozy and quiet, sun lights sprinkled in gently, relying on a large soft fabric sofa watching beloved book, enjoying the afternoon sunshine, warm, calm, on the white table there’s a hot self-grinding. Romance is exists in these home furnishing flakes, in which raw white color of furniture is more important details.

Top 2. Modern Fashion Style

Modern decorative arts has inducted the creative ideas of modern abstract art also its fruits into the modern interior decoration designs, thus strived to create unique but simplified decorations, these designs are simple, popular and fresh, which are more closer to people’s daily life.

This style design featured and constructed with curves and nonsymmetrical lines, such as footstalks, buds, grape vines, insect wings and various of elegant and waved physical patterns in the nature, which were been applied in decorations of walls, balusters, traceries and furniture.



Top 4. American Pastoral Style

American pastoral style put simplicity at a premium and uphold freedom designs, which was reflected in simple, leisure, green plants, rattan Dining Chairs and network decorations, it is elegant and comfortable, in this style, wooden furniture are generally been kept with their natural wood grains and painted with gloss paints; curtain fabrics are mainly used fabrics with patterns of flowers in the nature, natural colored stripes or pure white voiles, which are concise, fresh and natural.

Top 5. White and Black Style

Black and white style design will go an exaggerated or a minimalist route, if you choose this style design for your home decoration, which will help you to subvert the traditional home decoration style immediately.

The white and black series curtains are mainly themed with classical white-black color, whose decent patterns and geometric textures will soften those stiff and blunt expressions in the room.

It is worth noting that during the course of the room arrangement, you should take care and apply the black color with a moderate scale, too much dark furniture would bring pent-up feelings to peoples in the room. Otherwise, be equipped with several orange cushions or some red furnishings in a small area, which will mitigate those cold and serious atmospheres in the room.

Top 6. New Chinese Style

The decorative material of new Chinese style mainly are wood material, which particular about carving, painting, elegant sculpt, each furnishings are all reflects grand and luxurious characters, each decoration could arouse people to recall their past times, and produce a yearning for a good future.

Chinese-style curtain mostly use fabrics with thick colors, whose texture and patterns are full with national flavors, and the patterns of which in pursuit for simple, grand and exquisite styles, especially those Chinese elements such as tassels, clouds emblems and Mandarin collars and so on, which are applied in the New Chinese style decoration frequently.

Bed room is one of the most important rooms in a house, this is because we spend most of our time in bed (approximately 10 hours or more). So it is reasonable enough to consider arranging bed room in proper way, in order to accommodate you and your family to get most comfort during the night. However, there might be some people who still unclear about the way that they should arrange their bedroom, interior design as well as decoration. In fact, most of people think that theses elements just make a little different and may not worth the investment although they may both pertain to changing the look of a bedroom. The following detail gives you initial guideline about what element that you have to be aware of when arranging bed room as well as little tips on how to arrange bedroom furniture in better way.

Firstly, you may have to change perception al little bit if you think that bedroom is only just a room for sleep. It’s quite true that the main purpose of bedroom is a place to sleep. However, due to the people lifestyle has changed a lot so most of home owner prefer to have bigger bedroom than before. In some case, bedroom has double size of living room, which means that the purpose of using bedroom is now not limit only to the place for sleeping but it could be used in other functions. For example, larger bedroom could be used as a small tea room to have small tea party with your friends or you may use the rest of space for living area.

Therefore, the interior design of bedroom will depends on what the owner intends to use the space for. The other way to have effective solutions is you may have to consult with your interior designer about the other functions that you intend to use in bedroom so the interior designer can suggest you about suitable furniture arrangements as you want. So if you are the one who intend to use bedroom for other functions so I strongly recommend that you should hire professional interior design to help you on this. It is important for them to spend time to discuss their thoughts so that the result would be exactly what the client wants.

Effective bedroom interior design is the key of success

As mentioned above that many people prefer to hire professional interior designer for this job. However, may I remind you that sometimes you have to be careful of them as many designers consider this step to be more difficult the actual work itself and they usually come up with kind of perspective sketch present to you. This is sometimes not practical because the designer has not actually see the real space so they probably miss important information before designing. However, the perspective sketch shall be used but only for initiative ideas for further discussion between you and designer only. As long as they serve the purpose of gathering the idea discussed. During this stage, the furniture that will serve well, depending on the planned functions of the bedroom, is selected.

Buying a baby mattress is a great ordeal for first time parents. The safety of the child that you are expecting is a something that you should not ignore. A baby mattress is very important, as the baby will be spending a great deal of time sleeping on it.

When shopping for a baby mattress you may easily be overwhelmed and confused by the choices available on the market today. With so many styles and brand names to choose from, you need to know the best for you and your precious baby. Here is what to look for when choosing a mattress so that your baby will have a good night sleep.

