Now when we were originally given this piece, it was bright and brassy, with an oval glass top.  Which screamed 1970′s… so we spray painted the base with the intention to replace the glass. But after looking at the base painted, we thought another material on top would be better than the glass. Maybe a marble, granite or even reclaimed wood would be nice on top.  But since we don’t have the tools or expertise to do that ourselves, we are looking for a local artistic type who is able to work it out.  We  would love to use left over materials for this and future projects, where possible.

Just so you know, we tend to stage older bungalow, Cape Cod and cottage homes in Silver Spring and Takoma Park, and newly remodeled modern condos and row homes in DC.  So we need furniture that can work in one of these categories.

Our intention is to pay for time spent on each piece (negotiated before work begins), use the furniture in at least one staging project (get some pictures of the furniture in action) and possibly sell the piece, assuming there is interest.  We may post completed projects here to gauge interest, so if you are in the market for unique and eco-friendly furniture, bookmark this site!

For more details, send us an email message at redo(at)rarooms(dot)com, with your interest level and samples of other work you have done. We are looking for a great furniture partner – maybe it is YOU!

Our first two posts were quickly reposted on AOl (R) real estate and a Santa Monica real estate agent’s blog.  Exciting!

Check out the first posts and add your comments! Share with your friends, especially any real estate friends or investors. And if you are planning on selling your home sometime soon, check back often for tips and advice!

A naked window

First - What to hang?

Here is one of the windows…I had 3 more of the same size, and one more larger in the front of the house.  The windows let in nice natural light which is what I wanted to maintain – I didn’t want the spaces to feel too heavy or closed in with the treatments.

So I thought about Ikea’s Lill fabric panels, which are light gauze fabric, and would keep the contemporary look rather than the traditional look. And they are incredibly cheap at only $5 for a pair! BINGO!  I only needed 2 pairs of these and the I selected a slightly heavier white fabric (also from Ikea) for the larger window in the front room.

Next I wondered - How to Hang?

What I didn’t want to do was drill to hang standard brackets that are traditionally sold with rods.  My drill’s battery had died the day before (end of life) nor did I want to go through the mess of drilling into the walls, screws and the whole mess.  The rods in Ikea were all the wrong size anyway, I had to stop by the hardware store to pickup something that would work.

So while I was in the hardware store, the plan just came together before my eyes!  I left there with a small box  3m Command removable small wire hooks, 4 tension rods, and cup holder hooks as a backup.  Armed with these items and the fabric panels I had picked up earlier at Ikea, I was on my way!

Let the hanging begin!

Basically my idea was to hang the hooks on the corner of each window and set the rod (with the panel on it) in each hook!  To start, I hung the hook in each corner of the window, making sure each hook was lined up (straight) with each other. I would suggest using a straight edge or even the rods themselves to make sure they are hung evenly.

Of course, the great thing about the 3M strips is you can take them off and add a new backing just in case you hang one of them too high or too low. Like this one…

first hook in place

After both of the hooks are hung, test the straightness by placing the rod in the hooks before you thread on the fabric panel. This is to ensure you have hung the rods straight.

Once they are hung straight, go ahead and thread the fabric onto the rod.

Now these windows hung approx 84 from the floor, and the fabric panels were actually 98″ in length. So to accommodate the longer length, I just tied a soft knot in each of the single window to raise it up of of the floor. Plus it looks sorta cool that way as well…dontcha think?

Dressed and ready for showings!

In the end, I spent about $28 at Ikea for the fabric panels and then another $25 at the hardware store for the tension rods, and hooks. The largest expense was the hooks!  I recommend using two hooks for each window under 3 ft, and anything larger, add another hook per 3 ft. So the large window was approx 60″ wide, so I used 3 hooks. I would only use this with LIGHT fabric – anything really heavy would have been too heavy for the hooks and the room.

Good luck with dressing up your windows for a quick sale and hope this info has been helpful!

Last fall, I was contacted by a local DC professional running away from the light, rather than towards it!  He wanted to block out all of the light in his bedroom, that was streaming through the cracks in his custom shutters.  Most days he is an early riser for work, but on the weekends, he was hoping to sleep in a little. Even after Miss Sun gets up.  But that was proving to be more difficult cuz Miss Sun was just a streaming right through those fabulous shutters. Take a look…

Before we started...

So he hired me to take control and keep Miss Sun at bay until he was ready for her.  Our goal was to block out the light with color and fabulousness.   We decided to do a wall of custom drapery with black out lining to block out any and all light leaks.  I grabbed a few fabricbooks from my window treatment fabricator, and together we selected fabric, rod, rings and finials, and he placed the order in mid-November.  Approximately a month later, we delivered and installed the fabulous drapery.  Check out the finished product…

...and the after!

The new drapery give the room a new feel AND the client can sleep in without being bothered by Miss Sun. I know she will miss her morning time with my client but I also know there are plenty more DC condo dwellers who she wakes up DAILY.

If you want to keep Miss Sun at bay, give me a shout!   I work with a fabulous local husband and wife team of business owners – and everything is made BY HAND and with CARE!  They are masters at fabric and can do pillows, valences, cornices, fabric roman shades and even chair covers, in addition to the custom drapery. We would love to help you sleep better too!

So I was excited to learn about adhesive wall paper, a product I stumbled upon at last years ICFF (design trade show in NYC). It is called Tempaper which describes it perfectly – temporary wall paper!  No glue or adhesive required. You just peel the backing off the paper and adhere it to the wall.The color/design options make it look more like wallpaper than the typical Contact paper would. But the installation is VERY similar to Contact paper, except that you are installing vertically rather than horizontally.

When one of my clients for help with decorating her children’s rooms in a house they are renting, I thought this the perfect solution. A way to bring in color and design to the room with low commitment – perfect for those tweens! they change their mind quickly! The tween daughter’s favorite color is blue and after we selected the bed, Tempaper’s Aqua grey was a perfect match fo the room. Take a look!

I’ll admit – installation was a little frustrating – trying to ensure the paper went on the wall smoothly proved more challenging than I thought, but in the end – the space turned out GREAT!  I found this fabulous grey bedding set via Overstock (after scouring the DC area for bedding that would complement the walls) and everything came together nicely. And best of all – the daughter loves her room!

I would definitely use Tempaper again, and am hoping to have to chance to do just that with home staging projects in 2012. Check out the website, pick your design and color and get to covering up those white walls!  They even have wall paper for a child’s nursery – sounds perfect!

Many home stagers will tell you these items are kept EVERYWHERE – their living room, garage, basement, guest room…and that is pretty much true. Fortunately for me, I have a back porch, formerly known as a sleeping porch, which quickly turned into fabulous home staging storage space. It is small – only about 7 ft wide by 10 ft deep so I try to maximize the space as best I can. I was elated to gain two industrial storage shelves, donated from local foundation who is remodeling its offices. I have taken my time to re-arrange and review items in this space and make it more functional. Take a peek!

This picture obviously highlights one of the donated bookcases, cleaned up and lined with contact paper and ready for work! already filled to the brim!

Yes, my bike is still in the space – but I found a way to use the empty air space and reduce the amount of floor space that it uses. And the boxes sitting on the table (on the right) are sitting on my working table – where I can table scape, wrap and unwrap items and the like.  This represents about 40% of my inventory – I still have large art in the hallway, linen in an upstairs closet (space bags to the rescue) and a warehouse full of furniture about 5 miles away! whew!