Since creating the “to be continued” blog, I’ve been closing each post with the words “dwell in possibilities.” I must confess that I borrowed this phrase from the great poet, Emily Dickinson. I saw her quote and realized that it summed up what I am doing as a professional home stager and interior designer.

I am most grateful to Ms. Dickinson for her insightful and inspiring phrase.

Regardless of the size or price range of a house, my objective is to find the possibilities in that house. I am looking for those unique features of that house and finding possible ways to accentuate them for the potential buyer. I am analyzing those unusual spaces that buyers find difficult to understand upon first glance and finding possible functional uses for those spaces.

In the end, my mission is to help the potential buyer see how they could dwell in the possibilities of this house!


Tuesday, April 5, 2011

This Is the House We Live In and Not the House We Stage

One of the challenges of being a professional home stager is that sometimes you have to separate your personal life from your professional life.  I want to share a funny story about this distinction.
My husband has a basket where he keeps the magazines he is reading or plans to read.  One day he came home to find some lovely, color coordinated design books in his basket with his magazine conveniently placed out of site.  His stager/designer wife decided that those tasteful, eye-appealing design books looked much better than his copies of “Sports Illustrated”, “Men’s Health” and “The Week” (I have to admit that they looked perfect in that basket).
When he discovered the wonderful change, he came out and said, “Cindy, this is the house we live in and not the house we stage.”  Of course, we had a good laugh over this “incident”.
Our funny story does bring up an important distinction about staged houses and the homes we live in.  The professionally staged house is arranged and accessorized to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.  If it is done well, the staged house is “buyer-friendly”.  The purpose of the staged house is to help sell that house quicker and for the best possible price.
The home we live in is our house filled with our desires, needs, dreams and memories.  It is “Gasior friendly” or “Smith friendly” or “Jones friendly”.  The purpose of our home is to be a place of rest, relaxation, enjoyment, and comfort.  It is our place and it should reflect what we want consistent with our lifestyle, tastes, furnishing and accessories.  If it works for us, then that is all that matters – and it is a really good thing to live in a house that works for you.
As we’ve mentioned before, when it comes time to sell the house, the unique nature of that Smith or Jones friendly home can become a liability.  It can be tough for the seller who wants the buyer to like their home and their stuff as much as they do.  The problem is that buyers need to see themselves and their stuff in the house. 
When a house goes on the market for sale, it is no longer the owner’s source of pride.  It has become a product for sale that needs to appeal to as many buyers as possible.
We love our “Gasior friendly” home and are pleased when our friends enjoy themselves in it.  We know that if and when we decide to sell it and stage it, our house will be staged with lovely, color coordinated design books and the magazines will find a new home in some drawer!!
Dwell in possibilities!

Cindy
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