Author Archives: Debbie

2014 Trends – from this NYC Home Stager

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Yes, it’s back! Un-lacquered brass (some vendors are calling it “satin brass”, “antique brass” and somewhat obviously, non-lacquered brass) is  considered to be a solid contender for the people who are “been, done that” about nickel and chrome. The theory is that brass is warmer and more elegant than its silver metal counterparts. It advances the appeal of the industrial decor revolution because  there’s little to no shine. And based on usage, each piece will tarnish and “age” differently.

“Everybody wants it!” reports Lauren Henry of Davis and Warshow a wholesale plumbing supply supplier to designers, architects, homeowners in New York City since 1925. “It’s been crazy; everybody for the last couple of months, maybe a year even. And they’re using it everywhere for everything – faucets, full bathrooms, kitchens, everything!”

Why?

“They like the way it tarnishes. Well, they like the idea of how it will tarnish. Most don’t seem to like the way it really does,” Lauren chuckled.

In this contemporary bathroom above,  the style comes from clever sleek combinations.  The matte black is a silestone surface called Tao in suede finish.  The oval mosaic sink is wide enough for a couple to share and beautifully echoes the oval tub. A sumptuous brass rain head in the shower satisfies the most lascivious aesthete; the views? Well, if I had to guess I’d say this photo was taken in NYC looking out at onto the West 70s somewhere.

Where are you with brass?

Suppliers like Samuel Heath and Barber Wilson are all jumping on the trend.  Here is just the traditional suite from Watermark, the Brooklyn manufacturer that Manhattanites yearn for —

home staging NYC trends with interior design
Can you believe that swan, in your grandmother’s house in Florida, could possibly become the biggest trend… again!!

2014 trends in NYC home staging

For interior design and home staging, please call Amazing Space NYC lead designer, Debbie Oulvey at 917-428-3965.

The Only 2 BR In The Hush-Hush One57 Is Staged For Sale

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New York City Home StagingI recently had the pleasure of staging the only 2 br condo in the notorious, super hush-hush condo, One57. The home had been purchased when the units were first offered for sale. Now it is being sold at an impressive $6,000+/sq.ft.  Dramatic views are only part of the story.  Floorplans are larger here:  3,200 sq. ft in other buildings might be a 5 BR, here they are a mere 3.  The goal is ample grand space from which to admire the skyline views.

From a staging perspective, it was important to honor and work within the public areas of the building.  These were designed by Thomas Juul-Hansen, with “discreet opulence” that references the “great French modernists, such as Jean Michel Frank.”  There was no choice, then, in staging with a modern elements and a neutral palette.  As usual, AmazingSpaceNYC didn’t sacrifice comfort for design. Real people can see themselves living here.  The softly textured furnishings counterpoint the floor to ceiling glass with cold, concrete, stone and steel buildings beyond. Accents of blue bring the sky closer while relating to the blue, water-rippled look of the building’s exterior.

Dark hardwood floors, punctuated by voluptuous columns continue the luxuriant ambience; it’s hard not to become overwhelmed with the abundance of light and sky.  Dramatic finishes add further luster.   Rich zebra wood cabinets in the kitchen with black granite counters, appliances by Miele, Sub-Zero and a Zephyr island range hood.

Home Staging NYC one57 condo The master bedroom shimmers in silvers, grays and crisp whites, grounded by a skin area rug.  An alcove becomes a reflective area, so long as your vertigo is in check.  Here, at least, there is a real view of the river, as opposed to the old real estate joke that “partial river view” meant, “yeah, sure, if you stick your head out of the window and lean, a lot!”   Generously sized walk-in closets are part of this floorplan, of course!  Each room has dimmers and lighting control, with Valli and Valli hardware.NYC home staging | home stager

More real river views from the second bedroom create particularly stunning evening sunsets.  It is the perfect spot for a den, or home office if another bedroom wasn’t absolutely required.

Home Staging NYC The bathrooms have the new striped marble that has quickly become popular  — Statuario — and an interesting glass countertop.  Shower and separate bath tub both has Dornbracht fixtures.  Feeling spare and Euro-chic, this space is ideal for any Master of the Universe’s grooming.

Every unit has a Miele washer and dryer, FERMAX audio sound system. And so it should, for $12 million!!!

To have your home staged by noted New York City home stager, Debbie Oulvey, please call 917-428-3985

“Sterile and Lifeless” to “Stylish and I’ll take it!” NYC Home Staging Works!!

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NYC Home Staging Works

Before

There’s no question a guy lives here, huh? and while he has invested in some very nice black leather, it feels like a crash pad. For all the other working men of New York City who just want a crash pad in a decent address, this would be the perfect home, if presented like this. However, this is not the way to optimize the opportunity when you sell an apartment. NYC Home Staging works because it offers more possibilities for potential buyers and allows them to imagine themselves living in the space, comfortably.

