Interview - STYLE ADORN

At House to Home Organizing a large percentage of our clientele are people who are moving. Moving can be stressful and before the move comes another potential stressor, putting the house on the market. We spoke with Tracy Marraccini & Kelly Lapadula of STYLE ADORN about how they can help during the home sale process.

For the busy person, what is STYLE ADORN?

In its essence, STYLE ADORN is a home staging/styling company dedicated to “adorning” or embellishing ones’ home in order to gain a competitive marketing edge in the home selling arena.

We believe that every home has a story to tell, a unique spirit within itself. Our customized design approach takes into account the special nuances of each home, as we strive to create inspiring, welcoming spaces.

In guiding sellers through the stressful process of preparing their home, we often share our philosophy which is “As you evolve, your home should too.” We have found that this idea gives home owners “permission” to let go and prepare for change, as they transition from one home to the next.

What is your origin story, how did you get started?

We met a few years ago at the start of both of our real estate careers. We had an instant connection as we both shared a passion for all of the aesthetics of home sales. As we each started to develop our individual careers as agents, we became increasing aware of the impact of how each home was presented. Separately, we were both getting involved with the staging process and were each becoming a resource for our fellow agents, helping them prepare their listings to hit the market.

While we continued to support each other’s real estate careers, our conversations soon became about how we could collectively fill the need to “showcase” homes to promote quicker sales. The timing felt right too, with both of us seeking opportunities to express our art and design backgrounds. We instinctively knew that our styles complemented on another, and we soon realized that our goals and sensitivities did as well. From these ideas, STYLE ADORN came into full bloom!

Why is staging a home important?

Today’s buyers are savvy and particular, making home staging more relevant than ever. When a buyer walks into a home, they are seeking an emotional connection. We are able to address the psychological component of home buying by creating a lifestyle element people can envision themselves “stepping into” and enjoying. In conjunction with this is idea, is the fact that today’s search engines are a driving force in real estate sales. As this is the case, we are very focused on how our staged homes are presented and marketed on-line. While conducting their on-line searches, buyers are making quick decisions as to which properties they will consider, further emphasizing the need to capture their attention.

For these reasons, home staging has become a critical component in promoting the sale of ones’ home.

How involved is the home owner in the process?

With regards to homeowner involvement, it really depends upon the particular situation. If a home is unoccupied, we generally go in without any restraints, and are able to create visually stimulating spaces.

When the homeowners are living in their home, we are sensitive to the fact that it can be intrusive to come in and rework their personal space. Most people love their home, value their belongings, and are essentially trusting us with what is likely their largest asset.

We believe that what sets us apart from our competition is that we are flexible and sensitive to each homeowners needs as they prepare to sell their home. With this in mind, we often will incorporate a homeowners valued pieces into our design plan. Allowing them to have input ultimately creates a comfort level with our clients, as well as a space that truly reflects the inherent features of what makes a home a “home!”

What have been some of your favorite projects?

We have been very fortunate in that we have had the opportunity to work in a variety of different style homes, all with unique challenges. For example, one home was new construction with an unconventional layout. Buyers were confused as to how to utilize the spaces, so we were tasked with helping to define the rooms by staging them. Once staged, that home went into contract within days.

Another project involved a mid-century home that hadn’t been updated at all. We were able to incorporate some of the homeowner’s pieces with our modern pieces to create a cool vibe.

But probably our favorite project was one where the homeowners were extremely cooperative and very accommodating, allowing for maximum creative freedom. They were open to all of our ideas and suggestions regarding new paint color and replacement light fixtures, which yielded a dramatic transformation.

Interview - Isabelle Dervaux, Family Photo Curator

Photo Credit: Tamara Gillon

If a photo is worth a thousand words what happens when you have thousands of photos? Most if not all of our clients ask us what to do with their photos. First, we want to get them all together and store them safely (not in a hot attic or wet garage) and then we can decide what “action” applies to the photos. For some simply keeping them safe is the next and final step but for some other ideas we spoke with Photo Organizer Isabelle Dervaux.

What do you do for your clients?

I help families make sense of the tens of thousands of photos they accumulate over time and create systems that keep them organized. We now take more than 3–5,000 photos per year. Those photos pile up, and given enough time can cause a certain amount of what I call digital anxiety. So you could say I also relieve them of that anxiety while I help them make meaningful projects from the pictures they love.

How did you get started?

It actually started as I began organizing my own family photos when we moved from San Francisco to New York. It was difficult at first to find all of those pictures—scattered among boxes of print photos and digital photos on hard drives, old laptops, and even thumb drives—and once all the photos were in a single location, to not get overwhelmed by hundreds of scans or entire collections that had been duplicated by accident! But there were also moments of joy, like discovering the digital photos of a weekend camping when the kids were young that I thought were lost and now miraculously appeared.

