Staged by Design Blog

Ben is hip. He’s cutting edge,

Do you crave the sleek lines of the West Elm catalog? Love the colors used in their rooms but at a loss when it comes to actually selecting a paint color for your walls? West Elm has now paired with Benjamin Moore’s latest paint line, Ben, to create color palette that enhances and complements contemporary décor.

View the Ben palette at:

http://www.westelm.com/we-love/benjamin-moore-palette.html

Ever found yourself out shopping and think you’ve located the perfect color for your walls? The only problem, of course is you can’t take a chunk of out the wall with you in order to color match it at your local Home Depot. Well, now, thanks to the IPHONE, you can find inspiration anyway. There is an app that allows you to color match anything-a pillow, a wall color of that great upscale décor store, your dog, and match it to one of Benjamin Moore’s latest offerings, Ben paints.

My Mother always said that my mouth would get me in trouble. It’s true. My report cards often reflected phrases like, “talkative”, and “chatty”.  My parents became accustomed to seeing those phrases on my permanent record, and I always hoped my achievements would overcome my penchant for excessive conversation.

I was curious to see how being talkative might translate as an adult. So, I consulted the Visual Thesaurus (a very cool tool for us visual thinkers, by the way). It shows talkative as: “chatty” (yeah, yeah, yeah), “loquacious”, and the less flattering, “big mouthed”.  However, on the positive side, it lists a phrase of “friendly, and open and willing to talk”, although right next to the less flattering, “full of trivial conversation”.  Hmmm.

My point to all this is that in my former career, I achieved the goal of becoming a corporate trainer, something I worked toward for several years. Now that I own my own business, I’m able to channel a lifetime of being “talkative” combined with my professional training background to deliver Home Selling and Home Staging seminars. The seminars are geared towards educating and informing home owners, Real Estate agents and the general public on the benefits of staging. I also provide practical tips and helpful hints to aid in the process of preparing your home for sale.

I’ve participated in six seminars so far in 2010, for companies such as Northwest Federal Credit Union and Westminster Canterbury, in addition to numerous in-house presentations for Real Estate agents.

So, who says being talkative is a bad thing?

If you are attending this years Capital Home and Garden Show at the Expo Center in Chantilly, be sure to visit the Home Solutions Networks booth, number 2520, in the North Building. We are part of their referral network, and owner Dawn Lambert asked me to assist them in the setup of their booth, providing decorative accessories.

Dawn and her crew, along with featured contractor Jason Boyle will also be speaking on Friday, February 26th at 3:00 pm in the South Hall regarding how to choose the right contractor. Don’t miss it!

Click here for more information on the Capital Home and Garden Show.

Hours of the show are:

Thu Feb 25 5:00pm-9:00pm
Fri Feb 26 10:00am-9:00pm
Sat Feb 27 10:00am-9:00pm
Sun Feb 28 10:00am-6:00pm

I recently had the privilege of working with the Washington DC chapter of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals on our World Wide Staging Services Day project. Each year, all active Accredited Staging Professionals (ASPs) dedicate a day during the week of September 12-17 to community service. We were so pleased to work with Homestretch Inc., a local organization whose “mission is to empower homeless families with children under age 18 in northern Virginia to return to stable housing and self-sufficiency by giving them the skills, knowledge and hope they need to become productive participants in the community”

This was the first year I’d had the chance to be part of this great event. Our team of 15 ASPs and ASP Realtors converged at the small apartment early on the morning of the 17th, ready to transform the home through Staging. The tiny, three bedroom was home to a single mother, a teenage boy, and two teenage girls, the youngest of whom shared a room with her mother. There was no kitchen table, as it had been broken some time ago, with the remains of the top propped up so that one end could be used. The family had no place to have a meal together! We were about to change all that! Armed with artwork, new kitchen accessories, and bedding, our team got to work.

Furniture was graciously donated by Brook and AFR furniture rentals. Finally, the family could eat together. The team put their creativity to work, moving furniture, accessorizing and changing the entire look of their home!

The family was so thrilled and overwhelmed with the results. We were really able to impact a family in a way that allows them to feel more comfortable in their surroundings. For those of you who have experience being displaced, or having to live in a place that you weren’t at all comfortable, you have then the smallest idea of what it might have been like for this family.

I am so very proud as an ASP to be part of the Staged Homes family, and fortunate to have such outstanding and generous members of our local IAHSP chapter. I have learned so much from my fellow stagers, and continue to be thankful for the opportunity to be part of that community. Owning your own staging business can be a solitary endeavor if you are going it alone. It’s not like owning a franchise, or starting a partnership. It’s YOU and just YOU. Having these relationships to share our successes and learn from our mistakes is invaluable, and I just thought I’d take a moment to express it.

Leigh Newport

Staged by Design

www.staged-by-design.com