Mobile Home Makeovers

 

Happy Holidays from our homes to yours!

This single section Call model home at Clayton Homes of Desoto had lots of potential. The retail center was so busy furniture kept getting moved in and out of it, and the home was never staged properly. As a result, sofa legs got lots, items were damaged, and the home wasn't appealing to buyers. It looked more like a storage unit than a model home. The dark, deep upholstery made the room feel smaller than it actually was.

Lifestylist Suzanne Felber was asked to come in and figure out a gameplan that would make this home more appealing to buyers. Our first thought was that the scale of the furniture was wrong, and the places that the furniture was placed didn't help sell the great floorplan that this home offered.
The upholstered dining chairs would close off the small, narrow dining space, and the orange and grey color palette wasn't flattering.

The home was cleared out and we started over, but we did save and use as much as we could of the existing furniture and decor. The rest was used in another home that was more suitable as far as scale and colors, so everything found a new home somewhere in the retail center. That's the biggest challenge of what we do - we try and use everything possible, as long as it doesn't hurt the look and sales value of the home. Items that are damaged or dated are either donated to a worthwhile nonprofit, or new homeowners are given a chance to buy them at a deep discount.

In a single section home, scale of the furniture and accessories is critical, and we were thrilled to find this dining table that was just right for the space. We invested in a few more furniture items, and added canary accent pieces to make the home feel as bright and as happy as it was meant to be. A large piece of art was added to draw your attention back to the master suite.

An area rug is a great way to add some color and texture to a room while protecting your wall to wall carpet. It's a lot less expensive to replace an area rug than a full room of carpet when the kids (or an adult!) spill a drink on it.
The cocktail table and upholstered items are open beneath to make the room feel more open and inviting. The home didn't have power to it while we were working on it, so all of this photos are shot using only natural light.
Moving the bed away from being in front of the window made all of the difference in how large this room feels. Everything in this room was already in the home - we just used it in different ways.
We love happy endings, and not only did this home give us some of our favorite lifestyle shots, customers fell in love with the new look and sales increased dramatically. Those are results that we love to hear about!

The Amelia by Clayton Homes is one of their new NXT generation homes. When the retailer received the home they wanted to start showing it immediately, so they used furniture and accessories that they had in storage. Unfortunately it wasn't the quality look that they home deserved or the customers expected, so they asked the Lifestylist Brands to come in and do a makeover.

The home features two living spaces, and we wanted to give them a different look and activity that would make sense. The furniture that was originally in the rooms was dated, and it was time to sell or donate these items which we helped the retailer do.

The dining table and chairs were the wrong scale and design for this space. The Amelia was designed with an Urban Farmhouse feel, and the decor needed to reflect that.

The master suite also looked dated, and the bed was too low to the ground and uninviting.

The furniture we brought in for the front living space was  tailored and the right scale for the space. An area rug added warmth and texture, and we left the mirror above the sofa, but moved it so it was centered on the wall.  Tables and finishes were changed to a darker stain that coordinated with what was shown in the home.

We played up the urban farmhouse look with our accessories, and added a large black and white rug in the family room to define the space. A large windmill painting and console below it draws you back into the space. Setting the table and adding accessories on the island warmed up the space as well and showed lifestyle.
We used the round cocktail table and end table from the front living space here so they wouldn't be in the way of  traffic flow like they did in the front room.
Even the master suite got an inexpensive makeover by adding more pillows and new bedding to the bed, and hanging artwork that made sense and was the right size over the bed.

Want to see more? Visit the Clayton Homes website and discover where you can tour this home near you.

We hate the term "mobile homes" but for some older trailers, the term fits. Always up for a challenge, Lifestylist Suzanne Felber has always wanted to get her hands on some older, many times pre-1976 homes and give them the Lifestylist touch, and we can't think of a better time to do that than now.

When Felber started working in the manufactured housing industry, a friend called her a "Trailer Diva" and the name stuck.


Turning a house into a home isn't always about money, talent, or knowing someone in the biz - a lot of times it comes down to listening, and understanding what the wants, needs, and passions of the client really are.

We are really looking forward to sharing some of our successes (and failures!) here.

So much of the reason for merchandising a model home is so the home feels comfortable and achievable. We love how this Lifestylist designed home turned out for Home-Mart in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The home is constructed by SE Homes of Texas - a division of Clayton Homes and surprise! It's a manufactured home! It's a joy to be able to share what todays manufactured housing is all about.

Have you ever spent a weekend touring model homes to get decorating ideas? I think we all have, and after we see the beautiful styling and features they offer we come back to our own homes and they just don't feel the same.

Lifestylist® Suzanne Felber has been merchandising model homes for over 30 years, and is now sharing some of the ways and ideas that make model homes a sales center that sells homes. If you want to stage your own home to sell, or are just looking for an inexpensive way to make your home more inviting, you have come to the right place.