Interior designer Jo Campbell knows attention to detail goes along way when selling your house. Campbell, who runs her own company Votre Monde, says astute buyers look for it and are prepared to bid up the price for quality settings, displays and finishes.
Add emotion into the auction mix and a quality home is destined to handsomely surpass the reserve price by tens of thousands of dollars, particularly if there’s keen competition. But for weeks, even months before the hammer falls, vendors have been carefully mapping out a strategy to give themselves every chance to obtain the best price. Presentation is a catchcry auctioneers often use to remind bidders they are about to sell quality as they congratulate the vendors in their opening address. Campbell knows that all too well as an interior designer behind the scenes preparing properties for sale. She can’t guarantee an overwhelming sale price. No one can. But her work will give every property a chance to reach its potential – and some.
Campbell begins with vision built around a budget after clients make a decision to sell their property. Campbell can act as a project manager by drawing up plans for home improvements. She hires tradesmen to carry out tasks and has the contacts to source building materials and other fittings at wholesale prices. “The kitchen and the bathrooms are most important to buyers so the plumbing has to be in top order and the fittings have to appeal,” she says. “Furniture has to be in the right place.” |
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When homeowners hire Campbell for a makeover, she focuses on creating distinctive space to meet individual taste. Indeed, she says her business name Votre Monde is French and means, “Your World”. “My job as a designer is to help you create exactly that – a space that you feel comfortable with, which exudes your individuality,” she says. Campbell says new furnishings and accessories can create a completely new feel and add a touch of the “wow factor” without having to spend too much money. An eye for detail mixed with vision can transform a home from a standard and routine layout to a light-filled, attractive and ultimately space-driven design, offering an abundance of room because everything fits. But don’t forget the colour, window treatments, curtains and blinds because careful selection is all part of a successful makeover. And, according to Campbell, so is new linen, towels and shiny pots and pans.
They say everything has its own space and hanging art on a wall in the right room makes a difference, yet so many of us still manage to get it wrong, according to Campbell. “A painting or photo needs to be hung at eye level,” she says. It may sound like a minor detail, but Campbell is a perfectionist.
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Campbell’s passion for interior design, her friends say an obsession, began while growing up in New Zealand. “I have been working towards running my own interior design business since I was 14,” she says. “I love coming up with ideas on how to get the most out of any particular home. It’s hard work, but enjoyable and challenging. The reward is a successful renovation, makeover or rejuvenation and watching people show off their new living areas. Now, that’s a satisfying experience.
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As they say, the best advertising is free from satisfied customers prepared to put in writing their appreciation for a job well done. In a recent email to Campbell, Skye McDonald and Bas Ellenbroek wrote: “We would like to thank you for your help with the interior design at our residence in Melbourne. Not only have you created living areas that are beautiful, tasteful and modern, you have taken into consideration the function that we required of certain areas.
“Relocating from the UK was a stressful time and knowing that you had everything organised on our arrival was a huge relief. All we had to do was turn the key to our new home. Your responses to our questions were always so timely and the information that you provided us with was exactly what we required.
“We will continue to use your services in the future and would not hesitate in recommending you to any other prospective clients that you have.”
Votre Monde
0420 883 722
jo@votremonde.com.au
www.votremonde.com.au |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author: Story researched and written by finance journalist Anthony Black, of BlackMedia. For further information email: anthonyblack3@bigpond.com or 0418 54 3330.
Anthony Black, is a long standing journalist, having worked in newspapers for more than 20 years. He was finance editor of the Sunday Herald Sun for eight years and his work was published in News Limited newspapers across Australia. As a freelance writer, Black has interviewed and written exclusive and extensive stories on Gerry Harvey, of Harvey Norman, NAB and Woodside Petroleum chairman Michael Chaney, Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond, Boost Juice founder Janine Allis, tyre magnate Bob Jane and Wesfarmers managing director Richard Goyder. His reports can be read on finance website thebull.com.au and in business magazine, INTHEBLACK, a trademark of CPA Australia, which is also online. |