For adults, a soft and bouncy mattress may be the best for a comfortable night’s rest but for babies and toddler, the mattress should not be too soft. This is especially important for newborns as they do not have the strength to toss and turn around. Choose a mattress that is firm. Not only will your baby sleep more soundly on a firm mattress, but it will also be safer. A softer mattress can be the cause of suffocation and can certainly be a safety hazard. If its too soft, the babies mouth and nose could become engulfed in the fabric.

Another thing that you want to make sure is that your new mattress actually fits your crib. Though most of the cribs come in standard sizes these days, it is important to double check. A small mattress could pose a safety issue for your baby. The mattress should fit snugly against the crib. Parents should make sure that there is no more than one finger spacing between the crib and the mattress, thereby preventing any accidents.

Mattress covers also pose a risk of suffocation to your baby. Hence, make sure that your cover is made from quality material that cannot be easily torn or punctured which will prevent your baby from trying to crawl underneath.

Ensure that the mattress that you get for your baby is completely waterproof. A waterproof infant Baby mattress also serves as a protective covering to keep germs and dust at bay. This allows you to clean it properly with a disinfectant or other type of cleaner without the worry of it seeping into the mattress and emitting harmful odors.

Everyone knows that when the baby is finally sleeping comfortably, the parents get a chance to rest as well. Hence, the right mattress is so important considering infants need many hours of sleep during this special time of growth and development.

If you thought that bed bugs were things that your parents just thought up on their own, you’re wrong. There are really bed bugs and they really can enter into your bed while you sleep at night. Although many don’t realize it, bed bugs are creatures that you can have in your home right now. You may think that there’s no chance of that happening, but in reality, they are there. You should take the time to find out if you have them and then, if you do, you should get your home treated, as they are likely living throughout the fabrics in your home!

Where Are They?

The first thing to realize is that bed bugs may be lurking in your bed. Take a few minutes to check out your bed. Don’t just look at the sheets, but look under them. Look in the folds of the mattress, including along the edges where the mattresses are sown together. If you see tiny little black marks, those are the droppings from bed bugs. Usually you won’t see the creatures unless it is late at night. Generally they can burrow their way into the mattress itself and live there. But, they can also live in the walls of your bedroom. As long as they are within a few feet of your bed, they are ready and able to lie in wait for you! You may never actually see these creatures, either.

Another sign that you have bed bugs happens to be on your body. Most of the time, bed bugs will come into your bed, bite you in one location, draw blood to drink, then move to another location, generally in a line that runs with your vein. If you have unexplained marks on any part of your skin, it may be do to them. Or, you may notice blood stains that are very small on your sheets. This too is a sign that you may be being bit at night.

What In The World Can You Do?

Bed bugs are creatures of habit and they also need you. You are their source of food. Although they don’t have to feed nightly, they do need you at some point. What’s more is that there are probably many hundreds and thousands of them lurking in wait. Therefore, it is important for you to seek out the help of a professional cleaner to get rid of them. Unfortunately, you may need to replace your mattress as there aren’t many ways to thoroughly clean them without allowing mold to grow in them.

You should have a professional come into your home as well as clean all carpeting, drapes and even the couches and sofas in your home. Because they can travel and they can host off of your pets, they can be located in various places throughout your home. Removing them from your home should be one of the most important things to do. Once they are gone, purchase plastic style mattress covers and pillow covers that won’t allow anything to get in or get out of the mattresses and pillows including bed bugs.

 

Bedroom is a place to relax your tired bones after a day of hectic work schedule. It is also a place where you feel peaceful  and calmness. People use the bedroom for many purposes and the bedroom set is the one  that is used as a place to lie down, to read and relax as well as for do their work. There are different varieties of bedroom  sets to choose from according to your taste, space and of course the most important being the budget. There are bedroom sets  like the platform bedroom sets, box spring bedroom sets, metal bed frame sets etc. You can also view the different varieties  of bedroom sets through online catalogs which have hundreds of different bedroom sets on display. Choose a bedroom set wisely  taking into consideration not only about the looks but also the age factor of the person who is going to use this bed as  there are different kinds of bedroom sets for all age group of people and also according to the gender of the person. Choose

bedroom sets that matches with the furniture in your bedroom. Today bedroom sets are available to fit into any style or any  kind of bedroom furniture as you get these bedroom sets in traditional styles as well as in the modern day styles.

 

 

The make and look of the bedroom sets should be one that evokes the feeling of being  belonged to rather than giving you the feeling of being in a dump yard. Choose bedroom sets that will do wonders to your  tired body; enhance the look of your bedroom and lastly one that will not be too heavy on your pocket.