Contrary to popular belief, home staging is not the same as interior design or interior decorating because their purposes differ. The objective of home staging is to highlight the features of a property and add significant value. Home staging is a powerful marketing tool that answers questions of space planning like:
How can the furniture be arranged best in this room?
What can this space be used for?
Does the master bedroom fit a king sized bed?
How will the traffic flow in this open concept space?
Questions like these are answered through home staging for a potential homebuyer.
Selling
The design and style elements of home staging focus on creating a neutral palette and appealing to a large group of potential buyers. A home stager creates a space that many different people can envision living in. Staging creates a neutral environment to showcase how the potential buyers will live in the home. Home staging isn’t about the specific decorator’s style, it’s focus is space planning and marketing the potential of the home. The design choices should be based on the style of the home versus the home owner’s personal preferences. Home staging is a temporary style focused on selling the space and highlighting the space, not selling a design style. Universal design and not personal style sells in home staging!
Dwelling
In a home that you are dwelling in, you select furnishing based on your personal style, to create a very “lived” in space. This space caters specifically to the way that the homeowner lives and functions to make a house a home. Specific personal tastes can push potential buyers away because they don’t agree with the current homeowners personal decorating or can’t see past a specific style. As a homeowner, your house is beautiful, YOU love it but the goal in home staging and selling is to attract others.
Decorating is the personal taste of the homeowner while home staging appeals to a wide demographic of potential buyer’s styles. Home staging brings attention to layout, maximizes potential, and has less focus on stylized design. Staging a home spotlights selling and decorating to dwell in a home centers on personal livability. Selling and dwelling should have a noticeable visual appearance in the same space. The purpose of staging a home is to highlight key features rather than personal design taste, and when done well can turn your dwelling space into a selling space!