The Home Decor Genie!

Staging Your Home to Sell? Make your rooms more gender-neutral!  If you want to appeal to more potential buyers, you don’t want to appear too feminine.  Here are some tips to make your rooms more “man-friendly!”

Rich wood and masculine colors in this corner home office

• Use plain, neutral-colored fabrics.  Minimize patterns and florals that appeal more to women.  Use natural, woodsy, or basic colors.  Cover your furniture with slip covers to save money.
• Get rid of the frills in the room.  No lace or filmy curtains.  Pack up the cute, ruffly or fancy throw pillows.  Take down the wall art that isn’t neutral.
• Create simple lines and more open space.  Don’t crowd furniture into your rooms.  Less is more when it comes to home staging  – or home decorating for that matter!
• Get rid of the clutter and collections.  All that cute, collectible stuff sitting around may mean something to you, but potential buyers will either be distracted by it or they will be overwhelmed by it!

As I always say, “when staging your home, simple is better!”  Start your packing and clear out the rooms.  A little furniture and even less personal stuff in the home is better for getting your home sold!

Want more help with staging your home?  Get my new e-book: Stage Your Home Yourself – Insiders Secrets That Will Get It  SOLD! 

Home Decor Genie gettin’ ready for the holidays with new home decorating.  What’s your favorite home decorating tricks for the holidays?

How about:

• Lots of lights
• Inflatable figures in the front yard
• A little more traditional
• All my old decorations used every year!

Let me know what your favs are! 

Thanks, The Home Decor Genie!

Decorate your home warm and cozy when the snow is howling outside!  I don’t know about you, but here in Denver today, the snow has been falling for almost 48 hours now!  We have over 18″ of the white stuff out there and more is coming.  So, needless to say, we’re spending a lot of time indoors!

15" of snow on the deck and more coming!!

• A soft, warm afghan with lots of texture and color
• Pillows on the sofa and chairs
• A fluffy robe to wrap around you when you come home
• A nice pot of aromatic tea brewing – I like Chai spice…
• We always put on a pot of home-made soup and have crackers or fresh rolls to go with it!  Yum!!
• Instead of TV, break out the cards or games and re-connect with family in a rousing game around the table

Don’t let the weather get you down!  Be sure to turn up the lights to chase away the gloom.  Or light up several candles in the rooms you are presently occupying!  Not only do they give a romantic glow, but just having them lit makes you feel warm!

Enjoy your “snow day” and I truly hope you didn’t have to travel far or long in this weather!

Deep snow around our house!

Choosing colors for your rooms when re-deocrating – does that overwhelm you?  How do you start when there are so many great colors to choose from?

One way is to start your home decorating is with an “inspiration”. This is something you have that you really love and want to use in your room.

Living room before our home decorating project

It could be a rug, or a painting, or upholstery on your favorite chair.  Look at the colors in that and see what you can use. 

Here’s a room that I just worked on for a client.  There was a painting there that didn’t really appeal to her and it had been there for 10 years.

They had also waited to get furniture for this room so we were able to start from scratch.

She fell in love with a painting that she found, so we used colors in that to decorate the room. 

Rich, warm, spicy colors warm up this living room

As you can see, our color pallett is warm and spicy!  The painting had rusts, sage, and gold in it.  The picture frame is a rich, dark brown wood with a gold burnishing on it.  She picked out these dark leather pieces of furniture and we added warm copper drapes and a muted rug. 

She plans to add another end table and some plants to finish the look.

Now this living room is welcoming instead of empty!

So, decide what your “inspiration” is and look at the colors in it.  Stand back and determine if they stand out as individual colors or if they blend together to make another color.  Here are some tips to help you combine colors for your room:

• Monochromatic color schemes use different shades of the same color such as light, dark and in-between shades.  This is a very relaxing, calming combination of colors
• Analogous colors schemes combine colors next to each other on the color wheel.  This could be sage green, yellow and muted orange for example (very similar to our living room above).  While still relaxing, this combo is a little more exciting.
• Complimentary color schemes use colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel and usually combine 3 colors.  Use one as your main color, add another one in lesser amounts, then use a third as an accent for a “pop” of color!  Some examples might be:  Burgundy, with forest green and a pop of gold.  This color combo is the most interesting but can be a little tricky!  Just add colors in small quantities to see how they look to you.

For more help choosing colors, check out my pages in Home Decorating Basics.  You’ll find help with color schemes, creating focal points, storage solutions and more!  And look for my new book on color coming out soon!  Great Color Schemes: Making Color Work For You!  You can pre-order by contacting me below!

• Just posted travel photos of Ireland on FB! What a beautiful country! I only took 800+ photos…. #
• Waterways Visitors Center Dublin – http://bit.ly/1amJC4 #
• If you need help navigating twitter and how to make money online, check out this Step-by-step help. ONLY $5!! http://tinyurl.com/nuyr37 #
• Ready to create your own info products? Great report tells you how to make money selling what you know! ONLY $7! http://tinyurl.com/nop5lp #
• Where in the world to go next??? I’m thinking the Florida keys…any suggestions for where to stay or what to do? #
• Home staging and decorating are my business, but belly dancing and West Coast swing are my passions! #
• Are U selling your Denver home? Staging consultations are just $150! It may be all you need! Debbie at: http://www.ptstaging.com #
• wow! just found a helpful ebook on using twitter for business! It’s only $5 and it answers SOOO many questions! http://tinyurl.com/nuyr37 #
• Well, I guess it’s dinnertime. Got the hubby grillin’ steaks n’ chops tonight! #
• Cleaning and organizing tips…we can all use some of those, can’t we?!! #
• uploaded my Ireland photos on FB! What a beautiful country. #
• Working on my new website. Whew! Lot of work! I think I like decorating and staging better… #

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Just posted travel photos of Ireland on FB! What a beautiful country! I only took 800+ photos….

Waterways Visitors Center Dublin – http://bit.ly/1amJC4

If you need help navigating twitter and how to make money online, check out this Step-by-step help. ONLY $5!! http://tinyurl.com/nuyr37

Ready to create your own info products? Great report tells you how to make money selling what you know! ONLY $7! http://tinyurl.com/nop5lp

Where in the world to go next??? I’m thinking the Florida keys…any suggestions for where to stay or what to do?