What we all marveled at upon completion of this project was how we were to able take a variety of other peoples cast offs and turn them into a pretty wonderful, aesthetically pleasing home for a family to move into.  Each of the families that move into a rental unit at the Anne Ross campus, KEEP everything that they have in their home when they move in.  This enables them to move forward without starting over each time.  Looking around at the items in the home, this mom and her kids have lots of great stuff for now and the future.

We’re excited to share our success with you all.  Please take a moment to look at the finished results and read the comments from our contact at Annie Ross:

“They absolutely loved the house, and were so excited! I wish you could have seen it – the kids didn’t want to leave their bedrooms once they saw them, and the mom kept asking how you guys knew all of their favorite things!  Apparently she loves light green and purple, and was so excited about the living room and kitchen.  The little boy is in a map phase right now, so he was really excited to have one on his wall, and the little girl just walked around smiling for a good half hour after picking out her bed.

They asked me to thank you profusely, and are so excited to have a new home that is so beautiful!”

…and that is why we volunteer

At our meeting, we met Angela from The Annie Ross House. This organization works with displaced families to keep them housed, intact as a family unit and transitioning back to a place of independence. We are so pleased they are allowing us to team with them to make a bit of these families homes just a bit brighter! You can read all about the work they do on their website.

For our part, there will many different ways you can get involved; either in the form of donations of your clients furnishings or volunteering your skills as we help ready the properties for their incoming families.

So how can YOU get involved??

• Do you have household items you no longer adore? They need everything you would need to set up a household. These families are in this program as they have almost NOTHING.
• You’ve just outfitted a clients home with new furniture. Would your client love to donate (for a tax-deduction at least) their old furnishings? Often times they’ll realize MORE money back on their taxes than they would have if they opted to consign a piece.
• Are you handy with a paint brush?
• Are you, hmmmmm, a designer with a good eye and a creative spirit?

Our affiliation with the Annie Ross House will give us the ability to do what we love.  As the families transition through the program, many are placed in housing on the campus. When a family leaves for greener pastures, they are able to take with them all the furnishings they’ve been using. This creates a constant need for household goods. One of the roles WE get to fill is to help prepare these homes for their new tenants. We’ll have about a month’s notice to prepare, then about a week to ready the home. The repairs and maintenance will be done. They do get regularly donations from other supporters, so it’s not necessary that we furnish everything.

If you’d like to get involved or just need a little more information to make an informed decision, please email Pamela Sandall.

Okay, so this is not about Interior Design. But clients ask me for help with their Exterior choices too. This client has a house in Milwaukee that they are fixing up with some remodeling inside and also were painting the exterior and installing a new front door. My client really had her heart set on gray and she is also using grays for her neutral colors inside, so when she asked for help on her color selection, it was really about choosing the right gray. I thought you would enjoy seeing how helpful the free online color selection programs are. This one is Personal Color Viewer® by Benjamin Moore.

Here is the exterior before painting, and below are three of the many grays we considered. You can see what a difference each shade makes. I recommended a paler warm gray because I felt it worked better than the deeper and cooler grays on this wood exterior. Her interior grays are also warm in tone and it made their new front door in a deep iron gray really pop out as a focal point.

Continue reading to see the “after” photos & new door …

I would just love to take all of the credit for this, but as I have said before, it takes a team to successfully sell a home. With properties languishing on the market for months and months at a time, it seems like a miracle that a home could sell so fast. So, here is what each person did.

The Broker:
* Counseled the seller regarding the importance of condition and presentation of the home.
* Expertly assessed the right pricing for the property
* Referred the seller to the Home Stager
* Hired a professional photographer to take great photos for the listing

The Home Stager (Me) :
* Started by asking the broker for any special concerns or negatives about the property – Although either of the two bedrooms could be the “master”, the seller had set up the downstairs room as their master and the upstairs bedroom as a “guest” room with a futon. So the perception of no master on the main floor was an issue.The bedroom on the main floor looked very crowded & wall color was dark.
* Scheduled and performed a thorough “Walk & Talk” consultation for the seller with specifics about what needed to be done and why.
* Empowered the seller to know that she could accomplish everything by prioritizing and showing specific examples to take out any guesswork.
* Provided additional furnishings / art / accessories and returned to do the final staging.

The Seller:
* Trusted her professionals and committed to doing everything recommended by her broker and home stager.
* Rolled up her sleeves and worked hard!

