10 minute read
At this point, the relationship I have with staging houses in Los Angeles is so outrageous and so publicly love/hate it should be covered by TMZ. We bicker and argue publicly, cursing until my voice shakes or until a neighbor calls the cops. Sometimes I’ll get locked out. Sometimes I’ll lose my temper and throw a chair. Sometimes I’ll try to forget that part of my life even exists and sometimes it’s all I think about. My relationship with staging is equivalent to Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson, or Sean Penn and Madonna, or Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. The only problem is I can’t tell who’s who because when the day is done and my clothes have absorbed all the water weight in my body and I swear to myself this time was the last time…that’s when the phone rings with another new job. And while my mind imagines vacant homes eager to play dress up to kill time between owners, that’s when I have to discreetly bite the inside of my cheek or stab my keys into the meat of my thigh or plunge my hand into a garbage disposal…anything to stop my pursed lips from spreading into a smile.
But for as much as I talk about staging, I’ve yet to share what the process looks like, so for this post, I’ve included a bunch of “before” images to go along with the jaw-dropping “after” results.
This was a two-story home in hilly section of the Palms neighborhood of LA. If you’re not familiar with LA neighborhoods, Palms is a few miles inland from the beach but still considered the west side of the city.
Occasionally when we do staging jobs the sellers are still living there or haven’t fully moved out and in those cases we don’t have to haul as much stuff in…this was not one of those cases. This was three bedrooms, three bathrooms, two patios, and one HUGE living room of complete vacancy, but I think we held our own.
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A previous owner had knocked out several walls in order to change a sectioned off the kitchen, dining room, and two adjacent living rooms into one giant open floor plan that spanned from the sink and stove all the way to the patio separated only by floor to ceiling glass sliding doors. This is one seating area we made closest to the aforementioned patio.
And this is the other side that was able to accommodate even more.
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The dining area, just a few feet behind the first seating area.
The upstairs bedroom was small but cozy.
Nearly the entire downstairs, however, was devoted to the master bedroom which had access to another patio, an office, a walk-in closet, and an immense black-tiled shower (we’ll get to those shortly).
On the opposite side of that master bed was this gorgeous wall made out of reclaimed wood and fireplace…and yes those are concrete floors.
There were very few rooms in this house that didn’t already take your breath away, but the office was one of them. However, with the proper additions, anything is possible.
Master bath
And it’s resort-worthy shower
The adjacent patio was begging for an outdoor rug so we atoned.
Guest bedroom (also located on the lower level)
The upstairs patio needed very little staging and if you draw your eyes past the guardrails you can see why.
Before we put any of the little things into the house we like to put them all in one place so we can see it all at once, assess, and pick and choose at will. Here are a few bonus photos of the kitchen island bursting with home accessories.
Venice Beach Cellar Style 