Saturday, July 31, 2010

Home Sweet Home Makeover made easy in Dunwoody by Mary Trantow of Exquisite Interiors.

 Sold in 32 days and proper staging was everything.

Our family just marked the 1 year anniversary of moving into our home. Kristin fell in love with our current home the moment she saw it, and suddenly the boys and I were on the "let's move" bandwagon.

But the first step had to be selling our former home in a less-than-great economy and a sluggish real estate market. And the biggest challenge, our house was home to 3 very active boys and very much showed it. The prospect of having to transform our well lived-in home into a place that was open house ready seemed overwhelming. Not having cable or satellite we couldn't even get ideas from HGTV.

Luckily for us, we didn't have to look much further than across the street for help to our friend and neighbor, Mary Trantow. Mary is one of those people that can look at a room with LEGOs strewn across the floor, furniture reinforced with duct tape, and walls layered with original wallpaper and Kool-Aid stains and then say "this could be a great room for entertaining." Quickly we brought Mary on board our home make-over project.

Armed with paint colors, and a list of what to pack away, what to borrow or buy, and where to place it, Kris followed Mary's direction. It was a lot of work (I have to admit Kris did the lion's share - I did do some of the heavy lifting...) but when it was done, it was pretty much transformed into a different house. When Kristin emailed photos to family and friends their response was "This is NOT your house." And in truth, it really wasn't ours any more. We'd turned our house into someone else's - the next homeowners'. Maybe we were just incredibly lucky that it sold in 30 days, but I tend to give a lot of credit for the quick turnaround to our decorator, stager, and good friend, Mary Trantow.

When we moved into our current home, we decided not to wait until we were ready to move out again (which Kris says will be "never") to make improvements. So we had Mary come in and give us direction on paint, furniture and finishing touches and our family and friends are enjoying the results.

Whether you're planning on moving or just want to make your house a home you enjoy living in, I highly recommend getting in touch with Mary Trantow of Exquisite Interiors. Mary's phone is 404-277-1207 or marytrantow@gmail.com

1 comment:

BethR said...

Mary is great!! She helped us pick colors/window treatments/place furniture when we moved into our house in Dun. Club Forest. She has a wonderful ability to transform a room using your existing furnishings. She also knows how to work within a budget...which my husband really likes:) And in addition to all of that, she has a great personality and is a pleasure to work with!