Everything Old is New Again - Home Styling Makeovers

From paint company trend forecasts, to our favorite home décor magazines - the new decorating tune is "Everything old is new again."  With décor buzz words such as coastal grandmother, maximalist, cottage core, heritage, artisan, and the ever present farmhouse style - It's time to take a new look at our old stuff!   

Heirloom Design Trend and Color Palette (Photo: Benjamin Moore)

It's so yesterday to announce that your home is filled with all brand new.  Open any home magazine today and there is feature after feature about repurposing furniture, shopping flea markets and decorating with vintage finds.  Wouldn't it be refreshing not to have to run to retail to solve your decorating dilemmas?

What if you could get a new room using the stuff you already have?  

You can!

Welcome to a new era of interior decorating and design for the times. 

“Gone are the days when a fancy suited designer would sweep into your home declaring, “Darling - Everything must go!”  All new is now a ‘No-No’. ”

— Julea Joseph

In these belt tightening, environmentally conscious times;  team Reinventing Space are home styling wunderkinds that sweep through your home and within a day, reposition, re-hang and redisplay your furniture, art and accessories. Stylishly arranging your space with a pizazz and a wow factor worthy of a magazine cover and hunting your home to see what treasures you've squirreled away that can be displayed.  Accessories, furniture and other finds that you just didn't know what to do with, may end up as the fabulous finishing touch to a perfect new room!    

One Day Home Styling - Living Room Makeover (Photo: Reinventing Space)

 And our talents aren't sequestered to arranging your stuff;  we are all about up cycling and reinventing your wares. We informatively suggest how your beloved, comfy, but tired sofa would be a wonder with a new fabric wardrobe and some upholsterer’s love, how to turn that unused old TV armoire into a bar, or with a new hue, that old chest of drawers from Aunt Milly would be showstopper for your foyer. We are pros, clever and creative.  After the room makeover we leave you a "let's chat list" with more ideas, items to further complete the space, or pieces that may have seen better days.

Loved sofa reinvention. Home reupholster (Photo: Reinventing Space)

Why a Home Styling Makeover  is a must for your space now. 

• Money - Since the concept of a home styling makeover is based on us­ing what you already own, there is an immediate savings.  Because there are so many variables, fees are based on your specific scope of work, but most makeovers cost less than what you would pay for a single piece of new furniture.

• Time - The makeover typically takes between three and seven hours, whereas conventional redecoration methods can take weeks of making selections, ordering and then waiting for delivery of your new furnishings. When you have a room makeover performed, plan on entertaining your friends and family the very same evening in your fabulous "new" home!

• Comfort-In addition to the pleasure of being surrounded by familiar objects that you know and love, gone is the anxiety that comes from purchasing "NEW" and wondering if it will "WORK" once you get it home (or ever get it delivered with COVID induced logistical issues)  Your past purchases have been validated, your collections beautifully displayed and your heirlooms celebrated. We artfully transform your belongings into a picture perfect setting, instantly.

• What if my furnishings don't match, can I still have a great looking home? -Absolutely! Whether it's a certain element of color or style, there is generally a com­mon thread that runs through every home. The advantage of a room makeover is having a trained and objective eye to pull it together. Once your furnishings have been properly placed and accessorized, you will once again fall in love with all your wonderful choices!

• Am I Ready for a room makeover day? - We begin with our complimentary virtual evaluation. .  We’ll discuss your goals, priorities and challenges for your rooms.  After a tour of your home,  we’ll quote you a per room price for the makeover and schedule a date for the Home Styling Makeover.

So, if you're ready to make your home your own, celebrate what you already have, finally pull together your rooms, and have a space that is a one-of-a-kind - Call/Text us today 708-543-8597 or pop us an email at Julea@Julea.com

Do this for your FALL Decorating 2022

This morning when walking down the driveway I crunched a dozen fallen acorns. Grounded yellow leaves are starting to fill the yard and the cool morning dew hovers on the grass like a spooky fog. Feels like FALL!

With these changes us Midwesterners head to Farmer’s Markets, home storage to retrieve ‘FALL’ marked bins, and favorite home decorating stores to adorn, drape, and celebrate the changing season.

With this I share some fresh, fun, FALL 2022 home decorating ideas to incorporate into your Autumnal home styling: Please note** Most of the gallery photos have a connecting link for either a project, purchase, or inspiration. Enjoy!

Dried Flowers - With the Vintage Repurposed and Granny Chic style being fully embraced, dried floral is an associated trend. From floral arrangements, wall art, to crafting -this 2022 trend we all can embrace. Dried floral’s soft, muted hues, texture and beautiful form have fancy wedding florists mixing dried into fresh for spectacular arrangements. This is why “dried floral” has over  2.5 million tags on Instagram.  Be inspired by these wedding florals, be a maker and craft your own, or head out to your favorite retailer to pickup a ready made.

