Staging Diary: Highland Lake #2

Too Much Accenting

Sometimes small color changes can make a big difference, and in this house it's been very true. The first time I walked inside, I was greeted by a pair of bright white closet doors directly opposite the front door. Because of the high contrast with the wall color, they distracted my eye from seeing how large and attractive the living room is. The solution: repaint them in the wall color so that the visitor's eye will flow into the room and not stop at the closet. The solution worked so well we're going to use it on some other closet doors and create a simplified, more attractive and less "chopped up" impression.

Another example is the railing and brackets on the stairs to the second floor. Initially the railing was painted white with the rest of the trim, and the brackets were a standard "gold tone". Now the brackets are flat black and look like wrought iron, the railing is painted in black semi-gloss enamel and the baseboards and vents are painted in the wall color. A ho-hum necessity has become an attractive feature, a utilitarian detail has "disappeared" and the distracting baseboards that drew the eye and lowered the ceilings now look unified. Best of all, the cost was minimal.

Correcting with color also produces dramatic results on the exterior. Roger is painting the vertical banding boards that originally were painted white, in the wall color. The result will be more beautiful, harmonious and photogenic, a strategic necessity when you're selling.