See How a Stager Transformed My Fiancé’s Mojo Dojo Casa House

Last summer, at the height of the Barbie blockbuster bonanza, my fiancé, Jordan, and I were in the early stages of talking about selling our Colorado homes so we could buy a new home together. His home, which we referred to as the “mojo dojo casa den,” featured a living room with a big gray couch perfect for watching Sunday football. My home, a pink-drenched Barbie dream house, was filled with peppy decor (think: a neon fuchsia sign that says “You’re, like, really pretty”).

As we got closer to selling and moving in together, we realized we needed to neutralize both of our homes, decor-wise, so that they appealed to a wider range of buyers. So we enlisted a professional Denver metro area stager: Paola Torres, the owner of Happy Ambience Home Staging. While this isn’t always the case in the selling world, our Denver Realtor Garrett Beserra (with Modus Real Estate), picked up the tab for staging and considered it part of the costs associated with marketing our properties. Lucky us! 

Jordan’s house is now under contract and nearing the closing date. We think that the staging definitely helped set his home apart as we watched similar homes in his neighborhood and surrounding ones stay on the market for much longer, even though they listed earlier. Still, his home had lots of amazing features like solar panels on the roof, a finished basement, a sprawling backyard with a pergola patio, and rose bushes.

“Home staging is all about neutralizing and depersonalizing a space because it makes it easier for the homebuyer to imagine what it would be like to live in the home,” Torres told me in a post-staging interview.

His Colorado home is quite large: It’s five bedrooms, four bathrooms, with a finished basement, totaling 3,673 square feet, so not all of it was staged. Ahead of his listing, his living room, dining room, kitchen, main hallway, first-floor office, mudroom, and main bedroom and bathroom were staged. He also switched out the bedding in one of the basement bedrooms to a more neutral white comforter set that we found at Marshalls for $60. The other rooms were left as a blank slate.

Torres’ staging services start at about $1,200, depending on several factors, including how much of her own inventory she’ll use. Jordan’s house was staged for $2,700.

I interviewed Torres about three of the best staging transformations in Jordan’s home that helped sell his home quickly. 

Oftentimes, staging open floor plans can be challenging, but the “mojo dojo casa den” has nice, defined spaces for dining, cooking, and hanging out, as can be seen in the “after” photos, which were taken by photographer Aaron Snyder of Cabin Door Media.

“Jordan’s home has a beautiful, open layout, and the flow between the kitchen and the living room is great because there’s separation between the spaces,” Torres says. 

Prior to staging, Jordan had a large, gray sectional in the living room that was great for lounging, plus a dark wood coffee table and big-screen TV. But Torres wanted to open up the living room to show how spacious it was, so she replaced the sectional with linen-colored couches and matching chairs, set down a lighter coffee table, layered in a light rug, and added a faux olive tree to the corner. 

In the dining area, we kept Jordan’s large, wooden kitchen table from Ashley Furniture, and an accompanying bench. However to lighten and brighten the space, we removed some of his gray upholstered chairs and Torres replaced them with four cream-colored chairs. 

One of Jordan’s favorite spaces in the home was his primary bedroom, which has large windows that face the Rocky Mountains. He had a pair of chairs in the room facing the windows for prime sunset viewing. That setup forced his king-sized bed to be against the wall, right to the door when you walk in.

The layout, Torres says, was functional, but if you were touring the home, it felt choppy, she says. So, she centered a bed in the center of the room in between two windows, and added a soft rug underneath it to anchor the space. She made use of his nightstands, but added uniform table lamps. She also kept his dresser but switched out the mirror above it to a circular one to add some different shapes to the room.

By removing some of the furniture, and lightening up the bedding, Torres says, the listing was able to showcase how spacious the primary bedroom was.

My favorite transformation led by Torres was the conversion of a mudroom that’s located off the garage entry. The space was underutilized — more of a spot where we stashed recycling and hung coats — but it has windows and a lot of Colorado sunshine pours into it. Taking advantage of the built-ins, Torres converted the narrow area into a flexible office space.

As more people work from home at least a few days a week, she pointed out, showcasing the potential extra office space or a secluded homework nook would appeal to buyers. 

“We wanted to create a flexible drop zone area here,” she says. “In addition to being an office, it could be a place where kids hang their backpacks or a place where you come in and set the mail down.”