Yesterday's Staging is almost done

Wowsers, Staging Day turned into a long day.

The living room is on the small side. Plenty of space, but difficult to work with because every wall had something in it - huge opening to the foyer, bay window, large opening to the dining room, fireplace. NOT that I intend to imply I put furniture against the wall. In staging, that is a big no-no: leave room on each side of the furniture for potential buyers to walk, check the walls and flooring, and enjoy the openness of the room. But, we tried every possible placement of the loveseat (I think at one time we boosted it up onto the mantle). And found problems with each. Finally, we went with what I suspected all along: in front of the fireplace, back to the foyer. Because the back of the loveseat is the first thing buyer's will see, the room will not be as welcoming as it would be if they saw the seating on the loveseat first. To counterbalance this flaw, we layered a few interesting pieces beyond the loveseat. Just hints of these pieces can be seen from the foyer - enticements to draw them in while highlghting the best features of the room.

There was a problem with the comforter on the "bed". Can you spot it?

The "bed" is seven flip-top plastic storage boxes topped by an over-sized queen air mattress. The look is fine. It looks like a bed.

However, the queen sized comforter is too small. It almost looks like it fits...but only from the entrance side. The window side is barely covered. Today, I go king comforter hunting.


Above, I said "we" because I hired an assistant. Another local stager, Michelle from Staging The Mountains. She made the wall art over the bed. I made the wall art in the living room.

See you tomorrow!

Staging A House Today

I am staging another vacant house today.

The garage is half-full of furniture and tschotkes. A new, contemporary dining set purhased on sale a few months ago. An end table from the 'paint when there is time' pile. Four wall art pieces - created from remaindered fabric in a mad rush yesterday. Three huge vases. A pile of reminders that I need to clarify what I mean when I say "nothing the fits in the palm of your hand". Twisted willow sticks. A bright red tea pot to brighten a dark place on the stove. The love seat from my bedroom. :0) The basement is crowded with decorative items that are the right shape, but the wrong color - painted yesterday and this morning. One original painting, designed to reinforce the planned color theme in the downstairs half bath, is (I hope) drying.

I have to go rent a van. Sorry my friends, the lecture will resume tomorrow.

Have an awesome Monday, and wish me luck!

Living In Your Staged Home: the name of the game

The name of the game is Sell Your House.

Yesterday I described some things in my home that create visual clutter (linen closet stuffed full of towels and shampoo bottles), physical clutter (furniture I refurbish, paint, and use in staging), and potential emotional response in buyers (huge statue of a snarling leopard). Let me add to that list things that personalize my home (family and pet photos), and furniture arrangement that is tuned to my family's lifestyle.

All of that adds up to a house that is NOT going to appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers.

So, if I were planning to sell my house, I would have to make some big changes.

I would investigate the cost of renting a storage unit. If I could not afford that, I would ask family and friends if I could store some of my stuff in their basement or attic. If I had no friends and family, I would start winnowing (getting rid of things I truly do not need) and packing.

In fact, unless I had an extraordinarily short time to get my house listed, I would winnow anyway.

I would, literally, look at every item in every room in the whole house.

I would ask myself a lot of questions about each item:
- Is it trash? It is truly amazing how much trash gets put in cabinets and closets. If it is trash, I would throw it away. "It takes a lot of garbage bags to sell a house".

- Is it decorative? Does it serve no functional purpose? If so, I decide:
- Does it fit in the palm of the average person's hand (I have itty bitty hands, wear a size 4 ring)
- Is it personal? Does it tell more about me and my family than the room?
- Will it potentially elicit a strong response when someone sees it (not neutral)?
- Is it startling? Does it exist to catch people's attention?
- Realistically, does it's color clash with the rest of my house?
- Is it deeply important to me? Is it irreplaceable, a family heirloom passed down for generations? Would I be devastated or financially damaged if it was broken or disappeared?
- Can I use it in staging?
If I answer yes to any of the first questions, or if I cannot use it in staging, I wrap, box, and store it away. I label the box very carefully and, when I arrange the storage boxes, I put it close to the top if I think I may want to get at it before I move.

Note to sellers: Sometimes it is worth paying a stager to look your house over, make some of these decisions, and write you a Staging Plan. Then, to save money, you can do the packing yourself.

