Whether you are selling your home or staying put, chances are you have (or will have) a small space on your hands. Most of us are not lucky enough to have walk-in closets the size of kitchens, so what’s a girl (or boy) to do? Below are my top 5 tricks to making any room feel more spacious!

1. Large artwork will make small rooms appear bigger, so skip the random hanging of small prints and go for one sofa-sized painting or blow up a photograph using a site like Photogonia.
2. Monochromatic color schemes can be your best friend, especially when staging a home to sell. Using many different colors causes the eye to jump around and can visually break up a room. A monochromatic scheme (the use of various shades of the same color) encourages an ebb and flow appearance and makes even dark, small rooms less claustrophobic. For example, a bedroom could be visually enlarged by using a khaki-colored carpet, beige bedding and a neutral paint on walls (try Sherwin Williams’ ‘Trusty Tan’ or ‘Macadamia’).
3. Speaking of paint, a ceiling that is painted lighter than the walls

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Unless you live under a rock (a well decorated one since you read Back Talk’s blog religiously!), you are no doubt being inundated with calls to make New Year’s Resolutions. Personally, I’ve never been a fan. Why make positive changes in your life just one time a year? But the call to action does have its benefits for homeowners who will be using January to kick off long-awaited projects. For my household, that means installing new trim and crown moulding. For you, the job may be much smaller or much more grand; either way, there has never been a better time to start creating a new look for your home. Why? Motivation is at an all-time high in January for everything from weight loss to quitting smoking. Why not use this universal momentum to get the master bedroom repainted? Additionally, prices on the items you will need for your home’s new look will be deliciously discounted as retailers try to make up for decreased profits during the holiday season. This is also the time of year when many home furnishings stores clearance out their inventory to make room for shipments that will soon arrive from market.

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With networks such as TLC  and HGTV shoving DIY projects down our throats every hour of every day, one may easily be swept into the apparent charm of it all: “We made this tiny bathroom a master suite in 2 days with $500!” Every time I hear such claims on TV I want to yell into the unresponsive appliance, “Deceit! Deceit!”

Here’s the thing. As a professional interior decorator, my calendar stays full because people do not want to do it themselves, so I can’t speak against the movement entirely. What I can say is that more often than not my new clients come to be because they tried to do it themselves and they weren’t armed before jumping in with both feet. What the cameras don’t show is the number of behind-the-scenes craftsmen working on the project long after the TV personalities have gone home. They don’t tell you that many of the products purchased were done so at a large dicount or even donated by sponsors. They often won’t tell viewers if any money and time was required at any point to fix a mistake (as often happens during any given project).

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If you’re like most people these days you love the idea of having a beautifully designed home for the holidays but a shortage of time (and patience) keeps your sugar-plum dreams at bay year after year.

DESIGNING DIVA INTERIORS KNOWS HOLIDAY DECORATING.

I also know that whether you’re selling your home or staying put this winter, the right decor makes all the difference. If your home is on the market, turning the residence  into Santa’s workshop is not something I would encourage.  And even if you’re comfy cozy and not going anywhere this winter, choosing the right decor is still important.

As with your year-round furnishings, you want your holiday adornments to

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No one can get your home ready for the masses quite like a professional home stager, but we realize that the term itself, let alone the concept, is still relatively new to many Oklahomans. If your Realtor is not purchasing the time of a Home Stager for you and it isn’t within your budget to hire a pro (although prices can start as low as $200!) here are five tips you can do on your own to achieve an atmosphere worthy of any potential buyer!

1. Declutter, declutter, declutter. That collection of Elvis plates- gone. Your endless supply of Tupperware- pack it up. Get down to the bare essentials. If you will be living in your home until closing, keep a reasonable supply of bath towels, dishes and other daily items on hand. Aside from that, everything else needs to be packed up, donated, tossed, etc.
2. Hang your draperies higher than they are right now. 90% of windows aren’t living up to their full potential and its an easy fix! Your drapery rod should be mounted about three inches below the ceiling line/crown molding. You want your draperies to come within an inch of the floor, so if you have 84″ high windows, buy 95″ long panels and in an instant you’ve added visual space to your rooms.
3. Pink is an artist, not a wall color. While bright colors are fun for the kids’ rooms this is not the time to show your family’s quirky personality to the world. Give the home a once (or twice) over with a nice neutral paint color, such as Sherwin Williams’ “Camelback”. (I’ve even painted my dining room fuschia but you can bet it all went white once the house hit the market.)
4. Your flooring could be turning people away. Have your carpets cleaned, mend any transition places where a flooring material is coming up, and polish the wood floors. Need a cheap replacement for flooring that is beyond cleaning? Linoleum has come a long way, baby. With so many attractive styles available, its definitely a good value for those smaller rooms, such as laundry rooms and bathrooms.
5. Do you smell that? Actually, you may not, but buyers do. When you have lived around a certain scent for an extended period of time, you become immune to it. This includes pet odors, cigarette smoke, strong-smelling foods and mildew in the laundry room. Have a friend or your Realtor walk through your home and point out any offensive smells they notice. Steps #3 and #4 will help with this immensely, but you can also add plug-in room fresheners (please stay away from the potpourri, I beg of you). Love to cook spicy food? During this time when you may be asked to leave your home suddenly for a showing, avoid cooking those foods that leave behind intense smells, or open windows while cooking.

