In the Land of Staging, Enough is Enough

To each his own, for sure.  Lately, however, I have visited and viewed many stagings gone overboard.  By overboard, I mean so many large furnishings and accents that you can hardly see the space.  Sofa table by the door when there’s clearly no room. Sure. Art on every single wall? Why not?! The photos look more like an ad for a furniture store than marketing for real estate.

In many of these stagings (done by the best and biggest guys in town) the furniture and art is quite expensive and fancy.  As stager, I can tell you that’s the easy way out.  Just cram a bunch of pricey stuff in there. It’s quick. No design aesthetic required.

Large and fancy furnishings provide sufficient distractions for potential buyers.  So much so that people often ask to buy the furniture instead of the house.

As a rule of thumb for all of our stagings, if it’s not adding value, we take it away.  If it’s not showcasing (or downplaying) some feature of the house, we leave it out. We consider flow, focal points and basic features of design (such as creating a place for the eyes to rest.) Fancy furniture is great.  We love it.  But what we love even more is when staging hits the exact right balance between creating a space to visualize, a space to market and a space to showcase. And that’s much more than simply adding lots of furniture to a house.

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