Atlanta Georgia Home Staging : Active Rain Home Staging "Before and After" Picture Contest

Awesome idea.  can't wait to look at some real professionals in actions.

Good contest, I always enjoy the ugly to stylish photos!

This is going to be a great contest!

Kathy- What fun!!! And, I think we'll all be winners because of what we'll learn from the B&A's.  Can't wait to see them.

What a great idea! 

Jen Wing

I can't wait to see the pictures! Hope to pick an idea or two :)

Great idea Kathy -- I'm happy to forward this to our fabulous local professional stagers !

Hi Kathy, this looks like a fantastic contest!

nice idea!

I guess this will be open to stagers only?

I had the same question as Loreena - can anyone on AR participate?

I'm looking forward to following this contest -- I hope you will get many great participants!

Who wouldn't want to see? as talk shows go, the before/after makeovers get the biggest ratings, on AR this should get lots of attention!

Ellen

Thanks everyone. This should be an exciting contest.

In answer to the question regarding who can post - I'm going to open this up to anyone. My objective is to bring exposure to home staging and to award, via Active Rain points, to the best of the best. Be aware though, there are some excellent home stagers you'll be contending with (smile).

Kathy

What a great idea Kathy!  I have one question.  By one set, do you mean we can only enter one before picture and one after picture?  If we can enter more than one before & after, can they be of separate staging projects?

Hi Kathy -- Can renovations also be apart of the photo or simply staging?

Hi, Charlene - Yes, just one set of before and after pictures.  That said, pick your most favorite.

Chris - renovations can be part of the photo as long as staging (with furniture and accessories) is in the after picture. For example, I recently staged a home where the living room went thru some major renovations. After the renovations were complete, I did the staging, meaning I brought in the furniture and accessories.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me directly (kathy@homestagingatlanta.com).

Kathy

Hi Kathy, here's one of my faves:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Before staging, we ripped up the orange broadloom, stripped the wallpaper in the dining room and added shades to the chandelier in the dining room to update it.  We also replaced the living room ceiling fan with a light fixture, but unfortunately that light fixture barely shows up in the after shot.

This was a great idea Kathy.  Thanks for getting Active Rain on board.  Good luck to everyone!

Kathy -- what fun!  I love contests.  I'll be entering something soon .... even if just for the fun of it.  What a great idea and wonderful that A/R is behind it too!!

Kathy - I love contests.  They are so much fun.  To have a contest specifically for staging is a great idea!  Hope I have something new to add before the deadline.

Hi Kathy,

By the time the owners contacted me, they had removed one of the built-in, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in this 1920s den filled with original, dark, smelly, dank knotty-pine paneling that had lost its luster.  The room was very dark and foreboding.  The owners had a minimal budget.  We fixed a minor water issue, and changed it's current purpose from a dingy storage area of books, to one of a bright, cheery, reading nook area.  The view into this room was off the dining room and the room was also visible from the foyer.  We wanted the main wall that could be viewed from the foyer/dining room to NOT be the paneling, and since the owner had removed the bookshelves, we took down the rest of that outside wall, drywalled it, painted the remainder of the knotty-pine a cream color, installed some translucent sheers, ceiling fan and repurposed extra furniture from other rooms and added some exotic flowers for a touch of whimsy.

Great idea, it'll be fun to check back on this.. and great submissions already.

Count me in! I'll be back!

How fun to see all the pictures!! Great idea.

Great contest idea!!  It will be a lot of fun to see the pictures, get ideas & show our sellers what we mean about staging making a difference!

I too will be back..on the 8th!

I am not a stager- but went ona  listing today and made some suggestions- the clients response was...  I will want to keep the house then- all of the work would be less than $500.00...  Amazing what a few suggestions can do;)

Love it! My daughter tells me she has "Agent Rage" when there are rolls of toilet paper trailing on the floor, kids' toys everywhere, etc. If a teen is turned off - what do potential homeowners think?

