At Urbaneer.com, when you enlist our services one of our priorities is to help your property look its best and garner top dollar.

One of the ways we do this is by offering home furnishing assistance, whether through the process of Staging or through our Style Enhancement service.

Staging is typically required when a property is vacant, but not always. There are a number of reasons why we might recommend the services of a Staging company that is property specific. But when we do recommend this, be assured we are connected to several staging companies that routinely do a wonderful job of bringing a vacant property to life. Here’s our post called Why Home Staging Is Important When Selling Real Estate which explains why it’s critical in our current market to showcase your property in its best light.

Here are a few gorgeous showcases from our past listings!

A Style Enhancement is where we tweak the homeowner’s property, using as many of their belongings as possible while introducing some of our own that might be more suitable to the scale of the dwelling, align with the style files of today’s home decor fashions, and are perhaps even a little unusual and eclectic so as to ensure the property is memorable.

Along with our guide on How To Prepare Your Home For Sale, we welcome identifying which items should be removed to pare down and reorganize the space. We can also recommend simple improvements to freshen up the property, including decorating tips like using contemporary paint colours, or easy upgrades like changing hardware or adding window coverings. And then we use your existing furnishings and reconfigure the space plan, as required, and inject contemporary items – whether that be art, sculpture, soft furnishings, or decor pieces – to help show the dwelling to its maximum potential and best use that will speak to all of the property’s specific target markets. These simple clever straightforward ideas can help a property show extremely well without breaking the bank.

Here are a few great examples!

In the photo below, some of the furnishings are from Urbaneer.com, and some belong to the owner. Our task was to update the look of an Edwardian living room, without losing any of the beautiful character and architectural details. It’s surprising how the contrast between contemporary and classic really brings this room to life – but in a cohesive way!

We never want to eradicate the heart and soul of someone’s home. In fact, we want to help elevate it. And sometimes it just means keeping the lines nice and simple, and working with and emphasizing the colours already in a space. As realtors with a strong design sensibility and a treasure chest of housewares and soft furnishings, we delight in making a room ‘sing’! And always do it in concert with our client, respectfully.

For some spaces, all it takes is a little shuffle Below, we took the owner’s guest bedroom built-in shelving unit and, using all her own belongings, reorganized it to read better as the multi-function system it is.

We like to keep it simple and unpretentious. Although there is the belief one must fill a property with expensive furnishings for it to be ‘aspirational’, we kinda disagree. In fact, we often like to integrate pieces that are accessible, including items from Ikea, CB2, or Structube. After all, if your target market shops at these retailers, giving them visual cues that these items will work in a space to us is far more effective than slathering a space with high-end items.

Also, the easier it is for Buyers to navigate your space, the better the flow. Isn’t this gorgeous? So open!

And there’s a special place in my heart for the styling of a 19th-century row house we listed on Alpha Avenue. I’ve long had a love affair with Spruce Home Decor, so when I listed a historic cottage on a privately owned street in Cabbagetown a few blocks away, I reached out to owner Kim Alke and begged her to let me do a cross-promotion featuring my furniture and her products in my listing. And TaDa! Here it is – An Enchanting Cabbagetown Cottage On Alpha Avenue – filled with unique décor items from Spruce melded seamlessly with our own pieces! (Check out this post too –> An Urbaneer Style Enhancement Features An Art Deco Bar Cart From Spruce Toronto)

Arresting visuals, no?

And one more thing: we’re all real estate voyeurs, so you may be disappointed to learn you will never see any ‘before’ shots of spaces receiving our personal Style Enhancement. As much as I love ‘before’ pics I always feel badly for the homeowner who inevitably sees photos of their home that have been purposely photographed messy and badly lit so it looks its worst. It’s the visual equivalent of a bully in a schoolyard publically heckling, jeering and sneering. How cruel! So we focus on the ‘pretty’!

At Urbaneer.com our business is to help make your property sell faster while putting a profit in your pocket.

Looking for some further reading?

This blog, We Flip Burgers, Not Houses, features a vintage Abba video and rails about my disdain for recessed lighting overkill. Then We Flip Flapjacks, Not Houses reasserts my frustration over many a Flipper’s inclinations to buy absolutely every interior finish at one Big Box Store (same old, same old), while in We Flip Quesadillas, Not Houses I weep for a costly yet poorly executed kitchen.

Want a giggle? You might also enjoy these past blogs called Stains On My Windows (about pressed steel front doors and faux stained glass film), Staging Nightmare (about the ever-present Tip Lamp) and Glass-Bowl Sinks Make Me Scream (a maintenance horror show).

Are you trying to avoid making critical flaws while garnering Top Dollar for your Home? At urbaneer.com, we can guide you from start to sale as part of our sterling listing service, including Style Enhancements! Want to know more? Just email steve@urbaneer.com or call 416-322-8000!

Thanks for reading!

Now more than ever, if you’re considering purchasing or selling Toronto real estate, speak with us about your housing wishes, wants and needs. Why? Because along with helping you create your personal custom housing matrix, we develop a comprehensive, data-driven, tactical strategy tailored specifically for you and your objectives. This is especially important during changing times when there are so many mitigating factors shaping our economic and socio-political climates (oh, don’t forget the Climate Crisis too!). May we be of assistance to you, or someone you love? Because we’d really like to be your realtors of choice.

The Urbaneer team is engaging, educated, experienced and excellent in client care.

Allow us the privilege to earn your trust, then your business.