A few weeks back I wrote about styling my little cottage for sale. After the agent appraised it, I had an interior stylist come through to give me a quote with respect to styling and hiring stage furniture. The quote was in excess of $2,000 for a very small 2 bedder for a hire period of 4 weeks and then $200 per week for each week thereafter. Having just bought our new home, paying $2,000 plus for something I could not keep was out of the question, so my boyfriend and I opted to style the property ourselves.
While it's been on the market, I’ve gone back on multiple occasions to check the state of the fresh flowers and to empty the junk mail from the letter box – but only the other week did I finally remember to take my camera.
Of course a post like this is not complete without the before pictures. In this case the pictures are of the property when I first inspected it prior to purchasing (and also a few just after settlement). Also let me set the scene for you...
It was the first weekend of opens for my little cottage, this was what seemed like the millionth property that I was inspecting and as per usual there were hoards of interested people inspecting it also. My parents were too busy that weekend to have look and to give me their honest assessment and my boyfriend was interstate. I had a good feeling about it and although it was clear that whoever resided there adored it in all its purple glory, it was a far cry from what I imagined it could be. I left the inspection excited by what I had just seen but a little hesitant about making a big purchasing decision all by myself.
The agent rang me on Monday morning to tell me that 3 offers had been submitted and unless I put one in by COB I would miss out on securing the property. I put my offer in regardless of the fact that neither of my parents nor my boyfriend had seen it... Of course I secured it. My boyfriend's comment when he saw for the first time was “it has potential” but on the inside he was thinking – what have you done!?
The BEFORE pictures
The main bedroom.
The dark purple feature wall, was in reality much darker...
The lounge room.
The vendor assured me that I would get used to the purple...
The kitchen.
Believe it or not, the kitchen cabinets were originally pink - the vendor had opted to paint them cream and burgundy.
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| Second bedroom |
I found the wall colour in this room very unappealing. Because the only natural light source was a skylight, the murky pink tinged grey just wasn't doing anything for the room!
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| Hallway & Bathroom |
The hallway in it's original condition was dark and dingy due to the burgundy feature wall (again much darker in reality). Also not only were the hallway light fittings ugly, but they were not centred!
I should point out that I put up with that horrible pink basin and pink tap ware the entire time I lived in my little place... In the end it was so cheap and easy to update the bathroom that I regret not doing it whilst I lived there!
During renovations
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| Main bedroom |
Unfortunately the floorboards were mostly knackered when we ripped up the carpets, so all new floors had to be put in.
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| Selecting a white for the lounge room, ripping up the carpets and priming walls before painting. |
We lived with concrete floors in the lounge room for 7 months before we had the time and money to install floating floors. I found the concrete to be more pleasant than the crusty old carpet. Looking back at these photos makes me feel very relieved that the house we just bought has freshly polished floors and has been recently re-painted white. Thank goodness! It now means we can concentrate on the fun stuff!
How my little cottage looks now – staged for sale
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| Hallway |
After primer, paint and new floorboards, new light fittings for the hallway were one of my first purchases for my new home. Hallway light fittings help set the scene as you enter a home and in my case they helped modernise my 1900s cottage.
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| Main bedroom |
I styled each room using the wall art as the focal point and as the inspiration for the room's colour scheme. In this room I picked up on the the teals and blues in the painting above the bed. I bought cushions in that colour from IKEA ($4.95 each) and just happened to own the Glasshouse 'Coney Island' candle which comes packaged in a vibrant teal coloured jar (on the bedside table, which I freshly painted high gloss white).
My Country Road striped bedlinen has also gotten a work out. I can't wait to actually sleep in it!
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| Second bedroom |
The idea behind the second bedroom was to show off its size and hence versatility.
Believe it or not, but apparently unless a potential purchaser sees a double bed in a bedroom (especially in a second/spare bedroom), they will assume it does not fit. We do own a spare queen ensemble, but hiring a truck or removalist to move it into there did not fill us with joy, so we instead purchased cheap IKEA bed frames ($80 each) and placed blow up mattresses inside ($30 each).
With this particular room I also created a little study nook in the corner of the room. My IKEA Billy (which I already owned) was meant to show where one could put robes.
Incidentally, when we lived in this house, this room was utilised as our lounge/TV room.
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| Lounge & Eat-in Kitchen |
The stylist mentioned that because the property did not have a dedicated dining room, an eating area had to be created, otherwise potential purchasers would be asking "but where do I eat". We did not own a little table setting, nor did we really need one for inside, but we were delighted when we found this cute 'ROXÖ' white powder-coated steel outdoor setting in IKEA ($129 for the set). This little beauty will soon take pride of place under our lemon tree in the back yard of our new place...
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| IKEA 'ROXÖ' outdoor table and chairs |
Fresh flowers breathe life into a vacant property... Had I had more time, the IKEA 'Lack' coffee table would have been painted high gloss white.
Updating the kitchen was one of my holiday projects when first moved into the property. I sanded back the cabinets and then used a roller with a short nap, primer and Dulux Aqua Enamel in Vivid White to paint the cabinets. The new handles are from IKEA. I had also planned to paint the tiles white with tile paint, but ran out of time.
I can't wait to have back my Le Creuset pot...
In the bathroom all wooden accessories were removed, walls white white, pink fixtures replaced with stainless steel and a shiny new white basin to replace the old pink one. I also painted the cabinet high gloss white. I had planned to paint the mirror frame white, but unfortunately ran out of time. All up, updating the bathroom cost a few hundred dollars.
So there you have it! We spent a fraction of the money on bits and pieces than it would have cost to have the property professionally styled. Although it took an entire weekend to set up, I'm very pleased with the results!
In case you are wondering, all paintings photographed are originals painted by my Mother. Some have recently even been exhibited and are for sale (contact me for details). We had a great old time flicking through her collection to select the appropriate art works!