How fun! We will do the best we can to get something in on time ;))

Looks like fun...I love before and after pictures!

Kathy.....here's a recent one for me:  

Posted this transformation of an Eichler home in Walnut Creek, CA......paint, new light (in keeping with home syle) and staging...SOLD in under 1 week too!!

Have FUN everyone!!

Love it Kathy.  Great exposure for all of us.  Looking forward to seeing everyone's shots!

Great idea Kathy. I'll be back!

Very cool -- I'll be back!  Thx for doing this, Kathy!

Here we go Kathy,

Before

After

Great idea Kathy!!  Here's a B&A of the living room in my latest baby, er, project, a vacant rehabbed 1900 historic row house steps from the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC and where scenes were shot in the making of the movie, The Pelican Brief with Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts in the 1990's. The virtual tour.

Rehabbed and cleaned up, but VACANT...

STAGED.

You guys and girls are just incredible.  These are awesome home staging before and after pictures. 

Keep 'em coming.

Kathy

I have to go review my photos and choose one to submit!  I can't wait to see all the entries!

Here is a bathroom I staged for home that was for sale while the homeowner continued to live there.  The homeowner did not recognize her bathroom afterwards.

BEFORE

AFTER

This home needed about 10K of work.  New kitchen countertops, new carpet, new paint, new vinyl in kitchen and baths.  Then I staged it.  The house sold to the first people that looked at it.

Kathy this sure looks like a great way to show off your staging expertise:)

There will be some stiff competition on this one!

This is one of my faves.

Family Room - Dining Area Before:

Same area after staging:

Here's a great example of what staging can do, without adding any extra inventory.  

This living room photo was taken from the entry of the home.  The view was blocked by large plants and furniture, creating a less than welcoming first impression.

With some simple staging magic the first impression shows the open architecture and gorgeous view of the back yard.  Much more inviting!

Thanks for hosting this contest Kathy!   It'll be fun to see everyone's photos.

Great idea, Kathy!  I will go thru my photos and be back!

I love the idea. will be thinking about something unique maybe most cost effective project to post for the contest. thank you for the opportunity.

Great contest! Here are two of my favourites!

Living room "before"

Living room "after"

For this project, we orchestrated a complete make-over on the entire house. From paint to floor re-finishing, de-cluttering/packing and staging - we took this gorgeous house and helped it shine. I love how in the 'after' shot, the stained glass window stands out so well! The furnishings are simple - we found most of the items stored in the basement and accented them with our decor items.

It was a hard to pick just one set of before and afters - but wanted to go with a recent one & had to go with this Santa Monica Bungalow (only 700 square feet and sold in 13 DAYS!

Lovong the photos here. Here's my entry.

Before (wish I had my wide angle lense with me at the time).

After

I am NOT a professional stager nor a professional photographer but I'm still happy with the results of this transformation.  This home's living room had a fantastic view of Mt. Baldy which is a snow-covered peak during our winter months.  The hospital-green walls and brownish pink carpeting (originally bright pink - I found the original color under the couch) were changed to more contemporary colors.  Placement of the furniture for maximizing access to the view was paramount.

The view from the living room window and couch once you could see out.  ;-)

Pink was her favorite color and was pretty much EVERYWHERE.  I'm all for personalizing to your own tastes and I'm happy she used pink as she enjoyed it.  But she understood why we needed to change to get the home sold.  The budget was quite tight but for $6700 we had a pretty complete transformation including new paint inside & out, new carpeting, new lighting and a landscape refresh.  The living room window was also blocked on the outside by overgrown shrubs which were removed.

The property was sold on the first day on the market to an open house client.

Yay! Here's a home we staged last week in the Michillinda Park area of Pasadena.

This is how the living room was furnished when I arrived for the consultation (and according to the homeowners for the past 6 years) There was a chair that matched the sofa that is out of the shot, but nothing else. The house is very nice and in very good condition, but I was overcome with the desire to yawn when I walked in the door. Now, it has pizazz!