Botanicals - Talking about flowers... All things botanical is trending. From hanging planters, terrariums, indoor plants and botanical prints -  Were MAD about the green!  Create a fall inspired terrariums or pots with live plants that have fall color cues, decoupage a pumpkin with floral, mushroom or leaf printed tissue or paper napkins. Swap out your everyday art with art with a botanical theme framed piece. Whether outside or in, botanicals are an easy trend to incorporate.

Preppy Prints - Menswear fabrics and patterns have been trending in fashion and high-end home design.  Plaids, flannels, Hounds tooth and tweeds, as well as old school velvets, paisleys and toiles embraced.   Interpret these Preppy Prints into your home environment with fabric covered pumpkins, runners for your tables, throws and pillow covers for your furnishing. And if you are a needlework aficionado, in the gallery is a crochet project for a menswear inspired throw. Whatever your style is, these classic prints and patterns work within your home environment.

Cloche Dome Décor - Anything under a dome becomes important and a statement maker.  Fall is a perfect time for a walk in the woods, or a neighborhood stroll.  Pickup fall finds and create a natural display, house a pumpkin, colorful dried corn, floral picks , or battery operated fall inspired candles under a cloche for a wonder fall statement.  Dome décor is perfect on an entry table, a sideboard, or as part of a dining table centerpiece. Use a cake stand, stack of books or wrapped boxes to create levels.

Corn Husks! - Being in the Midwest, corn is our crop and at every big box home improvement store you can find dried corn stalks this time of year.  Beyond the basic stalk is a 2022 trend of Corn Husk décor. From wreaths to garland, this very Farmhouse look is a great way of celebrating the season. 

Join me live! I’ll be at the Hinsdale Library next week

Need more inspiration, technique and ideas? Join me next week for a Seasonal Decorating workshop at the Hinsdale Public Library - September 14th, 7pm. For more information visit my calendar or register directly at the library.

Invite us into your home for the day! Hire us.

No time? No worries - Julea and company can get your space reinvented for fall. We’ll sweep in, and make your space spectacular using what you already have. Want to refresh your stash? We can even bring in fresh new fall finds. Pick a shopping budget and we’ll style in the fresh finds with what you already have. 3 hour Makeover package

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook as I FALL decorate my own home over the next week.

6 things you need to do to setup a successful Home Staging and Styling Business

Deliberate or by discovery, starting a new business requires essential steps to ensure success. I started my home staging and styling business in 1999, and shortly after, relocated to a new city.

Here are 6 business start-up pearls from my business start and restart from my early days as a business owner.

Success Step #1 - Even before you hang out your shingle, get a set of “calling cards”. A calling card is just basic information about you (no business name needed.) I got mine before I even had TAKEN my specialty training certification class. Start promoting yourself, tell people you’re excited for your new career journey, spread the word on what services you are going to offer, and start a buzz.

Calling Card

A no-hassle, promo start to a new business.

Relocating from S.F. to Chicago - Start, then Restart.

Before even moving back, my business had been featured on the front page of the Real Estate section of the Chicago Tribune about HOME STAGING. I was included in that article because I had a presence on the web and had updated my profile to read residency for both San Fran., and Chicago and importantly, on the trade association's website I was a member of. The reporter found me.

Months before arrival, I worked on setting up my business for the new location - any business forms, state, county or city that needed registration. Ordering marketing materials, updating my website with contact information for both my CA and IL locations. ( Just to put things in perspective, when I started my business in 1999: GOOGLE started in 1998, phone books were a go-to information source, and AOL or Prodigy were used for the Internet.)

Success Step #2- Make sure people can find you. Have a website, social media presence, phone, and email address - and make sure any business listings on the web, especially if you belong to a trade association(s) have all your updated and current contact information.

Those few lines in the article piqued the interest of a reporter at another newspaper, and a week later while sitting in my new home office with stacked boxes around me,  I was asked to do a full business feature with a photo shoot at my next HOME STAGING.  I had no home staging appointments of course, but told her to give me a day and I would. I called the closest Real Estate office, asked for the manager, and explained my quandary. Within hours I had a home to stage, and a few weeks later was on the front page of yet another paper.

Front Page News

Make it work.

Success Step #3 - Be tenacious. If an opportunity arises, grab it. No time to be unsure of yourself, your skill set, or abilities.  If you don’t know it, learn it. If you don’t have it, find it. If you are unsure, convince yourself you are sure. 