One more note: I include books, DVDs, and CDs in the "decorative, not functional, pack it away" category. But, if there is shelving to stage, I may keep a few of them out to use as decoration.


- Is it functional? Does it have sentimental value to me?
- If I do not expect to ever use it again, and it has no sentimental value, I would donate it if was in good shape, and throw it away if it was in really bad shape.
- If I do not expect to ever use it again, but it has sentimental value, I would wrap it up and put it in a box. I would box it with other "sentimental" items. I would put a label on the box that described exactly what is in there. And I would place it in my storage unit, my sister's attic, my basement, or in the last room buyers will see when they tour my house.

- Is it functional, and do I use it infrequently?
- Christmas decorations go into a carefully labeled box. Unless you are putting your house on the market on November first, we hope you are out of there before Christmas.
- Pack away the good china and the paella pan. If you host frequent formal parties, either store the good china where you can get at it when you need it, or plan to throw "theme" parties and informal barbecues, or host parties at restaurants for the next few months. If you really need a paella fix while your house is on the market, start exploring restaurants. (notice I am sensitive enough to not suggest making the paella in several different pans? If you own and use a paella pan, the intermingling and variety of flavors is the whole point.)

- Is it functional, and do I use it frequently? Here we go again:
- Is it duplicated? Yes, I do use a wash cloth every single day. But, no, I don't need 43 of them. I would discuss this with my husband, then pack away all but two wash cloths. Remove all duplicates. But label the storage box carefully just in case the original breaks.
- Will something else serve the same purpose? Keep one colander (the prettiest one) out. Store the customized pasta strainer and the fancy bowl used to wash artichokes.
- Especially if it is very large, ask yourself if you can get by without it while your house is being shown. I love fried, brined turkey. But, I would store the free-standing turkey fryer and the gigantic soaking bowl out of sight and do without for the duration.

- Is it functional, and do I never expect to use it again? Donate it.

The point here is be ruthless. Step away from yourself and assess your physical and emotional needs very, very carefully. Look for ways you can make lifestyle adjustments. And, yes, for most people, I do encourage you to contact a stager, get a Staging Plan, then make your decisions from within the scope of the plan.

Next up: Surviving and thriving while living in your Staged Home.

Have an awesome weekend!

Living in your Staged Home while you sell

My husband and I shop at discount stores a lot. And, when we find an exceptionally good deal, we tend to stock up. Big time.

Right now, in the linen closet in the master bath, there are five bottles of shampoo (regular store price: over $9; discount store price: $1), eight bottles of bath soap (regular over $5, discount $1), enough cotton balls to last us well beyond the rest of our lives, and a plethora of other, useful doo-dads all bought in quantity, all bought for less than 1/4 the regular price.

AND, we shop at thrift stores a lot. Then, we keep using things until they fall away to dust.

In that same linen closet, I count four bath sheets, eight bath towels, twenty hand towels, and - gulp - forty three wash cloths. The oldest is over thirty years old. Mind you, this is good quality stuff. Barring nuclear explosion in the bathroom, most of it will still be with me if I last another thirty years.

Mind you, this is for two people who rarely have spend-the-night guests.

In out clothes closet, I just counted my husband's cotton t-shirts: fifty eight short sleeved, twenty long sleeved (a few weekends ago, he packed most of his winter clothing and put it away). Most of it bought for between twenty five and seventy five cents a piece.

I am not the clothes horse I am married to. I spend most of my life in cut off blue jeans and a man's white cotton short sleeved t-shirt (bought on sale for a dime). Oh no, I just have a collection of vintage furniture in need or repair and painting in the basement. Specifically, filling about a third of the basement. Again, each piece cost about ten dollars.

Ours is not a Staged Home. We LIVE in it. Parts of it are as barren as the middle of the Sahara. To get through other parts of it, we have to use a machete to hack a trail.

When it is cleaned and straightened up, the clutter is hidden away and it actually looks rather nice.

Judging by homes I have staged, and by houses I see pictured for sale on the Internet, my home is pretty normal. Okay, maybe we over do it in stockpiling towels.

But, what if I was preparing to sell this house?

The vintage furniture would have to vanish, probably holding hands with a towering pile t-shirts. Three towels, three hand towels, three wash cloths are probably enough.

Straightening up would not be enough to merchandise the house. Other changes, a lot of other changes, would be needed. Framed pictures would have to come down. Furniture would have to be rearranged. Focal points would have to be painted.