Now here’s the success story that shows that all three pieces are what sold this home —

Two weeks prior to going on the market, the broker put out a “pre-listing” notice so people would know it was coming up. She connected with another broker who had a buyer ready to buy! They went to see the house, contract in hand ready to write an offer, before the painting and staging work had been done (bad idea). As soon as the buyer saw that the “master” bedroom was downstairs, they changed their mind and passed on the house.

So, to prepare the home, I had the seller remove clutter & older, unattractive furniture. Also had her paint the kitchen in a warm sand color and paint the cabinets white, plus update the hardware. The main floor bedroom had a futon in it. Because of the arms on the futon, when it was folded down to be a bed, the arms protruded into the space enough to make it very tight and to “scream” that it was a guest room. Although I had recommeded painting a lighter color in the bedroom, time & money made us decide to go with the existing color. The seller’s white bedding made the dark walls seem even darker. So I used darker bedding more befitting of a “master” bedroom, and added art & throw pillows that tied in with the green but in lighter shades.

Once the property was staged, professional photos were taken that day and put online asap! An open house was held the next day. According to the broker, the very first person who walked in bought the home. The main level bedroom was readily accepted as the “master”. Happy Ending!! If you would like help professionally staging a home for sale, I would love to help! Pangaea Interior Design

Here are before & after photos for you to enjoy. “After Photos” courtesy of Rachel Weinstein rachelweinstein@comcast.net

Living Room Before Home Staging

Living Room After Home Staging by Pangaea Interior Design

Kitchen Before Painting

Kitchen After Painting and New Hardware

Bedroom Before Home Staging

Bedroom After Home Staging by Pangaea Interior Design

Error 404 – Not Found

Drew Carney from KGW was at the show this morning and featured the IDS booth on the morning news.  If you didn’t catch, here’s the video for you to view.  Thanks Karen for a job well done!

Click here to view the video!  Out & About at the Home Improvement Show

The video is divided into 4 parts.

• Segment #1 is the introduction of the show.
• Segment #2 features our own Brian Kemnitz from Pearl Painters who has a booth promoting his artistic finish school
• Segment #3 features the IDS booth and our own Karen Linder
• Segment #4 talks about the primary feature of the show – the Make – a- Wish Foundation and the treehouse brought in for the show.

Click to Register

Registration closes at the close of business on Monday, August 17th. The HIS committee will publish the schedule to all who responded by Wednesday, August 19th. If there are additional shifts available, those interested will be contacted directly. Be sure to indicate on your initial request if you’d like two shifts in which to participate. We want to open this opportunity up to as many designers as possible, so we are starting with one shift each.

Please note that participation is open to all active IDS design members of any level. If you’re receiving this email and are NOT a member, it means that you’ve attended meetings and we’d love you to join! Booth shifts are reserved for current members only at this point, however. If you’ve considered joining and want to participate, now would be a great time to sign up!

Questions? – Email Committee Chair, Karen Linder

Need more information?
The Details

We are very excited to have a booth at the Home Improvement and Remodeling show that will be held in September, 24, 25, 26, 27 at the Convention Center.

Our booth is large, takes up four spaces, located on prime real estate, Location! location! Location! We are going to have a spectacular booth – sure to catch the eyes of every “Do it your selfer” walking by, a show stopper! I say that because we are going to have “Before” and “After” rooms, each space a 10 x 10 room, completely redesigned to represent the fabulous work we all do as interior designers. The design committee has come up with two beautiful rugs donated for show use from NW Rugs, this piece will be our inspiration for both rooms, we also have some “lovely” before furniture/accessories to showcase and we are working on procuring beautiful furniture, draperies and accessories for our after room.

Click to Register

The front section of our booth will be the design area. In this space we will have cafe tables set up for work spaces, complete with baskets of fabric, tiles, paint chips and magazines. Each designer will have an opportunity to showcase their portfolio on their shift. Our goal is for each designer to have face to face time with potential clients, giving them ideas of ways you can help them with their “design dilemmas”, take away of mini design boards you created for them at the show, complete with your business card attached! Remember the statistic of 74% of the show attendees plan to make a purchase in the next six months.

(these are initial renderings that are still being finalized)

We will also be having a $ 5,000 drawing for a shopping spree or room makeover! Who will be the lucky designer? It is going to be a “Designers Challenge”; we will enter all designers from the show in a drawing, pick three names and these three will meet with the winner. The winner will interview each designer and each designer has an opportunity to present their solution, the winner chooses!

IDS will have a large presence at the show, I hope many of you will sign up for a three hour shift, it is a great opportunity to add new clients to your business!

Best regards,

Karen Linder

Click to Register