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CHATS:
No, and here’s why:
While staging uses basic design principles like scale, proportion and colour, it’s not the same as decorating.
Staging is about “packaging” your property (not your home, therein lies the distinction) to appeal to the widest range of potential buyers. Staging is a marketing tool that focuses on highlighting your house’s features and camouflaging its less desirable aspects. It’s not at all about YOU!
If you are considering putting your house on the market - notice I didn’t call it a home - staging can be a great help. But be prepared to detach yourself from your personal feelings, tastes, and lifestyle (that includes pets and children) and treat your property as just that - a financial asset. You’ve likely seen a multitude of TV programs that showcase the amazing power of staging a home for sale. And for the sake of drama, the homeowner is usually dumbfounded as to why their “castle” has yet to be sold for top dollar? A closer look reveals a home that is cluttered, in disrepair, highly personalized and in the worst scenarios, just plain filthy! Nobody wants to buy a dirty house! So unlike decorating, staging is also about clearing clutter, cleaning and repairing. A staged home will have much less furniture, accessories and electronics to keep potential buyers focused on the house and not the stuff in it.
On the other hand, interior decorating is all about turning that house into YOUR home. Most of us like to watch TV on comfortable furniture, entertain our friends, listen to music, and include our children and pets in our day to day life. Clutter, lack of maintenance and poor housekeeping have no place in a well decorated space. Effective interior decorators treat your space to fit your lifestyle and offer solutions to deal with life’s realities. Decorating is an expression of your personal taste.
Here are some examples to help illustrate the differences between staging and decorating:
1) Decorators will often include framed family photos as an effective way to personalize your space. In staging, YOU are not in the picture - quite literally - buyers need to see themselves living in your home.
2) Bright, vibrant paint colours and bold patterned fabrics are ways to express your individual style. But deep or energized colours can turn buyers off. Neutrals are more apt to appeal to a wider group of people.
3) At the best of times, I’m not a big fan of oversized, overstuffed furniture. So here’s where this decorator might agree with a stager. Big furniture eats up valuable space. Average scale furniture can be manufactured to be just as comfortable as its oversized cousin and won’t impede the flow of a room. Many buyers can’t see past the objects in the room, so paring down the size and amount of furniture in each room is usually best for staging.
4) Let’s be honest, guys like their giant TV, the bigger the better. And that can work if the room is decorated to be YOUR media room. But to the buyer, the giant TV can distract from other more appealing features like your fireplace or a great view outside. When staging, nix the TV, hide it or scale it way down.
Staging is about the HOUSE. Decorating is about YOU!
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