Interior Decorating to Sell A House

June 2, 2009

I admit feeling cranky when my real estate partner who is listing my house in northern Virginia, cited a laundry list of items needing attention. But I listened and subsequently gutters were cleaned, flower beds edged and mulched, rooms painted and floors refinished. Then she hit me with the big one. “Barb, I think you should call in a stager”, said Jay, knowing full well that I staged my listings for the last decade, and believe that if you expect a property to compete it had better make a great first impression. So now I really feel like a seller….

Enter Monica Murphy of Preferred Staging, LLC, an Accredited Staging Professional, whose staged properties sell in about a third of the average days on market. She met Jay and came up with a proposal for a 2 to 3 month plan to rent furniture and accessories to fill up much of my house. I’m sure she would have done a fabulous job but I’m an interior designer too, so with about 3 days of planning I flew back to stage the house myself.

Before I left California, I shipped a few boxes of accessories and artwork which are appropriate for the east coast but look out of place in California. And I scoured the Internet for a furniture rental company with inventory that I might actually select for my house if I were buying pieces today. I found Churchill Furniture Rental, a company serving the North East from Connecticut to Washington DC. They furnish corporate rental properties, offer staging services in some cities and rent furniture to those of us who pick from photo inventory on their web site.

Striped Chair from Churchill Furniture rental

accent tables from Churchill

For two days I shopped the Goodwill Store, Pottery Barn, Marshalls, Pier One, and my sister’s basement. The furniture was delivered along with a couple of rented rugs, but I bought the accessories. I determined that if the accessories sat in the house for three months the rental fee would have paid for them, so I would rather just send them to a charity rummage sale, or back to the Goodwill Store, when we sell.

Felding table lamp from Pottery Barn

Pillow from Pier One

and silk ficus trees

Here are a few thoughts about the process of staging to keep in mind.

1. It’s all about the photos. Less furniture looks better, and showcases the architecture and finishes in the shots which appear on line, so the house is sparsely decorated.

2. I arranged the furniture to create a view diagonally across the room so the viewer’s eye will subconsciously measure the longest dimension. It isn’t the way we arranged the furniture when we lived in the house.

3. I left wide open pathways through the rooms for ease of movement.

4. The furniture is neutral (read unoffensive) but the accessories add the color and texture. I decorated with the age and lifestyle of my target buyer in mind.

5. The biggest challenge was finding a few items which had a large enough scale to fill the space without cluttering it up. I found some large original art and picture frames at the Goodwill for about $7.00 each. At any other source I would have had to pay hundreds of dollars. Ditto for lamps however I insisted on newer drum or empire styled lamp shades, so had to buy some new shades.

6. I grabbed $1.79 hardback books and ditched their dust covers to fill bookcases and place on coffee tables.

So here is the result. When I arrived it was a forlorn reminder of former happy days; now it is a real estate product. And if you happen to be in the market for a 5 BR 3.5 BA stone cape, just call Jay……

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