Those early Newspaper articles brought me clients. But I had a revelation about my business name., CASA JAMBALAYA when leaving a phone message for my 1st client with her husband -  “Can you tell her that Julea Joseph from Casa Jambalaya called?” and he replied with “WHO, WHO, WHAT?” 

The business name Casa Jambalaya had cleverly worked regionally in California, but wasn’t going to work in Illinois.  I remember my Webmaster telling me that name was too difficult to spell when creating my website in 1999 - I should have listened.   I then created 2 business identities - One for my home styling/re-design services, one for my home staging services. More lessons learned on that concept as well…. (that requires another blog post…)

Success Step #4 - K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple Stupid) when it comes to your business name. Yes you want to be creative, but consider the public finding you, understanding what you do, and building a good brand. Make sure that the name is easy to spell, isn’t too long, and gives a glimmer on what you do. Don’t make your branding complicated.

When I first started my business, I asked a friend of a friend who was a PR Executive for a few words of wisdom, she gave me the best advice - to which I still use today. She told me to start marketing within arms length, not to think big ; that people just like me were my clients. So my 1st elevator pitch was :

“Call me when you are ready to get the Little Tykes Gym out of your Living Room and take back your home. ”

— My 1st Elevator Pitch

Success Step #5 - Marketing is easy when you can identify, relate and communicate with your ideal client. Mine was Moms with young kids that were ready to recapture their homes from them. I was there to solve a problem and was just like them. 

Talking about marketing, in 2006 I got a call from Entrepreneur Magazine about an article on Interior Re-designers and Home Stagers. Not only was I featured in the article, my picture was featured on the inside magazine cover! Why? I had a professional headshot. Professional photos matter. Whether it is your portfolio or your “About Me” page -invest in professional photos.

Success Step #6 - Look professional.  Whether it’s you or your portfolio, professionalism will get you on a magazine cover.

Want more of my pearls of wisdom? I’ve got a barrel of them. Stay tuned for my next post about being on HGTV, hosting a local Public-access TV cooking show, and many more business adventure pearls and a few perils of being a home stager/stylist for over 2 decades.

I am happy to chat with you about your new home staging and styling business. Even better, check out my upcoming in-person 2 day HOME STAGING technique workshop, HouseStager Pro. Check my calendar for home staging workshops, interior design seminars, and upcoming classes. Celebrate home! - Julea.

HouseStager™ Pro 2 Day Home Staging Training

Staging Training

HouseStager™ Pro: A two day home staging specialty workshop.

You asked for it, and I’m so excited to be able to teach this in-person workshop. Learn the ins and outs of staging and styling a resident occupied home.

Did you know that only 9.7% of homes going on the market are vacant? The majority on homes are occupied and staging homes to sell with people living in them can be tricky on so many levels.

This is a specialty technique workshop focuses on the resident occupied home. Whether you are launching a professional home staging business, a Realtor, Builder, or Home Design Enthusiast - HouseStager™ Pro is designed to advance your skill set in the home staging arena.

Using my 23 years as an Interior Stylist -Learn how to use and enhance what the homeowner already has by giving a home’s existing furnishings, accessories, art and surfaces a new perspective. Comprehensive instruction of the step by step methodology of building a beautiful room. Accessorizing lessons on how to style the perfect mantle, bookcase any surface to finish a space.

SUMMER July 16/18th FALL September 17/18 Workshop location: Frankfort, IL

Selling while Dwelling Stylist

HOUSESTAGER™ PRO - A two day in-person home staging workshop. This comprehensive home staging specialty class will focus on preparing a resident occupied property for the real estate market. This 2 day intensive is focused on technique, the 5 steps of room arrangement, and lifestyle design formulas.

Best practices to increase the marketability for the ideal buyer utilizing the seller’s current belongings, smart home design updates and curating styling accouterments to showcase the home to its fullest and attract the ideal buyer.

• Best practices to increase the marketability for the ideal buyer when styling an occupied residence.

• Making best use of the home’s furnishing contents - what stays, goes and how to curate a space with supplement shopped and/or rental furnishing/accessory props.

• Psychology component advocacy techniques and procedures to help the home’s resident(s) not only live in a staged home, but move on from a place that holds personal identity to a real estate marketed property.

Learn core updates both inside and out for maximum return on investment, ideal color palettes that can bring the home up to par for today’s savvy buyer and hands-on styling lessons in our Styling Lab on room layouts, creating focal points, accessorizing, and the importance of color when styling a home to sell.

“Statistics show that only 9.7% of homes going on the market are vacant, which means that over 90% of homes listed have residents living in them. ”

— NY Times

Details

Hands on, on-site Styling Lab sessions for real time learning.

Lifestyle design and interior styling methods to create optimal emotional appeal for the buyer.

