I recently put my condo on the market. Before I did, I hired a stager.
I was a little afraid to do so. I can always tell when I visit a staged house. It doesn’t feel real; it feels...staged.
So how did they do?
Well, first of all, they put wagon wheels on the wall:
Apparently, you should want to live in this condo once you’ve had a long, dusty day heading out west with the rest of the pioneers.
Also, and you can’t see it very well, but there’s a gigantic wooden key behind the vase on the left. What exactly does this key unlock--the place where the good staging furniture is kept?
There are also, on the dining room wall, gigantic cut out wooden pieces in the shape of utensils:
I’d feel less weird about it if I had the actual utensils to use. I mean, sometimes I like to take a really big bite of cereal.
That drawer against the living room wall is actually mine:
The stager dragged it out of my bedroom. It holds my clothes, which are still in it. I wondered if any prospective buyer opened a drawer and got an eyeful of my underwear and socks.
Also, note that she took the TV out of there. Personally, I think a house without a television is just creepy. But she also took out the bookshelves and books. Without TV or books, what are people supposed to do who live here? Admire the cut out utensils?
Finally, there’s this bed:
Nice duvet. Did the country of Ireland get sick and puke all over it? How are you supposed to fall asleep on it--count not only sheep, but also Shepherd’s pie? Is the northern part of the bed fighting for home rule? I mean…
...oh wait, the bed is mine too.
So, is it just the lighting or my monitor, or does your place look...pink? And green?
Maybe they’re going for the Lucky Charms effect?
Just out of curiosity, but was decorating your condo entirely in kermit-the-frog green your idea or theirs?
Your place is pretty neat (both in terms of tidiness and general coolness).
Thanks for showing us what staging is: taking the personality out of a place so it looks like all the other interior decorated places the prospects have seen, thus making them comfortable with the idea that they are purchasing a respectable, acceptable residence.
I would love to buy your place, but only if they throw in the wagon wheel.
Um so wouldn’t the prospective buyer notice that the dresser in the living room, looks a lot like the missing piece of furnature in the bedroom?
I would not be surprised if stagers had a trick like, “Make the room entirely appealing except for one small, entirely changeable thing, so that people will start to think about how they would change the place if THEY lived there, which subtly puts the idea of buying it in their head.”
It is probably called the MTREAEFOSECTSTPWSTTAHTWCTPITLTWSPTIOBIITH Rule for short.
I could be giving the stager too much credit though, and they could be an insane wagon wheel aficionado. That is also a distinct possibility.
I am responsible for the green in the bedroom, and yes, given the chance, I would go a bit less muppet on the place.
Your place looks so grown up. My apartment looks like someone who has only been working a year or two and still has their dorm/el cheapo furniture in their place. If only I was that young.
Now all you need are Polish subtitles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOx9uQ4cuJk
Hahaha. This is wonderful. As long as the perspective buyers don’t look out of any of the windows and into the backyard..where all of your stuff is piled, right?
...Why are E, B, L and V the letters the stager chose for the bookshelves? Surely she meant to grab an O instead of a B. I mean, LBVE? Really?
it completely annoys me when they take the tv out of the living room. that is all. you didn’t show the garden in the spare bedroom.
I love having a lot of books in a house...it makes it seem cozy and makes me like the people currently living there more. Which if I was house hunting I think would be a positive. But then again, I haven’t bought a house yet.
This post is hysterical! It made me smile.
Good God your place is clean. Looks great! I’ve got a new blog now…
Oh gee ... it’s the same over there? We recently put our house on the market (in Melbourne, Austalia) and the stagers chose really ugly furniture for our place too, as well as making us get rid off all our books.
.... Makes me love this site all the more: http://lovelylisting.com/
Love yr descrip of the puking country of Ireland. One of my clients is a home stager. I do press releases and ghost write articles for her and such. It’s really weird how counter intuitive it is. It’s the space they’re selling not the furniture though. That’s why why they’re so weird about removing stuff that seems, well, normal.