The sofa is too casual and the rug is too small. There is NO lighting in the room (notice the absence of overhead lights)

Here's the living room after staging. I added more upscale furniture, and an appropriately sized rug. I also added 3 lamps so the room would be lighter and brighter.

This home now looks like it could fetch top dollar, and be worth every penny.

I don't think many of us look at a Home Office as a key area but it could be key to a purchaser who works from their home. Walking into a cluttered area would definitely not be inviting and be a complete turn off. Tactfully getting the seller to de-clutter and get organized is also key. This was a fun project. It may look like it was easy but believe me it wasn't. Once de-cluttered we painted the walls a Navajo white, which made the walls much softer looking than the contractors white and complimented the workspace. Less is better in a work area so accessories were kept minamal.

KATHY, WHAT A FUN CONTEST!! I love these photos!!!

Here is one of my favorites before and afters...

This home sat vacant for 6 months, we staged and it sold 9 days later.

Kathy - here's my favorite:

The before shot:

The after shot with recommended paint color change:

Hi Kathy,

Here is one of my favorite room transformations. This is a model home that we did in "Hampden Cove", Seekonk,Ma. This is the Master Bedroom.

BEFORE

AFTER

Fun Post I will have to join in. I call it a Shave and a Hair cut. Homes always sell better clean, de-cluttered and staged properly.

Woo hoo this post just came up on my google alert for "home staging". I'm going to pop these in while I think of it and look forward to seeing all the great transformations! - Great idea Kathy!

I think this is one of my most dramatic before and afters...

Presto change-o!

What fun! I'll be back to post my favs, but that's going to be hard! It's sort of like choosing a favorite child...

OK I'm back and have my entry.  The competition is really tough, so many great transformations so far!  Here is one of my favorites:

All of these are great.  It's going to be a tough competition! Keep them coming!

Kathy

This is so exciting. There are some absolutely beautiful projects being posted. I love checking back to see the new posts.

Personally I like #47 Heather Cook (Rooms in Bloom Staging & Design ~ www.homestagingdesign.ca)  for overall transformation and #56 Marianne Cherico-Home Stager (Interiors by Marianne Cherico) because it's so appealing and serene to me as an individual.

Great work and best of luck to all contestants. I think everyone's going to be a winner in this contest.

Here's a project I've worked on for over a month with a seller who had over 25+ years of accumulation. Buried under it all were some beautiful features.  The seller had a friend who loaned some furniture and accessories to make this a cost effective transformation. Home will be listed this week

Dallas, TX Home: Formal Living Room Before

Dallas, TX Home: Formal Living Room After Staging by Home Star Staging

Hey Karen that looks awesome! What a great transformation!! Love that cocktail table. Great job!

Hi my friend Tessa! Thank you! Love your awesome pics too! Your investor is one smart cookie to hire you!

I really enjoy working with owner occupied homes. I love working with what the homeowner already owns. This homeowner was so happy with the end results she hired me to help her with her new home.

Kathy thanks for hosting this fun contest.  I always love looking at before and after photos. 

Below is one of my favorite projects this year. 

Bath Before

Bath After

These are awesome you guys.

Wanda - thanks for including several photos. However, I need you to pick your favorite before and after and then delete the others as we're allowing one set of home staging pictures.  

Kathy

I am so sorry Kathy.  I misunderstood :).  I will delete all but one group.  Thanks again.

What a great contest! Thank you Kathy!

It was tough deciding on my "favorite". I have many more recent and high end- architecturally more interesting examples of my work. I kept coming back to the example below of what I consider the purest form of Home Staging, the Owner Occupied Consultation. This job is from several years ago in Silver Spring MD, before I moved to the Hamptons. I did a two hour consultation, providing the client with a complete punch/to do list, which they followed to a T! Other than my consultation fee, the only investment they made in this room was painting. Everything in the "after" shots was existing in their home. Their reward was multiple offers and selling the house for full price the first weekend on the market. Proof that Home Staging is effective and affordable.

