Merry Christmas from all of us at StagingWorks.



Independent of market conditions, home staging is a highly effective marketing tool used to maximize the selling price of Toronto area homes and condos.

StagingWorks is the premier Toronto home staging company. We provide a complete range of professional services which include vacant home staging, occupied home staging and condo staging. We have staging packages to accommodate most budgets and serve Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas.

Please visit our home staging portfolio for more samples of our staging projects. Give us some some details on your home and when you’re planning to sell, and get a free home staging estimate. Or, call us for a free estimate at (647) 409-2091 or anne@StagingWorks.ca.

StagingWorks has been voted Toronto’s top home stager by Toronto Life.





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The article below by Paula Huntley of Stage Hand was published in the Chronicle Herald on December 1, 2011.

What’s the best time to sell? Every day decisions are made by people to put their home for sale. Sometimes there are restrictions on time lines like job transfers, change of school, new family additions or personal downsizing. Whatever the reason, think about this — if you decide to sell during December, do you put up Christmas décor?

The answer for the décor should be yes, but you do not have to go overboard.

Here are a few benefits:

- It will keep a regular routine for the family. They have been used to decorations around, so why change?

- It will let people who are viewing your home imagine what this home looks like dressed up.

- You want them to remember the house that was decorated and made them feel warm and invited.

The one thing you don’t want to do is go crazy and decorate everything. If you have to tear down quickly because of a sale then it should be easy for you and the family to pack up.

A few tips for décor

- Use a bit more of the colour red instead of green. Why? Because red is an emotional colour and it will be remembered.

- You don’t need ornaments everywhere; just pick a few power areas like the kitchen, living room and bathroom. (Coloured glass balls look attractive with fresh pine in a crystal bowl or a black wrought-iron basket.)

- Fresh greenery in an urn at the entrance or a wreath on the door stuffed with a large candy cane shows your fun side — and pretty much no work.

- Use things with fresh greenery like skates, mittens and red ribbon, that make people think back to their childhood times. Create memories

- A decorated tree definitely has an impact. It just does not need to be a 12 foot one.

- A cake plate with cookies and Christmas napkins shows an invitation to welcome people.
- Christmas linens: Use towels in the bathroom, tablecloths where applicable.

We want impact and a place to remember.

Think outside the box when selling your home and go the extra mile. We want you to get what your home is worth. For example if you normally put out a dish of candy, then maybe use a mix of old tea cups (keep the numbers 3, 5, 7 in mind.) These are easier to display and work with. Use different types of candy instead of one type.

Maybe now it’s time to talk to a home stager/re designer to help you zero in on the most important rooms/areas so you can get the most for your investment.

Happy Decorating!


Independent of market conditions, home staging is a highly effective marketing tool used to maximize the selling price of Toronto area homes and condos.

StagingWorks is the premier Toronto home staging company. We provide a complete range of professional services which include vacant home staging, occupied home staging and condo staging. We have staging packages to accommodate most budgets and serve Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas.

Please visit our home staging portfolio for more samples of our staging projects. Give us some some details on your home and when you’re planning to sell, and get a free home staging estimate. Or, call us for a free estimate at (647) 409-2091 or anne@StagingWorks.ca.

StagingWorks has been voted Toronto’s top home stager by Toronto Life.





Please take 60 second to complete our poll on the left side of the screen.

The article below by Marta Gold was published in The Victoria Times Colonist on December 10, 2011.

This colour calls for discretion

Colour is a great way to brighten your home and add a spark of interest without undertaking a major renovation. But what colour?

At first blush, decorating with purple seems a daring move, best made by those with wild, animal-print rugs or exotic tapestries hanging on their walls.

But purple, in its varying shades and mixed with other colours, can be in turn conservative, contemporary and, yes, bold.

Rest assured, in any and all of its forms from lavender to eggplant, purple is popping up everywhere.

“Definitely this fall, the colour purple is really strong,” says Alana Schilf, owner of Inspired Home Interiors, where purple is visible in the barest hint of a not-quite-clear acrylic ghost chair, or the bolder shade of a boxy, upholstered chair.

The store even has a plum-coloured sectional sofa on order for its showroom, but that’s about as daring as most people will go with bigger pieces of furniture, says Schilf.

“Mostly we see it in smaller pieces and accessories like toss cushions,” she says.

Som Sourachit, owner of Posh at Home, says purple accents are a great way to add colour to a room. “We love colour here. We push for the daring,” she adds.

“I’ve noticed that a lot more people are more daring with colours right now, which is great. We need a dash of colour in our life.”

True colour thrill-seekers are mixing purple and pink, she says. Another great combination is purple and yellow.

White, too, fits easily into the mix. Add it and light grey to purple for a more contemporary feel, Sourachit says.

Schilf likes the combination of purple with black, or, unexpectedly, with brownygold shades.

“If you look toward nature, mountains are grey, but there’s also gold and other colours in the stone,” she says.

