By Pam Christensen
Don’t you love a bright shiny New Year? It’s great to be filled with ideas for all the possibilities a New Year brings and take time to reflect on and celebrate the accomplishments of the outgoing year. We staged 300 homes last year with an average time on market of 8.5 days. The final numbers are not quite in but so far we helped our clients make $10,000 to $180,000 over their asking price. I am proud that we can help to provide a high return on their staging investment. With predictions from Zillow and Realtor.com that the market will remain strong in 2018 but uncertainty on what the impact of new tax reform laws will have on the market and rising interest rates, staging will be even more critical in the coming year.
Last year, I talked about the Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore’s colors of the year selections. Sherwin Williams has chosen Oceanside, a strong moody blue stated to be both accessible and elusive while Benjamin Moore went with the dramatic Caliente a rich blood red perfect to create a bold statement and powerful first impression. Pantone has selected UltraViolet. A dramatically provocative and thoughtful purple shade, PANTONE 18-3838 Ultra Violet communicates originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking that points us toward the future.
“The Pantone Color of the Year has come to mean so much more than ‘what’s trending’ in the world of design; it’s truly a reflection of what’s needed in our world today.” – Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute.” Pantone suggests that “this deep blue-based purple is complex and contemplative. Ultra Violet suggests the mysteries of the cosmos, the intrigue of what lies ahead, and the discoveries beyond where we are now. The vast and limitless night sky is symbolic of what is possible and continues to inspire the desire to pursue a world beyond our own.
Historically, there has been a mystical or spiritual quality attached to UltraViolet. The color is often associated with mindfulness practices, which offer a higher ground to those seeking refuge from today’s over-stimulated world. The use of purple-toned lighting in meditation spaces and other gathering places energizes the communities that gather there and inspire connection. “ These strong deep colors will be best used as accents against a light neutral pallet, continuing the light gray choices for walls and ceilings that have been trending for the last couple of years.
It will be interesting to see what furniture designers have done with textiles and home décor accessories at furniture market in Vegas next month. They have a new Artexpo that I’m excited to explore, and preliminary brochures are showing more large and bold pieces in their contemporary fine art displays. It also looks like wallpaper may be making a comeback with new lines of self-adhesive removable papers that can be used as accent walls or whole rooms to add texture and interest to larger spaces. I’ll be sharing those trends in my February article, along with furniture and lighting trends that are featured at the show. Whatever our new year brings, I am looking forward to working with all of you to help you maximize your return on investment and I’d love to hear from you on any questions that you have and topics that you would like to learn more about in future articles. Please visit my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/stagingforcharisma and post a comment. I’d love to hear your questions or challenges, if I don’t know the answer I’ll find an expert who does!
Pam Christensen specializes in working with investors to help them maximize their return on investment by providing high-quality staging that gets results!
Pam Christensen, CREI, ASPM
Staging for Charisma, LLC
www.stagingforcharisma.com
www.facebook.com/stagingforcharisma.com
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