I developed my own methods to get through all the road-blocks and when finished with several projects, felt a real sense of accomplishment as well as a weight lifted from my shoulders. I realized other people must be facing the same issues with their own family photos that I had faced and started working with others to help them organize and find joy in their own photo collections.

If someone is interested, what is the process?

First, we schedule a free 30-minute phone consultation. We have a conversation about what’s important: do they want to organize their digital collection to make photos easier to find? Are they looking to design family albums for their young children? Are they concerned about boxes of old family pictures gathering dust? Once we’ve determined the challenges they’re facing, we set priorities and goals and I recommend a strategy that suits their needs.

I like working side-by-side with my clients—I often work at their homes, so we can share a more detailed view of the family, who the relatives are and what events are most important. We work in manageable chunks, usually once a week over the course of a month, but occasionally for three or more months if we’re dealing with a larger print collection or bigger project.

When tackling a digital photo collection, we start by tracking down every device and storage system the pictures may be found on. Once we’ve gathered and moved the photos to one place, we find a strategy that best suits the client and start organizing and curating their collection with a concrete step-by-step action plan. I teach my clients just enough tech shortcuts and insights to give them the confidence and tools they need to continue organizing their photos, and empower them to make beautiful slideshows and albums on their own.

What makes you different?

Beyond organizing their pictures and sorting out years of photos in a systematic way, our work together also becomes an opportunity to teach my clients about photography and design. I come to this work through a long career as an illustrator, and I love to share the same principles with my clients that I taught in my illustration class at Parsons School of Design. When we find great photos in the course of our work, we analyze what makes them so good—the light, the emotion, the composition, for example—so they can then go on to recreate those same conditions again, on their own. When my clients learn how to recognize their best photos, they also learn how to take better photos, and that reduces their need to edit later on. So the benefits of what I teach my clients extend far beyond the actual time I spend with them.

What is the storytelling aspect of photo organizing?

I’m always on the lookout for engaging, strong images that will provoke conversations and foster deeper connections between family members and friends. Photos are a means of communication. I teach my clients to really look at and read their images rather than just viewing them as one-off snapshots. The way images are edited, grouped and sequenced has a big impact on a photo album. When making an album, you’re making it for yourself, but you’re also creating it for others to view. That means creating a story arc and giving context to the time period, the people in the photos, and information that will keep the viewer hooked—you want them to keep them interested and turning the pages without yawning!

Can you recall any projects that stood out or were especially exciting—or challenging?

I once helped a client find a year’s worth of photos she thought she had lost, including pictures of her daughter as a newborn through her first birthday. I was so happy to help a mom get her daughter’s first year back!

Going through photos can be especially difficult if you’ve recently lost a close family member or friend. I have helped soften the process for clients who want to honor the memory of those who are gone—together we work on finding the most expressive pictures, and create photo stories by which to remember their loved ones.

On a lighter note, I work with many families who travel all over the world. I have gone to virtually every continent through my work, and I love discovering new places as if I were there.

Interview - Pretzl

Whenever one of our clients says, “what do I do with all this stuff?” one of our suggestions is to recommend focusing on experiences. This practice works especially well when it comes to feeling overwhelmed by children’s toys. We spoke with Olivia Leon from Pretzl about ways to easily find activities if you don’t want to add to the playroom.

For the busy person, what is Pretzl?

Pretzl is the OpenTable for kids’ activities, a site for parents to search through thousands of classes, camps and birthday party options and book on the spot. Without any fees ever, parents can search on criteria that matter most to them like the child’s age, location, activity type, day of the week/time, making it easier than ever to find just what they are looking for and discover new activities they didn’t know were out there.

Whether a parent is looking for a class or a camp for the summer, planning a child’s next birthday party, or just wants to try something new over weekend, Pretzl is here to help.

What is the company's origin story, how did you pick the name?

My co-founder and I were sharing our frustrations about how difficult it was to find new and different activities for our kids. We knew that there were amazing offerings out there, but no easy way to find them and compare options. We knew that there had to be a better way and Pretzl was born.

According to some historians, the earliest pretzels were dubbed “pretiolas,” meaning “little rewards.” We want to, “give kids the reward of amazing experiences and give their parents the reward of easily finding and booking those experiences.”

How is Pretzl different than calendar of event sites?

Most directory sites will list options, but parents can’t book the activity on the site. They have to go to the venue’s site or call the venue during the hours of operation. On Pretzl, customers can search through thousands of kids' classes, camps, birthday party options and events and book anytime day or night. Unlike man “calendar of event sites,” we don’t just list dozens of activities and happenings (which can become unwieldy and overwhelming for parents). We enable Pretzl users to filter and sort our thousands of offerings on criteria that matter most to them like date and time, location, age, activity type, etc. and then book on the spot. Lastly, booking through Pretzl also allows parents to keep kids' busy schedules organized all in one place.

