I recently read a blog from a stager saying that using fake fruits is an amateur move, and I have read similar things about using a bed-and-breakfast tray on the bed. Because, according to the stager, really, who lives like that?
I frankly laughed at first, since when did people go to graduate school or a 4-year university for staging? People go to a 3-5 days course and bam! We are stagers. Or someone read a book, bam! A stager is born. There are no real credential nor certification exams for someone to become a stager. Essentially anyone, who can print up a business card and set up a website (or some stagers don’t even have websites) ranging from my 82-year-old grandmother to my 10-year-old nephew can be a stager. For someone who calls another an amateur because his/hers staging props, is in fact, completely silly to me. Staging after all, while aiming toward to be objective in order to appeal to a broader range of buyers, is subjective, since it’s based on the aesthetics of the stager.
I frankly have no problems using fake fruits or trays on the beds, since I already use fake bed, fake mattresses, fake trees, fake flowers, fake table, fake computer, fake MP3 player, fake TV.. and some stagers even use fake couches made out of the cardboard. What makes me an amateur if I use fake fruits and do it tastefully? More over, my job title is “stager,” which implies the home is “staged,” i.e. “faked for showing purposes.”
(fake fruit alert!)
Pottery Barn is the mother of all things staged and I have never had realtors or sellers telling me not to achieve the Pottery Barn-esque staging. In fact, if they do mention a style that they want, they almost always ask for that Pottery Barn style of staging.
Case in point, do most people’s homes looks like this?
(fake cheese alert!)
No, yet, buyers ate it up and Pottery Barn stuff is still selling like hot cakes. I wish I have a summer catalog picture since the showroom use fake mussels & fake lobster at their showrooms’ table settings.
My point is, fake food, is not going to deflect the buyers’ attention if done tastefully. Neither are the fake trees, fake bed, fake mattresses, or fake whatever, as long as everything is done tastefully. The point is not about all these things in the home. The point is about showcase the home for what it could be, adding little touches here and there such as fake fruits, cake, etc. are not going to distract the buyers to the point that they didn’t see the house. If that’s the case, then Pottery Barn plates or dinning tables won’t sell, because all people could see were the fake cheese, fake lobster, fake mussels at the showroom table, and not the products Pottery Barn tries to sell.
So what makes a stager an amateur or a professional? The same argument can go for should there be part-time stagers or full-time stagers?
For me, a professional stager is: (Read more at staged4more.com …)
This came into my mail box today, how pretty is that?!