Curated HouseStager™ Pro paint palettes and selection sheets for both paint and improvements.

TELL ME MORE! -FILL OUT FORM FOR A DISCOVERY CALL visit my education site: Interior Stylist Network

Spring Things you Can do to Your Home

Well it may be snowing in Chicago today, but spring is definitely here. The Easter holiday is behind us, and if you are wondering how to refresh and restyle your home with more than just bunnies and dyed eggs - this post if for you.

The great thing about living in the Midwest is that we get to reinvent our home’s space four times a year as the seasons change. As my design mantra goes “If you change up your home, it changes up you too”. So what spring things can we do to our home?

TRY A NEW ROOM ARRANGEMENT

Give a space a new look with interior arrangement. The sun changes positions seasonally, and your Sunday reading spot that was perfect in winter now is unbearably sunny without the blinds closed. The fireplace that was your cozy cure for the blustery weather, now sits fireless as spring temperatures rise. Try repositioning that chair to a new spot. That move creates a whole new look for your favorite chair and creates the spark for a new room setting. And rather than cozying up to the fireplace - with a bit of furniture moving, you could instead have a window view of birds nesting and flowers blooming. This will give you a new daily respite to sooth your soul.

FURNITURE SWAP FROM OTHER ROOMS

The design police will not shun you if you find that your dining room hutch that houses Granny’s dusty China works much better as a bookcase or crafts storage hutch in your office. Or the kid’s dresser is the ideal entry piece for that empty wall in your foyer. Be fearless by understanding furniture can be moved and have more than one purpose.

LOOK AT YOUR ACCESSORIES IN A NEW LIGHT

My whole business is based on using what you already have, and I can tell you that after 23 years, you have plenty of accessories. Did you know the average home has 300,000 things in it? Rather than thinking you need to buy new to refresh, think how you can celebrate what is already there.

• A lamp can be up-styled by just changing out its shade. Too, by reducing or increasing the harp size (the thing that you put the shade on) you can try a new shade size.

• Rotate your art. Create a collection with a few pieces on your mantle (hang one, lean the others) or on your hall walls, Use an easel and display small art pieces on a table, in a bookcase, or just lean them as a back drop.

• Art, as well as trays, bowls, vases can be archived, and rotated in or out for the season to bring color, mood, or seasonal spirit to a space. And of course you can reinvent them. Head over to YouTube or Pinterest and be tutored on reimagining old accessories (there are a zillion options).

DO SOMETHING BIG

When I mean big, I don’t mean buy a whole new house big, I mean do something that makes a more permanent change. Paint an accent wall, your pantry door, or a piece of furniture. Wallpaper your foyer, the inside of your China hutch or the front of the drawers of a dresser. Reupholster that Sunday reading chair in your new favorite color (hopefully tangerine). These changes are a bit more permanent, but aren’t too costly, but will bring a big change to the way your home feels.

BRING THE OUTSIDE IN

The best part of spring is that everything seems shiny and new. Snip budding branches and pop them into some of your favorite large floor vases. A container of a spring flowers cheers up any counter or table. Swap out the pinecones in your display bowls for bright green moss covered balls, sport a newly made table terrarium or pop a potted plant under a cloche to celebrate the growing season. Raid your bookcases for all your gardening books for a new display collection on your living room’s coffee table.

With these changes you’ll renew your home’s feeling, create new spaces to celebrate, and enjoy the new season both inside and out.

Need expert and creative advice to shake up your spaces? Want to leave and come home to a whole new space in a day using just what you already have? We do that. Call/Text 708-543-8597 to learn more.

• Julea

Survey Says! 2021 Home Colors When Selling

A recent Zillow survey reveals which colors may attract more prospective buyers — and higher offers — when you're getting ready to sell.

Here are my picks :

• Light Blue Bathroom Sherwin Williams Sea Salt : Calming, lovely and the perfect combo of blue and green. ( Bonus. With 2022 color trends leaning towards the green palette, this hue bridges both years.

• White Kitchen - Benjamin Moore White Dove : Soft, collective, especially if there are wood tones floating about the home. White Dove is a perfect choice for walls, cabinets or trim.

• Gray Living Room - Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray : A greige color with warm and once again looks good on the walls with wood tones and marries well with furniture that is already in the home.

• Dark Blue Primary Bedroom - Sherwin Williams Naval : A recent color of the year for Sherwin Williams. Besides looks great in a bedroom, and if you want to play it safe, as an accent wall - this ‘everyone love navy’ color looks stunning as a front door color and can break up an all white kitchen as the island color.

Whether selling or dwelling, my color expertise can help you sell your home and update, refresh and revive your space for 2022. Call or text @ 708.543.8597. - Julea