Staging houses

[bunnymendelbaum]

I noticed this in the YHL post below and in several local listings. Does it seem like to you some people are going too far in removing things for staging?

I notice it especially in bedrooms. The master in YHLs old house just looks so empty and lonely.

IDK, I just think that sometimes people remove so much stuff, the houses seem weird and cold.
I'll try to PIP the other examples.

This is also on my mind because I've started staging. I took down DDs crazy roman shades yesterday and now her room seems sad to me.

[TBM]

When we were house hunting, it seems like the houses were much too cluttered and taste specific, or were overly de-cluttered to the point of looking cold and unwelcoming. There has to be a happy medium.

I thought the empty houses looked better than most of the others to me....I could see the actual rooms and not be distracted by the other stuff. I didn't like that I had nothing to give me an idea of the actual size of the spaces in photos, since I was looking at photos.

Of course, we are going to be as bad as those people, since we are actually moving before we put our house on the market. We will have a few things in the house, but not enough to really show it the way that I would have if we were moving locally.

[eliza22]

Yes, to some extent I do think too much stuff can be removed. We are listing our house today so I spent all weekend staging. I didn't remove any decor ( I'm a minimalist my nature) because I think decor shows care for the home.

We've been looking online for a new house and everything seems to lack personality. I think that a lot of people aren't naturally good at decorating though so it's safer to get rid of stuff than to leave it out and be poorly done or look cluttery.

[emoflamingo]

I agree, happy medium. I didn't not buy any of the houses I looked at because of the clutter (though, seriously, if you have a showing request, you should tidy up and not leave shit everywhere) but I didn't buy my house because of the lack of clutter (because there was 7 pounds of shit shoved in a 5 pound bag type of situation going on in that house).

[bunnymendelbaum]

I plan on putting a big plastic bin in each room and purging into it.
We aren't taking down art though, maybe just the one wall of family photos.
I think it is the combo oif bare walls and the wide angle lens that makes spaces seem so empty and sad to me.

I guess it is better than clutter.

[emoflamingo]

Yeah, I told our realtor I wasn't taking down the (2) family photos. I would have had a blank wall and I wasn't buying art for it.

[ssmjlm]

I agree, it's one extreme or another. Although I remember when littlespitfire posted her listing, it's no wonder her place sold so fast. It was not only amazingly decorated, but it looked lived in w/o being too perfect IMO.

When we bought our house is was super depersonalized and sparse, but that's not why we bought it. Although it did stand out much better than the photos of houses full of crap online.

[lys]

Staging a house to sell is very different than decorating your house to live in it.  When it starts to feel bare, sparce, a bit lonely --- it is just right for selling.

[SusanBAnthony]

We moved xcountry, and had all our stuff gone in the moving truck. I thought about leaving a few things that we weren't moving with us, but decided it would look sad and empty. Pus, once the house sold I would somehow have to get rid of them.

I generally don't mind an overly minimalist space. What bugged me about the YHL house pics was that the furniture looked huge in the rooms. No amount of removing knick knacks would change that.

[TBM]

Mar 25, 2013 19:46:47 GMT -5 lys said:

Staging a house to sell is very different than decorating your house to live in it.  When it starts to feel bare, sparce, a bit lonely --- it is just right for selling.

I think there is a fine line, but big difference between 'starts to feel bare, sparce....',  and is so devoid of anything that it feels unwelcoming.

I think it is nicer if a house at least has something in it to make you feel like it might be a nice place to call home, rather than it coming off as a cold, unhappy space that feels like an asylum or prison.  Some flowers, a painting or mirror on the wall and a throw pillow or two could be enough to make someone feel like like could exist in the place, without being too cluttered or too much.

[bunnymendelbaum]

Now I'm def not going to post our listing photos! Ha!
I'm betting we wont use the photos of DDs crazy indigo bedroom or any other room that seems cluttered.
I've noticed that too about listings. It will say 4 bedroom but only show photos of 2.

[SusanBAnthony]

We will all die of sadness if you don't pot t least a couple listing photos.

This indigo bedroom sounds amazing. Is it in your blog?

[bunnymendelbaum]

I'm such an AW, it might be too much for me to resist!

The indigo room is interesting. Sometimes the color looks blue and sometimes purple. I like it but I'm not sure I'd do it again.
www.86nit.com/2010/02/nursery.html
These are the crazy roman shades I took down today that made me sad. Actually, I just removed the fabric I put over store-bought dark brown roman shades.

[SusanBAnthony]

That is awesome. I am totally stealing that idea and doing something like that to Dd's room.

Where is the fabric from? I won't use that exact fabric, don't worry, I am just curious.

[bunnymendelbaum]

Thanks! She loves her room. I think it influenced her now favorite color (purple).
The fabric is ikea. I love their fabrics. I haven't allowed myself to go in that section lately because I have about 5 yards total of different fabrics I loved and bought but have no use for (yet).

I am worried that some of our color choices will turn off some buyers (indigo room, eggplant dining room, orange parlor ceiling), but then again, I think it is a different sort of buyer who wants an old house in my neighborhood.

[midwest07]

We bought in 2009 and may have been looking before staging really became a thing, but I only remember one house that appeared to have any effort taken to make it look prepared for sale. The house we bought was totally empty and had the worst wall colors in every room except for the main floor. Personally, I could better envision our life in the empty house than the ones that had a lot of stuff in it (not just crap, but just life stuff). So as a buyer, I think I would appreciate a nicely staged (ie, somewhat bare) home.

What I like about that also is you can see the entire room - they can't hide the poor trim work or stained carpet or gouges in the wall. You get a better sense of if the house is clean and well taken care of. Versus saying to yourself, well, they had a lot of crap but I am sure it will be fine once it's cleared out.

[hausfrau]

Mar 26, 2013 10:00:29 GMT -5 midwest07 said:

We bought in 2009 and may have been looking before staging really became a thing, but I only remember one house that appeared to have any effort taken to make it look prepared for sale. The house we bought was totally empty and had the worst wall colors in every room except for the main floor. Personally, I could better envision our life in the empty house than the ones that had a lot of stuff in it (not just crap, but just life stuff). So as a buyer, I think I would appreciate a nicely staged (ie, somewhat bare) home.

What I like about that also is you can see the entire room - they can't hide the poor trim work or stained carpet or gouges in the wall. You get a better sense of if the house is clean and well taken care of. Versus saying to yourself, well, they had a lot of crap but I am sure it will be fine once it's cleared out.

I agree that I actually like to see a bare or mostly bare house over something full of furniture, etc. For me, an empty house is easier to gauge the amount of space available. We have very little furniture as it is, so I don't really have a lot of imagining to do as far as what will fit where. Paint colors, window treatments, etc. really don't sway me one way or the other.

The last house we went through was owned by mild hoarders, and it was incredibly difficult to get a sense of the space and the condition of things because there was stuff just everywhere. That's more of a worst-case scenario, but I've looked at other listings in our area where rooms are just packed with furniture (and like YHL listing where the furniture is so oversized it takes up too much space in the small rooms). It's not very appealing. I'll take an empty house anytime.

[emoflamingo]

I think I'll just start following @crackhabit around saying 'DITTO' and liking all her posts.

Bunny, I'm sad you took down the shades too. They're so fun!