By Jessica Pack
Many of the homes we stage have been “sterilized” for sale. By that, I am referring to being stripped of color. A neutral backdrop is appealing to a larger variety of buyers. I understand that reality in terms of what it means from a sales perspective. However, there is another side of me that is drawn to rich deep colors. My personal home would be a reflection of that but today we are talking about 6086 Bradwood.
The home was less than 5 years old and the resident must have been someone with the same fondness of color saturation as me. Upon entry to Bradwood, I could tell this homeowner was my kindred spirit. The home featured accent walls of glorious color. If not a wall, a curtain or some element that added life to the space.
It was a little bit thrilling to decorate this home. The vibrant red wall in the living room was such a feature that it only made sense to celebrate it. Thanks to a specialty home we decorated with a similar color pallet, we had the perfect area rug to bring it all together. The room…scratch that… the whole house felt like a million bucks when we finished.
Every step taken in Bradwood was just fun. From the dining room featuring deep blue walls and a funky light fixture to the unique shelves in the bathrooms. Yes, I found parts of the bathroom to possess pizzazz! Of course, that pizzazz was kicked up a notch with what WE did to the house. (If you could see me right now, I am taking a bow-LOL!)
There’s talent in making a room look good but it’s an ART when rooms are open to each other. You have to make sense of what is placed in one room compared to how it looks with a room to which it is visible. My boss helped decorate this property and there was a moment when I spied the perfect piece of art to hang in the loft. I think I made a spirited announcement about it and told her to wait in the red-wall living room while I went to the loft and held up the art against the brue/gray wall to show her. ***Confession: I think the exact phrase I told her she would say when I showed her the art was, “OMG, That’s (insert colorful bad word language) awesome!” And she did… because it was just that awesome.
Two second floor bedrooms were ideal for a dash of coloration and we opted for a train theme in one and a mermaid theme in the other. Originally, we had planned to pull the purple curtains from the mermaid room and replace them with neutral panels but when we saw the space with the bedding in place, the vibrant curtains made sense and up they stayed.
The first floor master had color by way of curtains too. Black curtains, to be exact. Our solution was to keep the bedding in the greige family and then pop some olive green. Imagine Emeril Lagasse tossing his seasoning with a “BAM!!” That’s what we did, but with color. It was just the right shade in just the right amount to keep things interesting and to continue having vitality through the house.
A loft overlooking the living room looked as good peering down over the railing as it did from the living room looking up. It was a masterpiece and offered a second living space as well as a desk with a view of the trees outside.
We normally don’t stage outdoor spaces but the homeowner let us use her patio furniture and pergola. I sometimes wonder what people think of their spaces after we come in and see them in a different way. We cleaned up her table and chairs, used her outdoor rugs, moved the table under the pergola, created a seating area where the table had been, made use of her outdoor pillows, discarded dead plants and (going all Emeril again) BAM! Suddenly, the whole patio was transformed. The outside was visible via three large windows and the area complimented the neighboring rooms. I kinda didn’t want to leave! Alas, we did depart. It seemed like we no sooner locked the door behind us before the house went into contract. Four days. Even with all that color… appears there are plenty others out there like me who like an oomph of liveliness in their home.