Using more natural tones mixed with greyish purples is a good way to prevent purple from becoming too garish, she adds.

Sourachit also likes to soften purple with a neutral. “If you have a stronger purple or a brighter purple, definitely grey will tone it down,” she advises. Those with more conservative tastes could try a grey sofa, add a purple throw and use an area rug in shades of grey and purple. “That doesn’t yell out purple too much, and then when you change it, all you have to do is change the throw and possibly change the area rug, too.”

Brighter purples should be reserved for accents such as bits of a rug, drapes or cushions, she adds. For example, the lighter purple drapes shown above, from Posh, along with splashes of purple and yellow in the throw cushions, brighten an otherwise neutral decor and are easy to switch with changing tastes.


Independent of market conditions, home staging is a highly effective marketing tool used to maximize the selling price of Toronto area homes and condos.

StagingWorks is the premier Toronto home staging company. We provide a complete range of professional services which include vacant home staging, occupied home staging and condo staging. We have staging packages to accommodate most budgets and serve Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas.

Please visit our home staging portfolio for more samples of our staging projects. Give us some some details on your home and when you’re planning to sell, and get a free home staging estimate. Or, call us for a free estimate at (647) 409-2091 or anne@StagingWorks.ca.

StagingWorks has been voted Toronto’s top home stager by Toronto Life.





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The following article from OREA was published in Canada NewsWire on December 13, 2011.

As housing market increases homebuyers need to be informed about costly oversights

According to a recent RBC report, the number of homes for sale in Ontario is on the rise and affordability province-wide is stable. The rush to buy with more available homes on the market could mean more mistakes made by consumers.

A panel of experts from the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) board of directors advises against making hasty or uninformed choices by avoiding five common errors:

1. Not knowing what you can afford
Barbara Sukkau, president of OREA and a Realtor based in St. Catharines, says that mistakes made in a competitive environment can be costly and restrict lifestyle choices.

“Many people don’t know that there’s an easy way to calculate how much house they can afford to determine, regardless of competing bids, what lifestyle they want to maintain within the market,” says Sukkau. “In addition to the cost of the home, potential buyers should consider the land transfer tax, closing costs, moving costs and leave room for any unforeseen extras.”

In fact, Realtors often use a calculation called the Gross Debt Service Ratio. Sukkau explains how to calculate what you can afford at http://bit.ly/OREAaffordabilty.

2. Not preparing your finances, or getting pre-approved
“Many sellers will require a potential buyer to get pre-approved. When there are competing bids on the house of your dreams, pre-approval could give you the edge,” says Patricia Verge, OREA board member working out of Ottawa.

“Pre-approval can take up to a few days after you provide your bank with things like verification of income and down payment,” Verge adds.

If a buyer meets the lender’s requirements, then written confirmation of pre-approval will be provided. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, this pre-approval is time sensitive and is not a guarantee of receiving a mortgage loan.

Verge also cautions buyers against using their pre-approval as a final budget. “Potential buyers should balance their debt load and other financial commitments with what the bank is willing to lend,” she says.

3. Not knowing your must-haves
Tom Lebour, OREA board member working out of Mississauga, notes that his clients aren’t always sure about what they’re looking for.

“Clients often fail to consider what amenities are in the neighbourhood they’re looking to buy in, especially when relocating from the city to the suburbs. How ‘walkable’ is a neighbourhood to places like grocery stores, schools and banks? This feature is important to many homebuyers, but they can fail to think about it in the excitement about the number of bathrooms a house has. Create a list by thinking about a day in your life and the various things important to you and your family.”

4. Not getting a home inspection
“I always advise buyers to have their own home inspection done, even if the seller offers the results of a previous inspection and even if others are keen to put in an offer,” says Phil Dorner, OREA board member working out of Belle River.

“Ensure that you have a qualified and bonded home inspector perform a full inspection as part of your offer. An investment of a few hundred dollars could save you thousands down the road.”

5. Getting emotions involved in negotiations
Buyers and sellers will often let their emotions get the best of them, says Mike Douglas, OREA board member from Barrie.

“Emotions can get in the way of negotiations because sellers inadvertently assign real value to their memories, which don’t hold financial value for the buyer. We do our best to help our clients keep their emotions out of the equation,” Douglas says.


Independent of market conditions, home staging is a highly effective marketing tool used to maximize the selling price of Toronto area homes and condos.

StagingWorks is the premier Toronto home staging company. We provide a complete range of professional services which include vacant home staging, occupied home staging and condo staging. We have staging packages to accommodate most budgets and serve Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas.

Please visit our home staging portfolio for more samples of our staging projects. Give us some some details on your home and when you’re planning to sell, and get a free home staging estimate. Or, call us for a free estimate at (647) 409-2091 or anne@StagingWorks.ca.

StagingWorks has been voted Toronto’s top home stager by Toronto Life.





Please take 60 second to complete our poll on the left side of the screen.