The first thing you saw when you entered the front door

Kathy, this is a home I recently blogged about, but the living room is one of my favourite...

BEFORE - LIVING ROOM

AFTER - LIVING ROOM

Wow! I keep checking back to see all the new pictures! I can't get over some of the transformations - I wish that we could all contribute some 'before and after's' to a magazine for a huge spread on the dramatic transformations of home staging! I would love to show people how tangible the differences are when you have a professional staging your home! Anyone know a writer who would like to do a feature like that?? Honestly, many of these pictures DO belong in a magazine!

Hi Kathy,

Here's Home Harmony's stab at the prize.

We originally did a RE-design (not seen here) on this home but because it was SO DATED (Burgundy and borders everywhere) it missed getting the attention it deserved. We were called back in 4 months later      " TO SELL THIS HOUSE" with only the back wall painted we staged with our rentals and accessories. The day of the "OPEN HOUSE" the homeowner, who was also the Realtor received 3 offers which created a bidding war ... it SOLD the VERY NEXT DAY!    

Wow, this is a tough competition.  So many great photos.

WOW -- I just went through all the great submissions!  My heart goes out to the judges!  It's gonna be tough!

Thanks, Susan, for submitting your home staging before and after pictures.  The rules state that you can submit ONE set.  Please choose from those that you had posted and delete the others.  Thanks in advance.

Kathy

Hi Kathy,

What fun and what a great job everyone has done.

I picked this transformation because it was one of my toughest rooms to lay out. It is an old home and just to the right of the window is the front door. You walked into the middle of the living room which was basically only 4 feet wide over to the fireplace. The owners could not figure out what to do with the area.

To allow for traffic patterns into the DR on the left and the stairway upstairs straight ahead there was no room for a love seat much less a sofa. I was stumped but thought it turned out well. The homeowners loved it and it sold quickly!

Before with tough layout:

After:

The realtors were working with the owners to update this home in a great neighborhood, but sadly dated.

I helped them choose backsplash tile, door handles, paint & then staging.

My favorite bathroom Before & After. No budget for a remodel. So, why not go retro?

BEFORE - Awful wallpaper, pink ruffles and a fake wood (plastic) storage cabinet.

AFTER - A little paint and new shower curtain and valance. What a difference!

Thanks. This is fun! Good luck to everyone!

Occupied stagings are my favorites, and this was my favorite occupied staging. The homeowner was a gem, who did everything and more that we asked, and provided us some great accessories to work with. He was totally thrilled with the results.

Before:

After:

Here are the before and after photos of a family room in Dallas:

Dallas home staging:family room

Wow, what a great idea and a fantastic selection of before and afters represented here!  

Here's one that I particularly like of a project where we did a significant amount of work remodeling the entire house as it was VERY dated.  The home had been on the market for just over a year when Whitehall was called in to give it new life.  After three months of work, including replacing the kitchen, all bathrooms, most light fixtures, all flooring throughout the house, removing wallpaper and painting the entire interior, and bringing in rental furniture, the house was ready to re-list and it sold in three weeks!

Kathy -- I'm humbled by all the great entries here -- look what you've started, we have some very talented folks here on A/R!  Everyone is a winner.

It was hard for me to pick a favorite, but here's a great room in a home I staged recently.  Each time I'm there, it just has the most peaceful feeling .. hard to describe.   Anyway, it was on the market as new construction for 2 years and now that it's staged the seller is hoping a buyer will walk in and fall in love ...

Kathy,

Thanks for call and the email regarding posting only one set.

Here's the set I'd like to use for the contest

Here's the after picture:

Thanks, Susan.  I went ahead and deleted your previous entry as I don't want the judges confused (smile).

