27 Mar 5 Proven Tips to Successfully Stage Your Home with Inviting Warmth!

Happy Spring friends!  This is the 3rd, and final post, about the 2019 Austin Modern Home Tour produced every year by Modern Architecture + Design Society.  I always love the Modern Home Tour and come away incredibly inspired!

Please be sure to check out the blog for Part I: “Mad About Mid-Century! 5 Reasons you’ll Love…” HERE and Part 2: “10 Powerful Pillow Goddess Picks…to Modernize Your Home” HERE to get the full scope of the entire tour and my tips, as there were 12 beautiful and diverse homes AND an entire Mid-Century Modern Village, Starlight Village Homes filled with incredible modern furniture by a new local Austin store, Modern Redux.

I’m excited today to share with you this week the “less than 1,000 sq. ft.” uCrane House by Newcastle Homes staged by the talented Ruby Cloutier of Vazzo Spaces. Here she is below caught right in the middle of staging with her beautiful smile. This is the 2nd year our studio, Deborah Main Designs,  has collaborated with Ruby on the Modern Home Tour and I really enjoy working with her. Ruby has a knack for staging homes with the unexpected, which always makes them more interesting, and of course is something we LOVE when we design our luxury pillows.  But she also has excellent tips she follows when staging a home that we’re sharing on the blog today.

With it’s minimalist Scandinavian design, the uCrane House by Newcastle Homes  staged by Ruby Cloutier of Vazzo Spaces, was very impressive. I love their guiding principles: “LIVE-WORK-PLAY-PROSPER…responsibly, ATX-style!” You can’t go wrong with that! As we’re downsizing our home (NO, we’re NOT moving, merely culling) I wanted to see how this home would feel inside because of its very small footprint.

 

From the get-go, the u-Crane House was designed with:

• Energy Efficiency
• Accessibility
• SMART Home Automation, and
• Intelligent Space Planning

 

Be sure to read more about the “Holistic Design-Build” approach and thought that went into creating this urban, European-like home HERE because I see it as the wave of the future, especially in Austin, where urban density is happening right now and a lot of homes are designed for Short-Term Rental in the future as well.  My husband’s and my home was not designed with that in mine, but we’re sure lucky when it worked out that way with our Collier Guest Room. 

 

I love all the color and texture in the above outdoor patio space staged by Ruby Cloutier of Vazzo Spaces. Ruby’s guiding principle was very simple:

My goal was to express the idea that modern home decor can be hip, yet warm and inviting. 

Here again is a trend I’ve been noticing on the interiors of homes on the Austin Modern Home Tours –  WARMTH!

Now onto Ruby’s Secret Sauce for Success –  5 Top Tips for Staging (or Styling) Your Home: 

If you’re selling your home and new to home staging, or even if you want to style your home a little bit differently, Ruby suggests you pay attention to these 5 tips:

1. Figure out the room layout first,
2. Opt for large accessories and art work,
3. Don’t be afraid to mix-n-match colors and styles.
4. Always consider function when staging or styling, and last but not least,
5. Take risks and be bold!

 

Let’s take each of Ruby’s top tips and see how she made them work beautifully in the uCrane House. Below is the main living room staged with Deborah Main Designs pillows and a variety of large and small scale items and art by Jo Hyman Art on the wall.  I think Ruby kept the colors in the gray, black and white theme because this is the first room you walk into from the front door and it adjoins directly with the gray cabinet kitchen and small dining area for two.  You can see the kitchen staging by Ruby below too.

Here’s details of each of the main floor rooms so you can see how Ruby kept it all within one color way to make the most impact.  Keeping in mind two of her Staging Tips – room layout and function – Ruby had to factor in that the kitchen cabinets were gray and the on-trend black faucet was a color factor too. She could have selected pops of color, but I really like how she saved the color for upstairs and kept the main floor of this tiny house in a neutral palette.

 

 

 

Now onto the upstairs Guest Bedroom (below). It was a very small room, but perfect to use as a study or spare bedroom.  Ruby thought through the function of this room before she staged it. The sofa (which Vazzo Spaces also provides all the furniture in a fully staged home, as well as accessories) was carefully selected so it could fold out into a bed but not take up too much room.

Once again, a key staging point, always keeping the function and the scale of the room in mind.

I love how Ruby added color and texture and large accessories through the rug, pillows and art. She accented some ready-made store-bought pillows with one of Deborah Main Designs’ long and skinny luxury pillows handcrafted from a 1930’s geometric textile.  Again, another tip – mix-n-match colors and styles.

There’s also an outdoor patio upstairs as well. I was super impressed with Newcastle Homes “intelligent space planning” as they packed it all into such a small footprint for a home.  It really had every essential for two people (or a small family) to live beautifully, comfortably, and with style and energy efficiency. I loved this roomy deck off the Master Bedroom. And Vazzo Spaces staged it beautifully keeping in mind all 5 factors of Ruby’s “Secret Sauce for Success”.

Now onto the Master Bedroom, which of course is my favorite!  When I first saw this luscious rich gold bedding that Ruby had selected I was thrilled with the color. I immediately thought of the pillow below.

 

In fact we both had in mind this pillow being perfect for it. But when I arrived the day of the tour,  Ruby had staged the Master Bedroom with two pink plaid pillows and the golden chain link long pillow backed with faux ostrich (below).

This is what I LOVE about Ruby’s styling and three of her key tips:

• Opt for large accessories and art work,
• Don’t be afraid to mix-n-match colors and styles
• Take risks and be bold!

I think she nailed it with the staging of the bedroom. From Deborah Main Designs’ Mid-Century Modern colorful, geometric textile pillows to Jo Hyman’s textured, color-rich art.

I love how the bedding and pillows pick up the gold in Jo’s beautiful paintings.

Here’s a close up view of the luxury pillows in the Master Bedroom staged by Ruby Cloutier with photography by Kirby Benacourt with Home Glimpses.  The Deborah Main pillows Ruby selected are the following: A pair of the Vintage Pewter and Pink Tartan and the Mid-Century Modern Mustard and Chocolate Chain Link pattern backed with faux ostrich.

That’s a wrap for the energy-efficient, extremely comfortable living u-Crane House by Newcastle Homes staged by the talented Ruby Cloutier of Vazzo Spaces.  This is the final of three posts I’ve written about the 2019 Austin Modern Home Tour.  I hope you’ve enjoyed them. Check out below for what’s up in April! And head over to our instagram. You do NOT want to miss our 15th Anniversary FREE GIVEAWAY! 

Need help staging your home? Please be sure to reach out to Ruby of Vazzo Spaces You will be glad you did!

The Modern Home Tours continue throughout spring all across the country.  Next up is Seattle, so be sure to get your tickets (use code MAIN2019 to get a slight discount) right HERE.

Coming up next week, exactly Thursday, April 4th, when I begin, as a Guest Participant, is the exciting but slightly daunting 6-week “One Room Challenge” sponsored by Better Homes & Gardens. I’m SUPER excited to be doing it for the VERY first time!  Please follow the blog and Pinterest @ThePillowGoddess to keep up with all the wonderful changes I’ll be making to The Blue Room.

Till then, please enjoy the gorgeous spring weather and more images I took below (I wanted you to get a feel for the size of the home and see the downstairs from different angles) of the Newcastle Home staging by Ruby Cloutier of Vazzo Spaces. XO PG

Note: All images above are by photographer Kirby Benacourt with Home Glimpses except the first image by me and the one noted by James Leasure.  All images below are by Deborah Main. All opinions are my own.  Thank you for reading The Pillow Goddess blog!