Interior designers are brought in for many reasons, depending on the client’s wants and needs—from a full home renovation to a single-room refresh. But the owners of this home, situated only a stone’s throw from LSU, enlisted the help of interior designer Becky Walker and her team at The Design Studio of Louisiana, for two specific reasons. First, to style and stage the house to impress potential buyers. And second, to help the homeowners refine their interiors with investment pieces, all of which could be boxed up and brought to their new home.

“There’s a really high need for those who want that finished look but can’t quite get there on their own,” Walker says, explaining that many people start the home design process in their late 20s and early 30s with hand-me-down furniture from family. Then, as they move into their 40s, they begin to add more unique elements like artwork. “Once you enter your 50s, you become established. You can afford to invest in quality pieces that reflect your personality more.”

For this project, Walker keyed into her interior sprucing service, which focuses on refreshing spaces through small updates and additions, as well as her team’s experience with staging homes for sale. With the homeowners looking to sell as quickly as possible, adding a little personality through refined interiors transformed the home for buyers, making it stand out from others on the market.

“Staging helps buyers to visualize themselves living in the home,” Walker explains. “This process actually helped them make more money. It wasn’t on the market for long.”

Walker begins the interior sprucing process by establishing the client’s goals and objectives. Then, together, they decide which pieces to keep and which ones are due for an upgrade. For example, in the dining room, the table and console are heirloom pieces that the homeowners noted as keepers. Walker added slipcovers to the head dining chairs in a printed blue and white fabric to complement the colors in the adjacent living room.

Initially, the homeowners were hesitant about adding color. Walker decided on a tone-on-tone approach with carefully placed pops of color to add contrast while maintaining their traditional style.

“We pulled the colors used, mainly coral and blue, from an art piece that she loves by Jill Hackney,” she explains. “It’s one of those pieces she invested in in her late 40s, and we decided to have it speak to the whole house.”

Over the years, Walker and her team have picked up several tricks of the home staging trade, learning to utilize interior design as a means to keep buyers’ eyes focused on the highlights of the house through small changes. Much of this project was focused on decluttering spaces and moving existing pieces to help showcase them properly. “This was a great house with so many great things, but they just weren’t in the right place,” Walker explains. “And the decluttering helped to make space in those areas she wanted to invest in, like the primary bedroom.”

Using the existing bed and bedding, Walker and her team sourced finishing touches for the primary bedroom like a bench, custom throw pillows, bedside table lamps and the art pieces by Mike Clum hanging above the bed.

“She loves her blues, so for the color scheme, we simply blended different hues to satisfy her style,” Walker says. “She wanted to go in the room for the first time alone. I think she was scared she was going to hurt our feelings if she didn’t like it. But she loved it!”

Throughout the bathrooms and kitchen, Walker focused on removing clutter and adding aesthetic props, like jars, greenery, art and more. “Every corner of this home was addressed,” Walker says. Ths process ultimately allowed the homeowners to sell as quickly as they’d hoped without having to make expensive renovations to any rooms while also planning ahead for life in their next home.

“Everything they chose to invest in was brought to their new house,” Walker explains. “And it was a smart selling decision to get this done before listing.”

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Note from the editor: The colorful artwork in the gallery above was incorrectly attributed to artist Jill Hackney in the original version of this story. The correct artist is Jennifer Poe, and the story has been updated to reflect this correction. inRegister regrets this error.