Speedy makeover

The fastest and easiest way to redecorate requires little or no money and can be done in a day.

What this sleight-of-hand makeover requires is a set of fresh eyes to look at each of your rooms in a new way. You also must be willing to mix things up and apply a little muscle to move stuff around.

It's something professional home stagers do every day - giving a room a whole new look doing little more than rearranging what is already there, purging clutter and changing around a few accessories.

Stagers often work with real estate agents to make a house look more appealing for sale. And they're doing it within a super-tight budget. That means they're shopping in the house itself for whatever they can repurpose.

Interior designer Mishon Sardella, of Big Bang Staging in Santa Rosa, says many of the tricks she uses can be applied to any house, whether you want to spruce it up for sale or give your environment a lift.

Sardella recently staged a vacation home in Sonoma for Pacific Union Realtors that she says is an object lesson in how dramatically a home can be changed without knocking down walls or buying new furniture.

"It was pretty well packed, just as people normally live," Sardella said of the 3-bedroom, 3?-bath house, built in 1971. "But it's a really good example of how you can make little changes that can make a huge deference. You can make even just a couple of changes and it can all feel fresh and new."

The living room makes a big statement. There was a reason it used to be called "the front room." It's often the first space you enter after the foyer. Or, in the case of the Sonoma home, the front door opens right into the living room.

Eyeing the space like a visitor, what Sardella saw was a room with too much stuff in it and furniture arranged so that it was actually difficult to pass through the room without feeling like you were navigating an obstacle course.

Sardella took a large console table that had been set against the back of a wraparound conversation sofa in the middle of the room and pushed it against the wall. While not all furniture needs to be against a wall - in fact, frequently people line their rooms with furniture, leaving an awkward maw in the middle - in this case the furniture was so large that it was actually blocking the views out to a stunning patio area and pool off of the dining room.

"What's important about staging a room, or making each space feel like it has air, is to make sure your line of sight isn't blocked, so you have a sense of breath in each room," Sardella said. "A lot of us live so much in our houses we overwhelm them with stuff."

The table now has just one large lamp on it, two vases and a rustic, rectangular vessel, all of which now can be seen and admired.

The room had two inexpensive white shelves along the wall to the left as you entered, which made the room look junky.

"They had one filled with old DVDs and Disney videos in the corner. As soon a you walked in, you had the feeling that the place was blocked," Sardella said. "You had a big thing here and a big dark thing here with lamps and family photos everywhere. It was all a distraction."

Don't waste your display space. Find a cabinet with drawers and hide your media. Then you can use shelving for just a few well-placed accents, like a pretty bowl or an attractive vase or a single photo that will get noticed. You don't need to fill up every inch of a shelf. It's better to keep it airy with just a few select items, grouped in odd numbers like threes or fives.

After a long time with no change, we stop really seeing things, Sardella said. With her fresh eyes, she noticed things like a dowdy floral chair in a corner of the living room, serving no purpose other than seating for the dog. She removed it and instead lightened up the corner with a lamp.

The master bedroom looked oddly barren. Sardella made it look more inviting by bringing in some of the accents that were cluttering the living room. A framed photo, a small table clock, a vase. She threw on a new comforter, something a little more sophisticated, and brought in a large, impressionistic painting for over the bed, which cost about $60.

In the dining room, she dressed up the table with a white linen tablecloth to make it appear fresh and removed clutter from the sideboard, as well as another space-consuming chair that served only the dog.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey @pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.