MissyScherzer's blog

Much like detailing your car before selling it, staging your home is a MUST in the current market.  Buyers have a large inventory to choose from these days leaving no margin for error when it comes to preparing your home for sale. 

"Staging" is a buzz word that is being thrown around a lot these days but many people don't really understand what it's all about.  If you watch HGTV you see shows where a design team goes in and knocks down walls, replaces kitchen cabinets and does other major renovations to help a property sell.  But there are many levels of staging -the one depicted on HGTV being the most costly. 

My bathroom update is complete!  Even thought I am a professional decorator, I continue to be amazed at how much difference a coat of paint and some new fixtures can make.  I changed the paint color from a sage green to a gorgeous gold to coordinate with my existing shower curtain, hung the new ($59) mirror and new towel bars, removed the ugly soffit that housed ugly flourescent lights and installed a new lighting fixture. With the help of my very handy husband this project cost less than $200 and took less than a week!  This is a great example of how a few simple changes can completley alter the look and feel of a room!

If you are in the decorating business, January is a difficult month!  Very few people have the energy or money right after the holidays to think about decorating.   So, where does that leave those of us who have a decorating addiction and no outlet for our creative energies?  It sends us into major withdrawal symptoms and the sure fire remedy is to begin a project at our  OWN home. 

After spending 2 weeks cleaning and organizing my office and getting paperwork ready for taxes, I was in need of a "fix"!  It all started with a framed mirror that I found on sale at Kirkland's.  I thaought it would be great to hang over the bathroom vanity to replace the huge piece of standard builder mirror that was installed when the house was built.  Once I removed the old mirror, I realized that I was going to have to paint because the new mirror is smaller than the old mirror.  So, I thought "If I'm going to paint, I might as well choose a new color and paint the entire room.  Then, as I was getting ready to paint I decided that I should replace the towel bars because one was  white ceramic that was installed during construction and the other (installed by a previous owner) was silver resulting in a mistmatched set.  Once the ceramic towel rack was removed leaving 2 square holes in the wall, we needed to patch the drywall.  Well, since we were patching drywall, I thought "Now is a good time to eliminate the ugly medicine cabinet that no one ever uses. resulting in anther hole that needed to be patched. As my husband was patching all of the drywall, he started looking at the ugly soffit that houses the only light in the room and has decided that if would be really easy to remove the soffit and install a new lighing fixture above the new mirror that I bought.

I love my job!  It seems silly to admit that re-arranging furniture and hanging some pictures can give me such a feeling of satisfaction but yesterday was a good day because a new friend of mine called with a "decorating emergency."  She had bought a new piece of artwork and needed help incorporating the artpiece's new color palette with what she already had.  Since I haven't done any redesigning since before Christmas and am experiencing major withdrawal symptoms, I said as quickly as I can "I'll be right over!" 

As soon as I entered her home, my eye was drawn immediately to the entire back wall of windows that framed her beautifully landscaped back yard.  Unfortunately, there was a large sofa in front of the windows that interupted the view.  The first order of business was to MOVE THAT SOFA-usually the first step of any Redesign.  Once the sofa was located to it's proper place parallel to the fireplace, we got busy placing the rest of the furniture resulting in two cozy seating areas for reading in addtion to the main seating for TV viewing.

Call it decorating with a conscience-the current “green” trend is all about using and buying recycled and re-purposed products.  But, why not take it one step further by decorating without buying anything at all?  With the help of your local Redesigner, you can breathe new life into your old things thus transforming your space without purchasing anything new. It’s the perfect solution to eco-friendly decorating. 

Also known as ‘one day” or “no cost” decorating, Redesign is all about using your existing furniture, artwork and accessories in new, creative ways instead going shopping for new items. 

What an amazing experience this project has been!  I have had the privledge of working with some caring, talented people these past several weeks and I am proud to be a member of The Society of Decorating Professionals.  As I mentioned before, the SDP challenged us to "pay it forward" by finding a local person that would benefit from a complimentary redesign. 

Thanks to the American Cancer Society, we met Marie and offered our services to her and her family.  Marie has cancer and is a photographer who has turned her family room into a photography studio where she offers free photo sessions to anyone suffering from cancer.  In doing this,  a small room that was intended to be an office is now her family room.  This small room, where her family gathers to watch TV, was stuffed full of furniture that was way too big for the space and poorly arranged.  We knew instantly what was needed to transform this room:  New, smaller scaled furniture, a fresh coat of paint and some new window treatments!

Have you fallen out of love with your home?  Are there rooms that you avoid because they just aren't comfortable and inviting?  If you get overwhelmed with the thought of redecorating because you think it's going to cost a lot of money, consider giving you local Redesigner a call.

A Redesigner is a trained decorating professional who specializes in "one day" or "no cost" decorating.  Using the furniture, artwork and accessories you already own, she can transform those rooms that you avoid into warm, inviting spaces in just a few, short hours without buying a thing.

Wow!  It's been a busy week!  But I wanted to take a minute to give a progress report on Marie's Redesign. 

Monday I spent most of the day at Marie's clearing out the family room and kitchen to get ready for painting.  I really enjoyed spending the day chatting with Marie and getting to know her better.  I felt like we connected instantly and were very comfortable with one another. It's kind of an odd thing if you think about it....here is this perfect stranger (me) in her home touching and moving all of her things as I repeatedly tell her sit down and let me do the work.   It quickly became obvious to me  that Marie is not one to sit and let others do anything for her-that she is much more comfortable doing for others.  By the end of the day she was calling me "Mom" because of my constant nagging to sit down and rest.  

Fleming Island Home Depot is awesome!.  With their generous donation to our Deserving Spaces project I was able to purchase items at their store to complete my shopping list for Marie's Redesign.  By Friday she and her family will have a warm, inviting space to spend time together. 

Today begins the installation phase.  We'll be clearing the rooms and patching holes in the walls to prepare for the painter.

Thanks to all who have taken an interest in this project.  I'll keep you posted this week on our progress and will post pictures at the end of the week.

Don't you love it when you have a great day?  I'm sitting here at 10:30pm thinking about all the great things that happend today and felt the need to "blog" about it.  Never one to keep a journal, I have to say I'm really enjoying this new activity.

I have been give a wonderful opportunity.  I am a member of an organization called SDP-The Society of Decorating Professionals.  To celebrate their anniversary they have asked their members to participate in their "Deserving Spaces" campaign.  In the spirit of "paying it forward" they have asked us to find a local person(s) that would benefit from a complimentary Redesign.