And there you have it! Five secrets of a professional home stager that you can take to the bank!

Jennifer Hicks is a Certified Interior Designer and Owner of Designing Diva Interiors, LLC

Every home I stage has its own unique situation. Some people continue to reside in a home until it sells. Some move out before it has even been listed. Some homes have enough clutter and memories to fill up eight PODS in one week (true story). On the flip side are those dwellings that have very little remaining whatsoever. These are the jobs where furnishings are brought in temporarily and are ideal in my opinion because they offer up a blank canvas of sorts. Here’s a run-down of the ”Before” and “After” photos of a recent staging; a 2400 square foot home that had seen its share of clutter.

Before: Every bedroom was crammed with furniture, including the spacious master bedroom. This greatly limited potential buyers’ ability to appreciate

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This concept of allowing total strangers into your home to handle your personal belongings AND tell you what is good enough for other people’s viewing pleasure can be daunting. As with hiring any professional to work in your home, trust is a must! I have created a brief checklist of things to look for in a professional home stager. Chances are, if your Realtor is recommending him/her, you are in good hands. However, it never hurts to do your own research (this is your stuff, after all, not your Realtor’s!) and make sure the person you are considering:

1) Respects your time by showing up for appointments on schedule and working quickly to meet your Realtor’s deadline.

2) Respects your belongings by handling them with care. Is your stager insured should anything be damaged or broken in the process? Accidents do happen. When staging homes I let the clients do their own packing to reduce the chances of mishaps on my watch.

3) Plays well with others. Ask for references or read testimonials on websites where they are listed. A reputable pro will have updated information and praises coming from multiple sources.

4) Truly has something to offer. Hanging a few pictures on the wall does not make a home “staged”. Are they making changes that will draw in potential buyers? Are they maximizing your space/recommending updates that add value, etc?

5) Allows for actual living. If you are residing in your home until it sells, your home stager will do a few things differently than he/she would if it were an unoccupied home. You will need obvious items like towels, kitchen items, and clothes in the closet while you wait for an offer. A good stager will understand your needs and will not force you to get rid of every day amenities but will still help you get that model home look.

Jennifer Hicks is a Certified Interior Designer and Owner of Designing Diva Interiors, LLC

So, you’re hearing more and more about how beneficial home staging is. You’re wondering “what can a home stager do that I can’t do myself?” An experienced, professional home stager can do wonders to get your home from “listed” to “sold!” in record time.

Here are some of the things a good home stager should do for you:

• He/She will work with you to decide what stays and what goes in the way of furniture, art, accessories, etc. Once the stager has determined which items will be used in the staging, you may have these options in regards to your unused items: Store off site, Move to the new residence, Store in garage in an organized manner.
• He/She will arrange and display the selected items so that each room, as well as every nook and cranny within that room, is maximized to the fullest.
• He/She will look at your home objectively and create a space that appeals to the masses. Personal items such as family photos will likely not be used, as it is the stager’s job to convince the average buyer that they could be at home there. This is hard to achieve with personal collectibles, memorabilia and photos on the shelves.
• He/She will make suggestions on curb appeal if necessary.
• Along with your Realtor, he/she may suggest upgrades that will be most beneficial/efficient (i.e. new appliances, new or painted light fixtures, new faucets).

From the first meeting with your realtor to moving day, selling a home is a major undertaking, but with a professional home stager, it doesn’t have to be a major headache!

Jennifer Hicks is a Certified Interior Designer and Owner of Designing Diva Interiors, LLC

When your home is on the market, you’re selling more than walls and floors. You’re selling emotions. You are hoping that someone walks through your door and says, “This feels right”. Much of what designers, Realtors and stagers do is based on their clients’ emotions- what they’re feeling. We choose blue walls in the bedroom because the client wants to feel relaxed. Its the reason we encourage clients to remove personal photos from the walls- potential buyers will want to feel as if their own family belongs up on the mantle.

If you are selling your home, it’s important to pick up on the way people might feel upon entering it. Home staging prepares a home for appealing to the masses while staying true to the structure’s features and surroundings. For example, I love dramatic color on the walls, but how many people do you think plum appeals to? While that color makes one person feel exhilarated, it may make another feel “closed in” or even subconsciously sad. Same goes for surrounding and architecture; would-be buyers might have a hard time appreciating the skylights and picture windows in a lakeside retreat if those amazing views were obscured by heavy draperies or large furniture. They wouldn’t feel the relaxation that comes with this sort of home.

What does your home feel like? Remember, you’re not just selling a house. You’re selling emotions.

Jennifer Hicks is a Certified Interior Designer and Owner of Designing Diva Interiors, LLC