After

After

True, it is still black leather, but now it is a more contemporary style on a steel frame, with softness underfoot and a lovely fluffy pillow to curl up next to.   No longer gender specific, nor sterile and lifeless, this room has style and personality. A young family could fit here just as easily as a downsizing suburban couple returning to the City, and all life-stages in between.  the dining area can be dressed up or down depending upon the occasion.  There is still plenty of room on the wall for additional artwork and the open plan kitchen offers lot of possibilities.  See below:-
NYC Home Staging Works

To have your home staged by Amazing Space NYC, please call 917-428-3965 and ask for Debbie.

Lifestyle Marketing —

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Home Staging Brooklyn with Lifestyle Marketing“Lifestyle Marketing consists of segmenting a complex market into niche subdivisions based on interests, attitudes, and beliefs.  This marketing technique creates an enthusiastic and loyal consumer-base and establishes the brand as a valuable part of the consumer’s everyday life.”

Similar Terms:  – Lifestyle Segmentation, Cultural Marketing

 When designing a model unit, there are two choices: home staging or lifestyle marketing. Home staging is like a spray shot  – creating a “generic” space that would appeal to the widest number of potential buyers, in a similar vibe to Pottery Barn, West Elm  and Williams Sonoma.  Home staging keeps a careful distance from trends and specificity of any kind; the goal is to be the most classic and “evergreen” as possible.

Lifestyle marketing, on the other hand, picks up on the voyeurism in human nature and creates something deliberate, something specific. A space is customized to an aspiration  or ideal of the potential/target buyer .  Usually that ideal is a combination of career, hobbies, and trends.  Of course, there is the chance that one person’s image of a hip, tech multi-millionaire is not at all the same as another’s.  A seasoned Lifetsyle Marketing professional knows the limits and will not push the envelope too far with the lifestyle elements.  In New York City real estate, especially in Brooklyn where the market is hotter than hot, there is considerable money on the line – both in sales and in rentals.  It is important to get it right.  Sometimes that means adding a little quirky fun to a design, but only if it speaks the language of the target demographic.  The goal: making the property memorable as well as enviable.
Lifestyle Marketing and Home Staging in New York CityWith this 2 bedroom, we added a fondue set at the dining table. What better way to tempt children to eat fruits and veggies than to make it fun with fondue?  Especially now that Cookie Monster is Veggie Monster!

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To have one of the designers at Amazing Space NYC

design your model units, please call 917-428-3965

and ask for Debbie.

Lifestyle Marketing as home staging in Brooklyn model units

Isn’t this Master Bedrrom delicious?! 🙂

Brooklyn Model Staging: Square Box Now Luxurious Home!

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When staging models in Brooklyn, we are faced with the same challenges in New York City: a lot of money for not enough space! With the model units I’ve been staging lately, I’m finding slightly larger spaces, and great views. Here is a cute studio, essentially just a square box, that we turned into the perfect home.
Brooklyn Model Staging
With a neutral palette, the emphasis is on the view. The pops of turquoise add drama, for sure, but they also play off the grays and beiges to provide counterpoint and a nod to the blue sky on a dynamic New York sunny day!

Interesting shapes add interest where perhaps “function” might normally dominate. A buyer gets the impression the living here is fun, luxurious and “in”! The lucite pieces obviously keep the overall design light, and while they make physically take up space, they don’t interfere with the sight lines.
Brooklyn Model Staging - Part 2

To get your home professionally designed by Debbie Oulvey, please call 917-428-3965.

Home Staging A Brooklyn 2 BR for Rent

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Home Stager in BrooklynWe staged this 2 bedroom apartment in one of Brooklyn‘s most desirable school districts needed a total make-over.  The renters who resided in the unit obviously needed more space (and a good cleaning service).  The Living Room was facing the kitchen, when it was occupied by tenants, which rarely shows well.

Model in Brooklyn Condo home staged by Debbie Oulvey

Similar unit one floor below.

ASNYC brought in a team of contractors that refinished the kitchen cabinets, painted the walls, repaired closet doors and handles and topped it off with a thorough (and much needed) cleaning.

A neutral palette was used for the furnishings in the main room in order to make the kitchen a part of the room and not an intrusion.  Grays, taupes and a pop of blue bring life, warmth and a touch of color to the space.

A complete make-over.  The lamination on the cabinets was falling off; the doors and the island were badly scratched.  We had new cabinet doors made and changed the kitchen from dull cherry to a satin white. The result: a clean, contemporary kitchen that opens into a stylish, hip living space.  By adding a soft gray hue to the living room walls, we gave a little more emphasis to the contemporary kitchen while, at the same time, adding depth and character to the living – dining space.

Brooklyn Home Staging

To have your home staged by Amazing Space NYC, please call Debbie Oulvey at 917-428-3965.

