What Is Home Staging?
When we home stage we’re attempting to sell an ideal.
Picture it: sparkling kitchen counters accented with artfully arranged flowers, impeccably beaded accent couch pillows placed meticulously to encapsulate the natural light filtering in through brimming, open spaces– you get the idea.
Successful home staging is difficult because you’re selling an ideal that will never be achieved in reality. That is, staged homes are impeccably elegant, neat, and absolutely gorgeous in every nook and cranny.
Whose actual house looks like that? No one’s!
But the beauty of home staging is in its deceptive ease; home staging helps prospective buyers visualize their everyday lives within the expanse of beautifully staged homes. Home staging is the missing link between making the sale and floundering on the market for weeks.
The truth is, prospective buyers need help visualizing their realities. Home staging allows us to create scenes within actionable real-world scenarios for homeowners. For instance, when we pair a sensible journal with a sprinkling of classy office accessories, we’ve set the stage for busy mothers to sit down and balance the books; we’ve also poised uncertain parents to feel confident their teens have a sensible space to complete their homework– and we’ve even managed to appeal to the fervent night-novelist who is a single dad slaving away as an accountant by day.
At its core, home staging must appeal to all demographics to make the sale.
When we stage, we stage for the whole, not the individual.
(When in the Selling Process Should You Stage Your Home?)
Sales, Sales, Sales
Why does home staging increase the likelihood of a sale?
Because it’s gorgeous, darling!
Home staging is an art form in the right hands. Unlike home decorating, home staging elevates its game in redefining how spaces are used. Home staging goes beyond decoration, because functionality and use are mobilized. For instance, home stagers make careful decisions about which pieces of furniture to showcase to suggest a multitude of uses with grace. Family rooms are transformed into burgeoning hubs of solidarity with intimate seating arrangements, accented with carefully placed trays poised with coffee and cookies, of course. Home staging prepares buyers to imagine their families and loved ones coming together.
But how, exactly?
(How to Stage Your House to Double Your Investment)
Home Staging Basics
Home staging surrounds several core principals, each of which are up to the interpretation of their home stagers. At its crux, home staging surrounds the following expressions:
Decluttering. Who wants to walk into a home and be overwhelmed with vast amalgamates of personal belongings? No one! (And sometimes, not even the people who own these personal possessions.) home stagers are tasked with preparing their prospective homes for potential buyers. This process includes decluttering. In the home staging realm, decluttering tends to focus on depersonalizing one’s home to appeal to a vast audience of potential buyers. That means in a traditional sense of decluttering, everything is put into its proper order, or eliminated entirely-- but from a home stager’s perspective, decluttering goes beyond to include eliminating personal items, simplifying props, and taking aesthetics away open up an otherwise “closed” or “cramped” space.
Accentuation. After lifting the veil of clutter, accentuation focuses on creating strong focal points throughout rooms. home staged focal points draw powerful attention to clever uses of space. Furniture may be added or removed to capitalize on a home’s natural landscape.
(Home Staging 101: Warm Colors Versus Cool Colors)
Functionality with Design. Although home staging prides itself on beauty and refinement, functionality is at the core of the trade. Use is ascribed to each facet of the entire home. For instance, livings rooms do not merely serve their traditional purposes, entire home theaters are constructed. Spare bedrooms are transformed into lively recreational hotspots. Children’s rooms become expansive nurseries, outfitted with growing libraries. You get the picture. When you think home staging, think BIG. Think BETTER. Think DREAM HOME.
Gestalt. The overall theme should be one that is reinforced throughout. Tasteful figurines may draw parallels from room to room. For instance, a savvy home stager may place stylish apple figurines throughout a New York apartment-- or graceful hornets for Charlotte homes. You get the idea. Gestalt may be achieved through careful use of color and thematic inclusion of artwork, or a repeated pattern incorporated throughout. Fluidity is chief.
Cleaning. This one’s a no-brainer. Everything should be spic and span! Remember to clean walls, fixtures (light switches, doorknobs) the underbelly of faucets, dirtied windows, dusty ceiling fans, and the like.
5 Places to Spring Clean Before Selling Your Home
Capitalize on the Power of home Staging
Ready to take the next big step in finalizing the sale of your home?
Sell your home above your asking price with Creative Home Stagers!