What are some of the most popular events?

We are finding that there is no “most popular” event or class. Our bookings range all of the options one would expect - from Fine Art to Martial Arts to the Digital Arts and sports like Soccer, Tennis and Golf and all types of dance. But some our most popular bookings are the unexpected activities such as a Paleontologist Camp, an Earring Making Workshop and even an Ice Cream Making Class. We have also seen a spike in the demand for single day activities with the recent school holidays.

Interview - Decimated Designs

While most of us don't think about Halloween during summer, at House to Home Organizing we are always on the look out for locally made quality items. We spoke with Kyle from Connecticut's own Decimated Designs about all the cool things they do and make.

What’s your background and what is Decimated Designs?

Decimated Designs is a full-service design and fabrication shop in New Britain, CT. We specialize in making large foam creations with our 4’x8’ CNC as well as makeup FX, costumes, masks, signage, and the occasional blueprint or fire-exit plan. I've always been a Halloween fanatic, up to the point that my sister's birthday is November 1st because my mother refused to miss seeing me in costume. I did my first (laughably bad) prosthetic makeup when I was 9, and then discovered the Theater when I moved to Connecticut at 10. I went to school for Tech Theater and when I got out landed at a professional Haunted House only to realize that between the sets, costumes, makeup, lighting, sound, actors, etc., haunted houses are just a different type of theater! From there I started the company and it has grown and taken on more and more new and interesting projects.

What is the haunt community?

The haunt community is a group of like-minded individuals who come together for the purpose of scaring the socks out of the public. Many of us are charity-oriented in one way or another, plenty of us are strictly business, and a good chunk are purely for-the-love-of-it types who don't want to muddy things up by having to charge for tickets one way or another. You've got Home Haunters, Semi-Pros, Professional Haunters, Actors, Designers, Costumers, Makeup Artists, Animatronic Fabricators, Sculptors, Web Designers, and absolutely everything in-between. We come from incredibly diverse backgrounds and yet when we meet up one haunter can almost always spot another in a crowd. There's an energy to it, and a community built around it.

Can regular people shop with you or is it only for professionals?

We cater to just about everyone! We've sold cosplay items to Dr. Who fans in Malta, noisemakers to a haunt in Dubai, and 6' beating hearts to one of the largest amusement parks in the country! We do high-end makeup for films and quick face paints at local Comic Cons. It's a bit of a give-and-take because I love being reachable at all ranges of the spectrum but we often run into budgetary issues when clients don't realize just how much the truly high-end work actually costs.  It never hurts to contact us and ask about something you’re interested in, and we always try to come up with creative ways to do a project and stay within budgets.

I assume Halloween is your biggest season, what do you do the rest of the year?

Halloween is absolutely our busy season, but we don't slow down very much. Over the winter we're prepping new products for a Spring release. Most of the big haunted houses in the country are actually buying their larger products in March so that the companies have production time and they're able to get their items with enough time for setup and testing before the season begins. Since installing the CNC, we've also begun taking on more commercial work which keeps us busy through the Spring and Summer and there are plenty of conventions and shows we hit in-between.

Do you teach others to do what you do?

We do quite a bit of education actually! We are the only iWata certified airbrush educators in the Northeast and regularly teach classes on makeup FX. One of our favorite recurring classes is “How to improve your Halloween Makeup” which we teach about 6-8 times a year at various libraries throughout Connecticut. Halloween is how I got into all of this and if I can help up-and-coming future artists get better at their craft then I’m there! We teach things like how to make eye makeup scary without resorting to “racoon black-out” eyes. There is plenty that we do which we cannot teach because of the depth and complexity of it, or the large tools involved, but we’re always looking to add on new classes!

Over the years, what has been the coolest things you have done?

We’ve worked with celebrities, large companies, tv shows & movies, and gotten to create giant versions of some of our favorite characters. We’re currently working on a 10’ Thanos statue as well as some giant PEZ and a dream project to convert a certain artistic space into a Halloween themed nightmare (sorry, but can’t share too too much on this one yet!) Some of our favorite projects have been the Halloween Weddings we’ve done turning brides into zombies and grooms into werewolves! With our new CNC Machine, we’ve also been able to expand the kind of size and detail we’re able to output, so as someone who loves seeing art come to life that has been incredibly awesome. We’re always up to something new and interesting and it’s so hard to pick! It’s probably best to follow us on social media where we keep everyone as up-to-date as possible and let everyone pick their favorite for themselves!