I want to thank everyone for checking out the Scoop the past couple of years, so I teamed up with CSN Lighting to give away this gorgeous lamp designed by Carolyn Kinder for free. It’s beautiful with it’s light bronze finish, black matte accents, and Sienna crackle fabric bell shade. It’s been crafted by the Uttermost Company founded in 1975 by Bob and Belle Cooper which still operates as a 100% family business today.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and a winner will be randomly drawn on Sunday, May 31, 2009. This contest is only open to readers with a mailing address in the continental United States, but other than that it’s a free for all.

Showing a home in the right light can make all the difference between a home selling or not selling, so I’ve had the experts at CSN Lighting cast light on the subject.

Showing Your Home in the Best Light

Making a good first impression is key when it comes to selling your home – especially in a housing market like today’s. As you’re preparing to put your home on the market, make sure that you leave some room in your budget for lighting.

Good lighting makes a huge difference how your home comes across to prospective buyers. Here are some illuminating tips on how best to light your home while trying to fetch the best price.

• The Foyer & Entryway:
  You want the tone to be warm and inviting, not too bright or too dark. If you don’t have one already, install a pendant light or mini chandelier, depending on the height of your ceiling. An attractive table lamp on top of a console table would work just fine as well.
• The Living Room:
  The living room will likely be used for entertaining and relaxing, therefore it needs to be warm, homey without being too bright. If you have any extra table or floor lamps lying around in your basement, drag them out and dust them off. Lamps with dimmer switches work wonders in the living room, as they allow you to create a really nice, cozy atmosphere. Take down any heavy drapery while you’re at it and let the natural light in.
• The Dining Room:
  Like the living room, the dining room would benefit from a light with dimming capabilities – either a chandelier or a horizontal pendant light centered over the dining room table. The dining room is a gathering room so the lighting needs to be both stylish and functional. If you have a larger dining room, a couple of wall sconces might be a nice addition to your space.
• The Bathroom:
  The bathroom needs to be brighter than other rooms in your home. In addition to some lights over or around your mirror, some kind of overhead light would be a good idea. You can install a combination light and ventilation fan for added value and benefit.
• The Kitchen:
  The kitchen needs a good amount of work light, especially over the countertops and eating areas. Under cabinet lighting is a relatively easy and inexpensive option to consider. Not only does it provide ample work lighting but it also makes your granite countertops sparkle. A couple of pendant lights over the bar or island looks great and showcases the versatility of your space. A simple pendant or mini chandelier over the kitchen table also works wonders.
• The Bedroom:
  The bedroom doesn’t need too much in the way of supplemental lighting, perhaps a couple of floor fixtures or table lamps for your end tables. If you have curtains or blinds, open them up and let as much natural light in as you possibly can.

In terms of placement of your lamps, keep it natural. Don’t cluster groups of lamps around your living room as this looks staged. Also, don’t think that you need to spend crazy amounts of money on lighting. Just a couple of chic, stylish lamps placed in prominent locations around the home give your space the “it” factor it needs.

One alternative is the Cambria Natural Quartz Counter Tops and the DuPont Zodiac. They look a lot like granite but they look a little artificial to me and the whole allure of granite is that it’s a natural stone even with all the maintenance headaches. I think these products fall in line with Corian. They’re solid surfaces requiring little maintenance but missing the luxurious factor by looking artificial. Yup, Granite will see it’s demise like Corian has in recent years.

IceStone, on the other hand, is one cool alternative in my opinion. It’s made of recycled glass and concrete that provides an entirely different look. Best of all it’s friendly to the environment. Since it uses recycled materials, IceStone counter tops can be used toward getting LEED certification. It’s strong like granite, not as porous as marble, and heat resistant like stone. I like it.

Please, no more granite, maple cabinets, and stainless steel appliances. Granite’s like a hit song on the radio where it’s good the first few times you hear it, but gets annoying after hearing it a gazillion times.

The biggest point of the video is not to hide your home with clutter and personal items. You want potential buyers walking through to be able to imagine their stuff in your home but it’s tough to do when there’s too many personal items like family photos or just too much stuff in general. Just remember, buyers have no imagination and you’ve gotta make it as easy as possible for them.

I think my favorite advice from this episode is “say no to faux”. It’s hard for me to get this point across sometimes because people are so attached to their personal items and I tend to be more on the subtle side. Sure hope this mantra takes over in decorating. It’ll make my job a lot easier.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Barbara Corcoran has been showing up quite a bit lately on the Today Show with some great tips for real estate. In this segment, Corcoran suggests that a beautiful backyard can add 11% to a home’s value. I wish I agreed with her on this one, but I think she’s exaggerating here. Sure a nice backyard adds value, but not 11%. Not around these parts. Corcoran says to stay away from adding swimming pools, sports courts, and concrete patios. Instead you should strive for less lawn, more landscaping, and create an outdoor room. I love her suggestion about adding trees but stay away from the maple trees because the falling leaves will make it a nightmare to clean up. When adding trees in the front yard, try to plant trees where it doesn’t block the front facade. There’s nothing worse than pulling up to a house and seeing all tree. Many times, hiring a landscape designer can make all the difference. It’s not that expensive and the yard will look much more attractive.

