Lessons in Home Staging
Posted in Erin on 09. Mar, 2010
Yesterday while I was at the office, the home stagers were at my house, rummaging through my cupboards, hiding my toothbrushes and paper towels, and designing my house to sell. If you ever watch Designed to Sell on HGTV, you know the difference staging can make. A little granite here, a fancy light fixture there and before you know it, the offers come rolling in!
I’ll confess, this is not something I would normally have considered ever hiring someone to do. Not because I don’t believe it works, but I fancy myself a frustrated decorator (frustrated mostly by money). Truth is, I feel like I know what would look good, if I had an endless reserve of cash to spend at HomeGoods, Etsy and the occasional antique shop. But my realtor offered this service as a value-add, so who was I to say no?
There’s one room in my house that has never really been much of anything. It’s the formal living room, and it’s the first thing people see when they come in the front door. Most people use this room as a home office, but my office is on the second floor where I can close the door and be away from the kids and other distracting family nonsense. For years this nondescript room served as a playroom. At one point we even had an air hockey table in it.
The stagers, Donna and Beth, said every picture of cute kids had to be removed throughout the house. This took a lot longer than I imagined it would. I have family pictures EVERYWHERE. They brought in several accessories, some drapes and wall art that really helped liven up the place. Some were not necessarily what I would pick, but again, I think that’s the point.
I don’t have time to photograph all the rooms, but I thought I’d share a picture of the room they totally transformed. You’d never know an air hockey table, train table, and God knows what other plastic once filled this space.
Room before, note personal photos
Room before, note no curtains, no life really
Room after
View from sofa. That's the stager's art and accessories.
Who lives here? you'd never know.
Now, when is Clive Pearse coming over for the open house?
Isn’t it fun to have someone else come in and translate your home?! I love having other people come in with a fresh eye and give their opinion! It can make the space feel new, fresh and ready for buyers!
Did they do anything to cover up the nail holes from the pictures they took down?
I”m so glad to hear we’re not the only ones using that formal living room space that’s the first room every one sees when the enter the house as a play room – it’s really the best use of space for us. I just feel so not house proud…
WOW! I’m impressed. Good luck with the house. I’m also a frustrated designer, so I feel your pain. I’m so excited for you and your family to start a new chapter. And look forward to hearing all about it on the podcast.
Just a note, from when I was selling my house. Whenever we had someone coming to view the house we played classical music. It made the house somehow seem “fancy.”
We had a storage facility full of stuff all because of staging!!! Worked, though. House sold on the first day on the market.
Fortunately, our items are on loan. They’ll all go back at the end.