Halstead Property

Staging With Color Without Painting A Single Wall

By Cathy Hobbs, ASID

Pick the number one fear factor of many homeowners and it is often the dreaded five-letter word c-o-l-o-r. I am not quite sure why this is, but so many people are simply terrified to stir the brush in that good old can of paint and actually put color on the walls! Although I am huge fan of painting walls with color, whether accent walls or throughout, I am often asked to design leaving the walls of a space stark white.

White walls, long considered to be a design faux pas, is in many ways a terrific design tool. Instead of ignoring white and treating it like the “elephant in the room,” I embrace it as a color and incorporate it into my color palette.

White literally serves as the foundation for my “blank canvas” and the color strokes begin from there. In designing and staging a glorious 16th-floor penthouse on 30th Street for power broker Scott Harris of Brown Harris Stevens and marketing guru Hunter Frick of Halstead Property, I decided to infuse a menagerie of orange, mustard, turquoise, and chocolate into the four-level penthouse without painting a single wall.

American Development Group, LLC, which developed the condominium tower where the penthouse is located, did an exquisite job with the construction and design, but the property truly came alive through the vibrant use of color. Color was the driving inspiration, from my selection of a canvas triptych with oranges, yellows, and grays for the living room, to minute details such as the color of the jackets on the coffee table books.

When I design or stage residences for my clients who include real estate brokers, developers, and home sellers, I often use neutral colored upholstery pieces, such as sofas and chairs, and add loads of color through the use of accents such as toss pillows, artwork, vases, and even rugs. Using a technique called “color mapping” (created by home staging authority Certified Staging Professionals) I create a scheme using 3–4 colors then pull the color throughout an entire space.
White walls can add just the neutral accent you need to make your space colorful without picking up a single paint brush!

Five-time Emmy Award-winning television personality Cathy Hobbs is the founder of Cathy Hobbs Design Recipes™, a New York City-based firm specializing in interior design and home staging. A nationally known design expert, Cathy was a finalist on Season 6 of HGTV’s hit reality series Design Star. Cathy is currently traveling around the country as an instructor for Certified Staging Professionals, teaching their prestigious 3-day certification course. www.cathyhobbs.com.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011