Who, What, Where, How

Events start with the who, staging starts with the where. Not that you aren’t thinking about your audience! Understanding the impact of your design appeal on your target certainly narrows what you can or will do.

Staging occurs on small levels: mantels, coffee or dining tables, and larger levels: interior and exterior of homes or buildings, city streets, whole towns, lighting, the very air, the sky is the literal limit!!! Whoa. Sorry. We got a little excited there! But, aren’t you? You should be. Staging is fun!

First thing:
Zen your mind clear or do some yoga or eat a doughnut… whatever takes you to a content, nonjudgmental mind zone. When you are in that state, you are ready to be helpful to someone in need of good, possibly life-changing, advice.
Ready?

It Is Not About You.

Okay. Onwards.

At the Property to Stage:
Walk through
With a cleared mind, approach, view throughout, and exit. Easy peasy, right?
Photographs
Photos tell you more than your eyes
Walk Away

Go and have a think. Preferably in the area of the property. Absorb the feeling of surrounding properties, neighborhood and businesses.

If at all possible, remove 50-90% of furnishings in the space to be staged.

Clean. Clean like you are the lost child of a torrid affair between Mr Clean and the White Tornado — and whatever gene pool he/him and they/them created is full to the brim with clean.

If you are one of those “it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that bling” kind of designers, move along. We get you. But we are on the side of natural, probs neutral and not shiny… unless it is clean-shiny, then we are all about that gleam.

Staging a Space for Sale or Rental

Home Staging
Design for the brochure photo op versus the real life home tour of a home for sale— two very different design opportunities.

Breakfast three ways:

1. The charming inveiglement of staging for tour. 2. Real life - we all know this - but we want to see our lives improved in a new space. 3. Staging for a photo op.

Photographing or Video Tours of homes for sale are essential. Staging decor and for photographs calls for more attention to perspective and arrangement in rooms. Stagers work with photographers and real agent to get the best angles of features in homes, working to accentuate the positive and de-emphasize any negatives. Design for videography of a space to be shown can be more like the open house or tours of the actual space by prospective buyers.
When staging for photography, furnishings can be placed in ways not normally conducive to actual living — all with the mind of displaying a welcoming space rendered into a still picture in essentially two dimensions.Cheat clustering your decor is absolutely okay for that brochure or website photo! However, staging for buyers in the actual space to be shown should always consider how the home would function in real life. It should engage ALL the senses to charm and seduce, but never outright lie about a property’s features. We, as buyers, are actually okay with this. It says you, as a seller, want to engage with us.

According to the National Association of Realtors, staged homes sell faster and at a higher price.

Staging is a process that helps a seller disengage and move on from their home as it depersonalizes what has been home. For potential purchasers, staging should give hints to the ways a property COULD be and invite them to see it as their own. A well-staged property is an engaging and welcoming host and anyone viewing the property is a guest to be beguiled into extending their stay — with an offer!