The Difference Between Home Staging and Home Decorating

Home staging television shows are the “rage”. In fact a new one was just released on TLC (The Learning Channel) called “Stager Invasion”.

I remember selling my first home over 20 years ago. I purchased a book about how to help your house sell. The book taught me about neutral colors, de – personalization, de-cluttering and having plenty of lights on in the house. These rules have not changed.

I sold this house in a down economy… and we were lucky that we broke even and didn’t have to “pay” someone to buy our house. The work we did “staging” our home helped to give our house a bit of a bump over the competition.

Why am I interested in staging now? I’m not planning on selling my home… but many are. I don’t know what the future holds… you never know.

I also have a good friend who will be putting her home on the market soon and will need some sage advice from me on staging her home. So I started a bit of looking around to see if I could find a few websites that are filled with information – but – easy to read and understand.

First…

What Is The Difference Between Home Staging and Home Decorating?

office2
No… this is not my office. :0) But what if it were your office? And… You were getting ready to sell your home? How would you “decorate” or “stage” this room?
First – you have to know the difference between decorating and staging a room. And then you have to know just how to stage a room without sterilizing it.

Decorating this office would require new office furniture. Furniture that would house all the equipment this homeowner obviously needs to function.

Plus… you would want to think about wall color, flooring and art. You would make this space – Your Space! Beautiful and comfortable with personal accessories added into the mix.

Staging is different. You still want to make this a beautiful space… but not personalized. Removing all but one computer would be key to opening up this room to many possibilities.

The goal of staging is to sell a home quickly, and for the most money possible by making a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers.

Staging focuses on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest number of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive product for sale.

Many people believe that staging raises the value of a property by way of reducing the home’s flaws, depersonalizing, decluttering, cleaning, improving condition items, and landscaping.

For vacant homes, staging furniture is used to create a living space the buyer can “see” themselves living in.
New wall color, flooring and art would make this space – Anyones Space.

Here is where some confusion comes into the picture. Staging often requires “de-cluttering” and “de-personalizing”. But – don’t make the mistake that the room should look sterile.

For instance -

A decorated room might have a chair with a side table. An ottoman to put up your feet. A lamp, T.V. channel changer, books, magazines all on the table. The chair might have a needle worked pillow and the ottoman might have a blanket or throw tossed across it. If we really live here… a few pens, pack of gum and a box of tissue might also be on this side table.
A staged room would have the chair, table and ottoman. The lamp would stay. The throw on the ottoman would be in place. Most everything else would be removed. A few “bestsellers” would be on the table with a pair of glasses.
An over staged room would have the book, glasses and throw removed.

Can you see the difference between a staged room and a decorated room yet?