Happy Friday! Today, we use real projects to demonstrate the difference between home staging and interior design.
We keep making the point that the ultimate goal of home staging is to make a house buyer friendly – appealing to as many buyers as possible. The corollary is that the ultimate goal of interior design is to make a home Smith or Jones friendly – comfortable, functional and reflective of their personal taste.
A real sticking point with some sellers is that they resent having to take their personality out of the house to appeal to as many buyers as possible.
A real life case in point is Dr. K. Our first experience with this client was to restyle, update and stage her home in order to put it on the market for sale. Dr. K and her husband followed all of the advice of my Realtor partner and me by updating their kitchen and bar area with new granite and backsplash, painting the entire interior of the house and installing all new carpeting. Their goal was to make their house totally competitive with new construction.
Dr. K has definite bold tastes in colors artwork and her home reflected her personality. We needed to make her home buyer friendly which meant that her fantastic Native American artwork, bold colors and music memorabilia needed to be removed. After several conversations, she understood intellectually that her house was now a product to sell and not her home. She was a good sport, but this was not easy for her. By the way, she affectionately refers to me as the “house rapist”.
You can see the results of this restyling, updating and staging project at http://www.transitions-home-staging.com/Camelot-Court-Staging-1.html .
It is worth noting that Dr. K’s house sold in about 1 week for their premium price. The buyer was heard remarking to his family that “it doesn’t get any better than this”.
The second project came about when Dr. K wanted my assistance in designing her new office space. In this case, my goal was to not only make her space pleasant and comfortable for her patients but to reflect her personality, interests and style. There was no question that it had to be “Dr. K Friendly”.
Dr. K loves purple! So we implemented “eggplant” with some beautiful shades of gray and taupe in the design of her new office space and furniture. She and I picked out some original Native American prints from her collection to complement and accent the color palette. Then, we accessorized to reflect her style and personality in the waiting room; patient rooms; and, her personal office.
You can see shots of her waiting room in the accompanying photos.
While she was pleased with selling her house quickly and for a premium price, she loved, loved, loved her new office! Her staff also enjoys working in this fresh, light and comfortable space. Dr. K tells me that she receives great feedback from patients, administrators and other doctors who visit her space. It has been most gratifying to me to have folks stop and tell me how much they love her new office and what a great job I did in capturing Dr. K’s personality!
It is not often that I have the benefit of staging and designing space for the same folks. In this case, my Realtor partner and I saw the possibilities in updating and staging the house so that it competed with new construction for all of the right reasons – and it did. Then, I was able to help Dr. K see the possibilities with an office space that was unique and still reflect her style, interests and tastes – and it did.
Dwell in possibilities
Cindy
No comments:
Post a Comment