Each and every occupied home you enter will have it’s own style. Sure, there are going to be consistencies between people’s homes if they share similar tastes or follow certain trends.
Let’s face it though we generally decorate our homes for our own comfort, lifestyle, culture and spiritual beliefs. When we are preparing to sell a home though, our personal comfort and style goes out the window. The purpose of staging is to appeal to as many people as possible and highlight the space. This means that the oversized couch and comfy recliner in your living room do not properly show off how large or open the living room actually is.
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We also don’t always use space in the way that most others would. For example, one of my spare
bedrooms is currently a photo studio/backup pantry, I am guessing this use of space won’t appeal to many buyers, however a more generic use of the space would help a wider range of potential buyers to imagine how they might use the space.
Most people (not all, there are some unicorns out there) have clutter; clutter doesn’t show a house in it’s best light, but it is a result of being lived in (in many cases). Clutter, knick-knacks, personalized wall hangings make potential buyers either feel like the house is lacking enough storage space or can make it difficult for them to envision their own style in the space.
Staging should be generic and speak to a broad audience. The job of furniture and decor that is brought in to stage a house is to highlight the features of the home whereas what makes our houses into homes is how we represent our own cultural beliefs, families and personalities with our furniture and decorations If someone comes to my house and isn’t happy with how it is decorated, that’s okay..I’m not trying to impress them, however if they walk into a home for sale and the furniture distracts from the features of the home by being too personal, noisy, or large then it can cost you the sale.