Brooklyn Condo Master Bedroom

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This is one of many higher-end homes we’re staging in Brooklyn these days.  It is remarkable how hot this suburb has become, with no sign of slowing down.  We are seeing multiple offers even on rentals; house hunting there is as Brooklyn brownstone blogger Jonah Landman wrote “fast and furious.” The Daily News was not exaggerating when it said back in January, “Brooklyn’s totally out of your league now!” Many condos sell for well over a million dollars. With so much potential money at stake, it’s no wonder that home staging is also taking off in Brooklyn. What seller wouldn’t want fair market value for their home?

In this particular condo, the master bedroom was empty and uninviting, a white box of nothing.  We painted, the walls in a neutral yet current color,  then added bedroom furniture in warm, rich wood tones that shows plenty of room for a queen bed, his and her night stands, a triple dresser (on the opposite wall from the bed) and even 2 ottomans at the foot of the bed! It is the perfect oasis for the busy working couple with small children!

Before Brooklyn Home Staging

Before a home stager came in…

After home staging Brooklyn Master Bedroom

After the home stager has waved her magic wand! 🙂

 

This is what staging does for a property for sale. We identify the target customer and create a living 3D example of the likely lifestyle for that buyer.  The result? More potential buyers can easily visualize themselves living in the home; more buyers will take action to purchase (or rent) the property.

For more on this particular unit, please enjoy this gallery:

 

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To stage your Brooklyn home for sale,

please call 917-428-3965 and ask for Owner, and Lead Stylist ~ Debbie Oulvey

Curbed And Flourishing in Brooklyn!

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It’s always nice to see your own work in the press! These lovely models were featured an article on Curbed.  These models were in the process of being finished, I had yet to hang the artwork. Nonetheless, I think the photos make the units look real, spacious, stylish, and good fun. What do you all think? Apparently, they’re being snapped up really quickly.

This was a NYC home staging in Brooklyn, where a 1 BR can cost north of $700K!!  It was fun to focus on the mid-century modern designs here, as that is the taste of the target buyer.  The appliances and finishes are impressive; lustrous quartz, Viking cooktops and refrigerators – and in a “sponsor apartment”, no less!!  (Of course this is a builder, not a sponsor and those early co-op days of the oak-trimmed Formica cabinets are long behind us. Still, there are many who remember…)

There are rental units mixed in, and those units have GE appliances, but still textured gray cabinets and quartz counter-tops.  That and lovely 3″ gray wash oak floors.

<sigh>

I love home staging NYC!

 

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For more information on how you can have your own home staged for sale by Debbie Oulvey,
please call 917-428-3965

NYC Model Redesign – Real Stager Required!

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NYC Home Staging for Model Units

Before, when it was decorated by a high-end designer

This is the original “Model” for that space. It is on the 27th floor. When I was asked to model the 29th floor space we looked at the problems with this one and made them go away on 29. The furniture that was used in the original models reminds me of a low ranch in Long Island, not an upper east side apartment worth millions of dollars. Redesigning this space on a higher floor, we immediately knew what NOT to do: No chandelier or oversized floral arrangement in the dining area that blocks the views and windows. A white fireplace instead of a clunky, dark brown media console. a larger, more expensive wool rug to anchor the seating area. And layers of elegance using furniture, art and accessories.

Here’s the After:-

NYC Home Staging

AFTER – interior redesign by the team at Amazing Space NYC.

Staging Model Units Is a Unique NYC Home Staging Skill

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NYC Home StagingOften times, New York developers hire a high-end (and über-expensive) designer for the more expensive units in a new development.   The rooms are over-the-top, dripping with everything that personifies the designer’s signature style.  Unfortunately, these showcases do not usually lead to sales as the prospective buyers cannot identify with the style or the use of the space.  It is just too specific (and usually appeals to a very small percentage of the buying clientele) but the installations make for great photo op’s and press coverage!

Such was the case with 2 Units in this upper eastside development.  While everyone enjoyed the opulence of the designer units, the marketing team wanted room photographs that were more about the views, the space and the use of the main living areas Our company was hired to build 2 new living spaces using pieces from the high-end designer units.  We cherry picked everything – from rugs to sofas to books for the coffee tables – and built rooms that reflected the price point of the Units without being so overly decorated that buyers would only remember the furniture but not the room itself.

The development and marketing teams both commented on how completely different the furniture looked when it was paired with different accessories.  I wanted to emphasize the spectacular views but also offer a comfortable counterpoint to all the glass and steel. A buttery cream sectional sofa placed on an elegant, neutral rug anchor the space.  A round coffee table, gold-leaf occasional table, open accent chairs and complementary accessories soften the overall impression as does the fabulously rich, white fur throw.  So as to not detract from the blue river and sky, we relied on beige, cream, whites and grays for our palette with pops of color in the green succulents and the one red coffee table book in the center of the living area. The neutral palette allows the sky, river and city to take center stage.  Looking at this room, I am reminded of a quote the Nobel-winning mystic Rabindranath Tagore —

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”

Quiet appropriate, wouldn’t you say?