Kathy

Hi Kathy,

It was difficult to pick just one set of before and afters, but this project was a blank canvas and very near and dear to my heart.

Thanks for the opportunity and for bringing exposure to Home Staging. Best of luck to all!

Warm regards,

~Claudia

Loft Before Home Staging:

This was a new construction unit in a development located in an industrial area of Orange County, California. The unit had a lot of potential but felt very dark and cold, and the large, open floor plan confused people. The target market was composed of young and childless professionals and folks in the creative community; Graphic and Industrial Designers, Photographers, Artists, Film Makers, etc. We came up with a design plan in keeping with the architecture and the industrial design elements of the building while softening the hard edges.

Loft After Home Staging:

We wanted to create an airy, edgy, modern space while still maintaining the integrity of the architecture and industrial elements of the building. We defined the space with furnishings, layers of accessories and a few shag rugs and created a warm and sophisticated living area so people could see what a fabulous space it was. We chose Brazilian cherry wood floors and a beautiful grey tone from Benjamin Moore. Ample lighting was essential, so we brought in iconic lamps to illuminate the dark corners and to lend a festive mood - This staging was done right before Christmas. Featured furnishings from the exclusive Modern Mecca Collection included quirky design elements. Art by James Shilaimon and Photo by Cris Costea of Costea Photography. Everyone fell in love!

WOW... these are so great! I am so impressed with all of these. How in the world are you going to judge them??? Best of luck and I think they are all winners for sure... WOW!

Here's my entry and my very favorite transformation of all time. Not exactly done to entice a buyer, it was done to create an instantly smitten feeling of home and hearth in a place that had none whatsoever, for a lady who had nowhere to live.

Our team needed to create a separate  efficiency apartment inside the footprint of a small exisiting home of a relative for an elderly, displaced victim of Hurricane Ike.

The budget was $10,000 to create an inviting livingroom/kitchenette in an area of only 225 square feet, renovate every inch of a very storage room to create a bedroom,  build an addition to create a handicap-accessible bathroom, and outfit the entire apartment with everything a person would need, from dishware to bed linens, even a vacuum cleaner.

Behind the re-sized salvaged shutters are a mini-fridge, a microwave, and a small oven. The ceiling is basic grass reed fencing, stapled via staple gun, for about $8 a roll. The single light fixture is duplicated three more times by the reflections of repurposed mirrors. The accessories are some of the only remains of the woman's own collection, salvaged out of the wreckage of her destroyed home.

Custom silk curtains, a large new wool area carpet and tons of specialty lighting impart a sensory experience of luxury in a tiny area that is revamped almost exclusively with thrift store and Habitat for Humanity finds. The door to the left leads to an incredible bathroom and 6 feet to the right is her bedroom door leading to her very own heirloom bedroom set, completely restored and painted, and donated from a family member who had it in storage for over 45 years.

Many local skilled craftsman, donated the labor to keep this worthwhile redesign project under budget.

It will always be my favorite, no matter how many projects are in our future, because the displaced woman we created this space for is my very own grandmother, who evacuated her Bridge City, Texas home with only a single overnight bag, and came back to find her single-story house was entirely submerged to the rooftop.

Wow - Michelle wins the prize for emotional story!

The entries are absolutely fantastic. Thanks to everyone who had submitted their favorite before and after pictures. The judging has begun and the winners will be announced shortly. Stay tuned.

Claudia and Michelle M - unfortunately, your entries came in after the deadline. Therefore, they are unable to qualify for the contest. The work you both submitted is beautiful and I would love to feature them in the Staging Before and After pictures group.

Kathy

It was so much fun to go through the before and afters - it is a reminder of why staging is so important and how dramatic the changes can be!  I hope this contest will be offered again!

I want to be a home stagers!  You are all sooooo creative!  You make magic, you make emotions happen in a room!!  What a fabulous contest and entries.  Congrats to everyone!  Well done Kathy!!!