If you think that home staging is just about cleaning, painting and minor repairs, perhaps it is time to look at staging from another perspective. Home staging has evolved to an art of mood creation in order to give your house the illusion of being much more than it actually is. A well-staged home will evoke feelings and emotions in the people walking through it and if it touches the right heart string, your house will move faster than you thought possible.
There are people who are professional home stagers, people who are highly skilled and have taken home staging and created an art to stimulate all the senses. Most people actually do think that staging is about cleaning, painting and small repairs, but staging professionals will tell you that staging actually takes place after you have done those things. When you stage a home, you are dressing it up for the sale. You are trying to make your home seem bigger, brighter, warmer, more inviting, cleaner, fresher and with a sense of love that will make the people looking at it want to buy it.
Stagers use simple cues to evoke feelings and moods in the person walking through your home. For example, they will use a vignette or an arrangement of sparse pieces of furniture as a group in an appealing manner. The windows around the house will get covered in simple lines so as not to cause visual distractions. Most artists know that the eye is drawn toward odd numbers rather than pairs, so stagers will arrange your curious in sets of 3 or 5. Fabrics such as wool, satin, lace and silk are used because they will stimulate the sense of touch.
They will also strategically place plants, mirrors, lamps, mats, throw rugs, afghans, pillows, baskets and even small love seats in an effort to evoke feelings of home in a person. The idea behind staging is to allow the home and each individual room to show themselves at their best. If a person walks into an empty house, there are no feelings and emotions because it is a simple shell. People see floors, ceilings, walls, windows and space. That lived in feeling is lacking and there is no sense of warmth or hominess. Home stagers will go so far as to have cookies baking in the oven to give the house that special smell of mom or grandma in the kitchen. Again, it is all about evoking feelings and emotions.
Depending on the professional staging your home, demand and the size of your home, fees can range from $500 to $5,000 and upwards. However, a well staged home will show wonderfully well and it will attract buyers and bids, which is what you are looking for in the first place. Home staging has been prevalent for years, especially around large cities and it is a well-known fact that a house that is staged well will move much faster than a house that is shown empty. There is more to home staging than you perhaps thought and it could be well worth your trouble to stage your home to help sell it.
