See How a Home Stager Transformed This SF Home (It Sold for $275K over Asking Price!)
What would cause a Victorian home in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood to sell at more that $275,000 over the asking price? Well, besides the fact that Pacific Heights is an ultra-desirable neighborhood in San Francisco, and real estate bidding wars are still quite common, this particular Victorian home benefited from a stunning update from a professional stager who transformed a living room into a primary bedroom.
Interestingly, many Victorian homes have two living rooms, says Joelle Belmonte, designer and project director at Freemodel. Freemodel handled the weeklong conversion project in the space in conjunction with staging company Sayde Mark Designs to zhuzh up this special property as it hit the market.
“This can make for a waste of space, particularly in a space-challenged city like San Francisco,” she said. “However, a living room can second as a perfect primary bedroom, due to its large space and fabulous views. Victorian living rooms often come with bay windows and a fireplace, which is a bonus.”
The team started their work at the bay window by turning it into a lounge area for relaxing or catching up on reading. They removed all the shutters from the windows to allow for the most possible light to flood the room.
“Shutters on tall windows can make a room feel stuffy,” Belmonte said.
Next, the team tackled the floors. Worn carpeting was nixed, and the wood floors were sanded and finished with a clear satin coat that won’t yellow over time.
“The floors were over a hundred years old and they still turned out stunning in their natural finish,” Belmonte said.
Lighting was updated next. The can lighting from the 1990s was removed and replaced with retrofit LED recessed lights. Belmonte notes that doing the lights this way meant they wouldn’t have to open any walls or ceilings — it’s pretty much plug-and-play with the new lights.
“When lighting rooms with tall ceilings, many folks use the incorrect light output,” Belmonte said. “The higher the ceiling, the more light you need, or the room will look dingy. In this case, the ceilings were 11 feet high so I opted for the Utilitech retro-fit 5-in or 6-in LED recessed down light.”
Painting was next. The team used Behr’s Cameo White, and while the walls and ceilings got a flat paint treatment, and the trim got a satin finish.
“To save even more time and money, we opted to paint the crown molding with a flat sheen,” Belmonte said. “I know this would make some people cringe, but the end product looked cool and edgy and there were no complaints. I think it’s possible to do this when there is so much ornate trim in the room. I feel like it calms things down.”
From there, cabinetry hardware was replaced with black knobs and hinges to help pull in the black color of the fireplace, which was the only dark thing in the room before the redo. The bookshelves were redone so all the shelf levels were at the same height, and artwork was added to them to break up the space a bit.
After all the work, the house went on the market and stayed there for only 16 days. It was listed at $1,998,000, and sold for $2,275,000.
“I can’t say for sure whether or not we got an increase in viewings [than we would have otherwise], but there was a great turnout at the open house,” Belmonte said.