Giant, hand painted, plaster snarling leopards would have to temporarily move to the zoo.


Living here would not be as convenient as it is now.


So, how would I survive? Just what is Living In Your Staged Home all about?

Tomorrow, we will begin to explore that question.

Have a wonderful Friday!

Staging Tips 101: what are accessories for?

Does anyone else ever do an Internet search on "home staging" and include a random city's name? Just to look at the before and after photos and read the staging tips?

I certainly do.

I either critique or admire the 'after' photos, make note of new tips and resources, and search the text for new staging explanations.

Doing this, I noticed a pattern.

Website after website has an individualized version of one of the fundamentals of staging: "Living in your home when it is not for sale is very different from living in your house when it is for sale."

I think I am going to discuss this in depth over the next few blogs. But, since we are already on the subject, let's begin by discussing accessories.

When you live in your home, accessories (like photos, wall art, figurines, decorative boxes, TVs, throw pillows, books, and various collections) serve three purposes:

• They are mementos, reminders of special times and special people
• They bring your personal definition of beauty into the room
• They make your life easier

And, that is as it should be. When you live in your home, everything in it should make your life easier, calmer, more energetic, happier, and generally better. (yes, yes, I know there are obstacles like cost or other family members needs/tastes. if I ever run out of staging to sell topics, we will move on to staging to live. I promise.)

When you live in your home, your accessories are usually arranged to catch visitor's attention, to be admired (by you or your company). Again, this is as it should be. If you have it, and you love it, and other people will enjoy it; show it off!

Accessories play a completely different role when you stage your house to sell.

When you stage to sell, the number, shape/color/size, and arrangement of accessories can easily become distracting, visually cluttering, too personal, too loud an exclamation about who you are and what you find beautiful.

The goal in staging to sell is to arrange the house to maximize the number of potential buyers who find it appealing.

The purpose of accessories in a staged house is to:

• Fill spaces that would otherwise 'feel' empty.
• Guide the buyers attention to focal points - show off the best features of the room.
• Explain how odd shapes, like small alcoves, in the room can be used.
• Create an overall feeling that the room is beautiful without actually drawing a lot of attention to the accessory itself.
• Invoke a 'pop', a smile, a giggle, a tiny feeling of surprise that makes the house memorable without distracting from the room.
  

On my website, I write about the Science and Art of Staging.

The Science of Staging includes: remove photographs of people (human faces are very distracting), remove political/religious symbols and opinions, remove small objects that fit in the palm of your hand, remove trophies, remove anything irreplaceable (accidents happen), remove or greatly simplify collections........

Are you getting an idea of how living in a house that is for sale differs from living in a home? Kind of scary, isn't it?

Don't panic. It is only for a time. And, one of the reasons you are staging is because you want that time to be as short as possible. This is an adjustment you can make. In fact, many people find they enjoy living in a simplified, staged home. You may like it too.

The Art of Staging rearranges the accessories that remain after the great removal. The Art of Staging concentrates on merchandising the room. So, open spaces are gently filled. Overcrowded spaces are subtly simplified. Three objects of various sizes guide the eye up, up to the wonderful mantle over the fireplace. A lamp lights a dark corner....and looks like it really belongs there so well buyers may not even notice the lamp, they will just enjoy the light. A huge, bright red vase filled with twisted willow sticks calls attention to itself for a split second, then passes the attention to view outside the window. And on, and on, and on.

The Art of Staging is the reason I encourage sellers to work with a professional stager. This is not something you automatically get right the first time. This grows with experience and trying things and repetition.

When the staging is complete, step back and look at the results very critically. Ask yourself, ARE YOU SELLING THE ROOM OR SHOWCASING YOUR BELONGINGS?

You want to sell the ROOM and take your belongings with you to enhance your life in a new location. Tune the staging.

Oh, and one hint about the cost of accessories when you live in your home: Check out thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales, estate sales, and clearance in discount outlet stores like Marshall's, Home Goods, and Tuesday Morning. Don't just go once and decide those locations have nothing for you. Visit them regularly. There is no way to know what you will find. I once bought a cup and saucer set at a flea market for $4. It was labeled "pretty set". It's book value was over $400. It still has a proud place in my collection.