One of the most common suggestions made by interior designers and home stagers is paint. Time and time again they say it gives you the most bang for the buck when it comes to home improvement. The only problem is the colors that are in fashion seem to change every year. So I started wondering who comes up with these colors and who decides they’re the colors for the year.

According to The Furniture Store Blog, they’re decided by so called color forecasters which are usually paint companies. They go to great lengths to keep interior designers informed of their forecast and they in turn introduce the fashionable colors to consumers.

The colors designated to be fashionable for 2008 by Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore appears to be a bold mix of colors which goes against the popular suggestion made by Realtors of staying neutral. My personal opinion is that beige everywhere is all too common and way too boring and sterile looking. Bold colors can be striking in moderation and in the right places. You just gotta keep from going overboard.

Fashionable Interior Paint Colors for 2008

• 2008 Sherwin Williams Color Forecast
• 2008 Benjamin Moore Colors for Your Home

Click here to view the embedded video.

Staging services can range from adding simple accessories and rearranging furniture to renting large scale furniture pieces. They declutter and unpersonalize to create a place where it’s easier for prospective buyers to imagine themselves in the home. Essentially, stagers work with a person’s time frame and budget to transform a home to appeal to the most number of buyers at a cost typically between $500 to $2,000 and the process does not take a long time. It only adds a small amount to the costs of selling a home with the potential of huge benefits from a higher price and quicker sale.

There are countless numbers of staging success stories featured on shows such as Flip This House and Designed to Sell. Here’s just one such story featured on ABC’s 20/20.

Click here to view the embedded video.

HGTV has a great article pertaining to the the steps necessary to stage your home to look like a million bucks. The article contains the following 13 steps that will give your home that “have to have” look.

1. Make an Entrance. The outside of the home is the first thing people see and it says a lot about what the inside looks like. Most home buyers make up their mind about whether they like a home or not within the first 15 seconds so its critical to spruce up the front of the home. Some bold & cheerful paint for the front door, a new seagrass door mat, and new hardware are just some of the simple and inexpensive things that can be done to spruce things up outisde.
2. Conquer the Clutter. Most people have too much stuff and it can sound like a daunting task, but uncluttered rooms will appear more spacious and inviting.
3. Make Less is More Your Mantra. People not only tend to have too many little things, but they also tend to have too much furniture. There should be no more than 2 furniture pieces per wall and if you don’t use it then lose it.
4. Float Furniture. Professional stagers say too many people have couches butted up against a wall. Try floating your couches awayfrom the walls and envision a figure 8 or the letter H in the middle of the room with clear pathways around it. Many times this technique will make the room seem larger and more inviting.
5. Mix it up. Just because you bought a chair for a particular room doesn’t mean it won’t look great somewhere else. Try moving things around. You can give your house a whole new look just by moving things around.
6. Rediscover Lost Spaces. A lot of what stagers do is creating fantasy spaces. A room for a mediation, an exercise space, a family game room, or a reading room can dramatically increase the value of your home to a buyer. So move your boxes in that room you use for storage and transform it into a room with purpose.
7. Let the Sun Shine In. A bright room that doesn’t seem closed in will look larger. Get rid of the old heavy drapery and put in something light. Just some simple sheers on a tension rods can do the trick. Bamboo or parchment shades with curtain panels made of light cotton twill or or translucent linen also work very well. I love the sheers because the light coming in will be soft and diffused and not harsh like the the lighting you get from direct sunlight coming through a window.
8. Light the Way. Staged homes look great because of the lighting design. Many homes are improperly lit with too few fixtures or just too harsh. To remedy this problem just increase the wattage on lamps and fixtures. The rule of thumb here is 100 watts per 50 square feet. Then install dimmers to control the lighting. Another trick with lighting is layering. A combination of a light from overhead, floor and table lighting, and accent lights create a great ambiance and the layers add interest to the room.
9. Make a Splash with Color. Painting is the cheapest and easiest way to change the look of a room. You can also accomplish this with colored accessories. Find an art piece in a room you really like to draw inspiration for the colors in that room.
10. Paint it Black. Painting old and tired furniture white has been a trick used for years but try painting it black. It instantly updates the look and enhances the other colors in the room. The key here is moderation. Use black on lampshades, accent tables, and picture frames and don’t use a huge black leather couch from the 80’s.
11. Make Your Art Sing. Art hung creatively makes them stand out and shows off the space so don’t just go hanging them high in a straight line.
12. Accessorize with Flair. Accessories with finish off the room. The magic number here is three, but one and five also work well. Don’t place them in a straight line but rather place them in a triangle. Make sure the three accessories vary in size, width, and height. The largest one goes in the back and the smallest goes up front. Another tip is that the eye naturally reads from left to right so placing a striking object in the far right corner of a room will draw attention.
13. Bring the Outdoors In. Stages homes are almost always filled with pricey flower arrangements but you can get the same effect by clipping branches and twigs from your yard and placing them in a tall vase. Its a great way to add a structural piece and add something seasonal to the home.

Here is the link to the AOL Home Staging Tips page and their AOL Realtor Tips for Staging page.

You can also check out the tips from the National Association of Realtor on video.