Hi there, if you’re here for the first time, welcome! Our family just has returned from Mexico where we were volunteering with a local church in Mazatlan. This organization that provides help to the poor, but especially children. My husband Darryl and I had the opportunity to work on the Vineyard Child sponsorship program that raises up children 4 to 14 and provide the best opportunities to break the vicious cycle that many Mexican children face.
We are back and settled as much as we can be for now till we are able to move back into out house on the 31 st. We are excited to be back with our community, family and friends. Could not have done this transition without all of you.
Today I’d like to introduce the concept of “staging for real life” for you. A lot of times when you think of staging your mind immediately goes towards prepping your home for sale with a realtor. I’ll discuss more of that another day.
After all, the very root and outcome of staging is for your home to feel, look and be represented the very best to your future buyer. Generally, the Number One reason a family will buy your home is because it “felt good” to them. Take location, size, etc. out of it and they all come back to an emotional connection to something. Staging for home sale is very important, but why wait to feel good in your home right before you sell it? Why not begin living today? I love this quote by interior decorator Albert Hadley. I think it’s my motto for my home as we slowly make our way through every space of our home.
Here’s a personal example of this. Years ago I really felt that I had a very un-healthy relationship with my home, but as we prepared to leave last year for 6 months I had to slowly de-attach myself from my home. After our first two-week trip to mexico in 2014, I came back with at heavy heart. Seeing real poorness, homelessness, and sadness really crushed me. I came back to my townhouse with the feeling of guilt, and sorrow. Rooms I weren’t using properly really bothered me, and any clutter that I had seemed so wasteful. I think it’s then that as a family we needed to sit back to find our home again. Find found joy in our spaces like never before. So that’s what we did. I started to realize that I was born to be creative, to build, and shape spaces for others and my family.
1. Replacing a key piece of furniture. We switched out the sofa that had been donated to us by Darryl’s brother and we replaced and invested in a new Sectional. Wow! what a change. I remember the first night we snuggled on the sofa to watch a movie. There was adequate room for everyone, as well it looked awesome in our space.
2. We installed Wood on the upstairs bedroom level. This was life changing. If the “me now” could go back 10 years ago I’d tell the “me then” to invest in hard surfaces first. I know it’s costly, but by time you add up the headache of carpet, stains, and the very mass amounts of time it takes to keep carpet clean it far outweighs the time and money to invest in your home first. I want my home to work for us, not against us.
3. Master Bathroom Overhaul! We’ve needed to renovate out master bath for quite some time now. We’ve held off because of funds, and the time that was needed to commit to it. To be able to support our lives in Mexico it meant we needed to rent our home furnished to just the right family. We had various leakage problems in the shower drain so this job meant basically gutting the shower down to the studs. The Project took long hours, but we received a lot of help from family to get it done. I’ll share some photos in the future of the bathroom.
We’ve tackled many other projects and will continue in the future to make adjustments along the way as needed. My point is this. Why wait to stage your home to sell your home? I’d love to encourage you to invest in your home in the areas that matter to you, creating the most of what you have you have, to live really beautifully in your home with your family.
Would you like to start loving your home now? Are you tired of drowning in clutter, rooms that go unused?
This summer I’m offering a package for you to do just that.
Real life Staging Consultation Package:
- You will receive Two Hours of in-home direction. This time can be used for any room that you wish. This is your space and you must have many ideas floating around in your head. It’s not my job to take control of your project, but to guide you to where you want to go.
- We will collaborate together to figure out what is working in your home, and what isn’t and get to the root of the problem.
- I’ll help you with flow, furniture placement, and ideas for color, etc.
- This package includes a colour consult for paint if needed in your room.
- I’ll provide many great sources, and stores to shop. Once you know what you’re looking for, it makes decision-making for your home that much easier in a store.
- Travel within Langley, Surrey, and White Rock is included with this consultation.
- Let’s get your paint color right the first time. I hear so many times how people wish the color they chose would turn out how they’d hoped. I teach with large paint samples so that you can clearly see why a paint color works in your home, or why not. See my post on undertones that I wrote for BC Living Magazine.
See What a past client had to say about color in her home.
Jodi helped us picture and then bring to reality the “feel” of our space from entry point and throughout our home. Understanding colour, flow and mood are Jodi’s definite strengths.
All This for $199.00
But wait!!! There’s a Bonus. Who doesn’t like Free stuff?
Bonus: I’ll create a Pinterest Board just for your project. I find this really brings my ideas to life visually for the clients that I work with. With the inspirations, and ideas it will make sticking to your plan so much easier because it’s all in front of you. Here is tiny part of a pinterest board I made up for our master bedroom last year.
There you have it! Please take advantage of this awesome opportunity for your home and your family.
Remember… Intentional Design creates Intentional Living.
You can see some of the images of our space in the 2014 fall version for Stimuli Magazine. A great local magazine truly worth checking out. Maryanne the editor is always so wonderful to work with. Their summer issue is due right around the corner so be on the look out for that.
See you later!