Oh, oh, and another suggestion: when you are done with an item, unless it is totally trashed, donate it. You can both get help with your taxes, and share joy with another human being.

Golly, is it Thursday already? I hope you have a great day!

Staging Tips 101: I have a theory

It is possible I am a teensy bit compulsive. But, I have this thing about making sure everyone means the same thing when we talk about an item. So, these are some of my staging definitions.

Furniture
Any unattached items in the room that are big and sturdy enough to sit on, lay on, or put things on (chair, sofa, end table, bed, dresser, TV stand).

Attached
Anything affixed to, embedded in, or sold with the house by law; anything that, if removed, will cause damage (built-in bookcases, unmovable kitchen island, jetted tub)

Accessories
Any unattached item that is not furniture (silk plants, TV channel changer, figurine, telephone, original Rembrandt painting, vase, toothbrush holder, coffee maker, framed photo, statue........)

Collection
Four or more related accessories (books lined up on a shelf, pink elephant figurines, vases of flowers....)

.........................................................................................................................................

I have a theory.

It is an algorithm used to assess whether an interior room has so many accessories and pieces of furniture that (a) it really, really should be staged; and (b) during the staging some items will need to be removed, packed, and stored.

I am still refining this theory.

I would really appreciate it if you could help me test it. Please follow these instructions. Then let me know if the instructions made sense, and if you agree with my staging assessment.

Do this for each room individually (to help me test, just check a room or two)

First Step
Calculate the approximate square footage (SF) of a room. Because not all rooms are perfect squares, take measurements from the center of the room. Multiply the length of the room by the width of the room to get the approximate SF. (PS If you have a floor plan that gives SF, use it. While approximate SF is fine for my theory, being exact is certainly acceptable.)


Second Step
Count the accessories in the room.

Of course, in this kind of exercise, counting is never as simple as it sounds (if it was, I would no be asking for help)

Add 1:
- For each unattached non-furniture item (if you have tons of books or cd's, make a guess about the number)
- If the item is small enough to fit in you hand (so, that porcelain tea cup counts as 2, one for being there and one for being small)

Add 3 more:
- For each collection (so, those books count as your guesstimate plus three, those four pink elephant figurines count as seven)
- For each shelf that is more than 50% full of a collection (a bookshelf full of CDs, a display cabinet full of painted thimbles) ... (so, now those pink elephants count as 10)


Third Step
Count the pieces of furniture in the room (just count 'em, nothing fancy here)


Fourth Step
Add the number of pieces of furniture to the accessory count (four pieces of furniture plus ten accessories/collections counted equals 14)


Calculate
Divide your count from Step Four into the SF (If you totaled 14 when you counted accessories, and the SF is 150, divide 14 into 150 giving 10.71)

Check Your Results
If the results from Step Four are:

• More than 7, accessories and/or furniture should be removed, then the room should be rearranged, when you prepare your home to sell. The higher the number, the more likely the room will benefit from being staged.
  
• Range from 3 to 6, you can probably just rearrange using some of the helpful (if long winded) staging advice
  
• Less than 3, you will probably need to bring things in when you stage to sell (yes, sometimes stagers have to bring clutter in)
  

What I am hoping for with my theory is way to help people decide if staging will really make a difference, or if they can probably just straighten up.

Thank you in advance for trying this and letting me know what you think about it!

Have a great Wednesday.

Staging Tips 101: Accessories

Decorative Items
If it fits in the palm of your hand and you use it daily, find a cupboard or a large decorative box and store it between uses. If you don't use it frequently, pack it up and get it out of sight.
Reason? When the average person first looks over a room, small objects snag the eye and interrupt the visual tour. Normally, the eye sweeps right over large objects.
Result? The interrupted visual tour is likely to leave buyers feeling the room is disjointed or confusing. This tends to translate into: I don't know how I can furnish that room. This is not good.

Collections
Collections of related objects are also distracting. Very distracting. The visual tour stops, even if all of the items in the collection are large.
Result? Because the distraction is longer, buyers tend to see the room as not only being confusing, but also smaller.

Visually sweep the room. Better, get someone who does not live there is stand at the door and look from one side to the other quickly. If they exclaim, "Oh, those figurines are lovely!", it is time to get out the bubble wrap.

Ask yourself (repeatedly, for every item in every room), "Am I marketing the room? Or am I marketing the figurines?"