Staging vs. Interior design…what makes us different.
Hello! I have missed you all – Sorry that I haven’t been actively being “social”! We have been really busy staging and expanding into another city…Rochester, Minnesota. It’s been an exciting few years! Traveled to Vietnam to further the development of my furniture line, strengthening my passion for unique metals and woods used in the furniture industry.
The last two years have gone by so fast!
With that being said, let’s get back to it…
Interior design is the art of designing the interior, sometimes including the exterior, of a space or building. It can create intimate conversation places designed around personal taste, the needs of families, or certain styles to achieve a more aesthetically pleasing environment.
Staging is creating and furnishing a property to attract any and all potential buyers to your property.
So what are you selling? You’re selling the square footage. You’re selling the flooring, so don’t cover it up with a bunch of runners and rugs. You’re selling kitchen and bathroom counters. Don’t hide them with clutter! Sell the bedroom sizes. You need to give purpose to possible quirky corners, odd rooms, and unique lighting. Staging is about appealing to every person looking to buy a home in the price bracket and square footage that your home offers. Staging removes extra elements from the room so the buyer feels greeted and inspired by that space. We use fewer pictures, photos, and decorations. Potential buyers feel distracted by too much clutter and only see that, not the home.
I know that sometimes the style may not be the taste of the homeowner or Realtor. It is easy to get too emotionally involved in the staging with their desires and decorative interests. It is our job, as stagers, to not get emotionally involved. We want your home to appeal to the largest audience of buyers. This! Is what sells a home.
Final Thought…
-Nate Berkus , American Interior Design
-Kari Michael, Kariel Staging & Decor
2016…Hello 2017!
Another challenging but great year has passed, 2016!
It started off quick…we were staging and they were selling fast!
Spring brought many new adventures for me. I traveled alone to China, Vietnam, and Malasyia to begin creating my own furniture line. A main challenge in staging is furniture. It is often difficult to obtain quick enough and have a variety of pieces that will work in every home. Staging furniture needs to have an inviting neutral look and appeal to the masses. I often need to travel to several vendors to find what can work. The fabric may be great but the arms too rounded. The back is bulkier then id like to see…
So I set out to create my own funiture line…
Our spring home market was amazing! We met so many wonderful people. Working side by side with the teams it takes to sell a home is inspiring. So many buyers reach out to us to commend our staging, saying it is a factor into how they chose their new home and where can they purchase the items for themselves.
Summer hit us with a Bang! It was so completely crazy busy from spring into summer that I can’t even remember certain points to write about. 🙂
The hustle and bustle of fall Parade of Homes kept us on our toes! I feel grateful that I have had the opportunity to work with several builders and that they find my work be an added attribute to their portfolios. Even though we stage many homes for the Parade of Homes each year, we remain in taking pride in every individual home that we stage. We understand that selling your home can be stressful. Emotional. We take pride in understanding the attachments the homeowner has. You build memories, children grow, life happens in your home. As we stage each and every home that we do, we always say, “This is where we make a house a Home”.
I cannot even begin to describe our commitment to every home that we stage…the Kariel team and I are humbled by every single opportunity that we are given.
Final Thought…XO…
“There’s something about having people around you giving you support that is –
it’s motivating, and once I got that support from people then I believed I could do anything.” – Prince
Introducing Susan Adair…My Friendly Staging Consultant for Occupied Homes
A successful business is not usually run by just oneself. It takes a team of incredible people to unite with the similar thoughts and insight to accomplish the tasks at hand. Please meet one of these people. Part of The Stage Crew at Kariel, is Susan Adair. Susan and I met years ago when we partnered for a project with a common real estate agent. She consulted on his occupied homes, and I on the vacant ones. We hit it off and have joined together for several other stages. As Kariel Home Staging grew, I needed someone who could mirror my passion and vision for staging vacant homes in occupied homes. Susan is just that! Staging vacant homes and occupied homes can be quite different. Whereas our final visions may be the same, Susan will tell you the exact measurements to hang a picture, fill an existing book shelf, or those many basic points to prepare the home that you still occupy for amazing selling photos. Important details to display your home for sale! Susan will be writing blogs here addressing many of the challenges and issues that arise with preparing occupied homes for sale. Enjoy.
Without further ado….my friend and colleague, Susan Adair.
Hello everyone,
I am so pleased to be part of Kariel Home Staging. My name is Susan Adair. I have been a staging consultant for nine years. Kari and I met a few years ago when we collaborated while getting a large, unoccupied townhouse ready to sell. I used the home owners furnishings , but the house needed more to make it complete. When we were finished, Kari and I looked at each other, smiled and nodded. A friendship was born.
A few years ago, Kari asked me if I would like to do staging consultations for Kariel Staging. I though about it for about two seconds and said, “Yes!”
As a staging consultant, I work with the home owner, using his or her own furnishings, art and accessories. We walk through the house together and I give suggestions for ways to show off the space, enhance the finishes and make buyers fall in love. I am so fortunate to be doing a job that is so much fun! I work with interesting, talented home owners, real estate agents and Kari, of course! I tour an incredible variety of houses and am challenged to make them look their best and photograph in the best possible way.
All the best!
Susan,
Your friendly staging consultant
Staging Can Show the Maximum Space in Every Room!
Before
After
Everyone seems to constantly be looking for more space. I never run across a homeowner that feels they have too much space for their family or belongings. One of the most important spaces is the main living room, with the bathrooms and kitchen in close second! A good sized living room is where we can relax. Be a family together.
Do you ever find yourself looking at homes online and wonder why they angled their couch across the living room space. It also appears to be facing the wall and not their beautiful fireplace? The room looks so small! I understand interior design and displaying the room with different angles and conversation spaces…but not in a 12 x 14 foot room! You need all of the help that you can get to maximize that small main living space. Angling the couch cuts off part of the room. I know, I know…that old saying of don’t push the couch up against the wall and designers now saying that the couch should “float”, may have you feeling like a rookie. So what is the best arrangement? Well, that all depends on the space. Ninety percent of the homes on the market do not have 30 x 40 foot living rooms, so walls are all they have. Push that couch up against the wall, add a coffee and end tables, and remove all other bulky unneeded furniture. Then add a few accessories, nice lighting at eye level, and Viola! Your living room looks larger and more inviting for those potential home buyers.
Being realistic about the space in each room and doing a few simple things, further explained in my upcoming blog Preparing Your Home for Sold, will help your home sell quickly. Einstein once quoted, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” I feel this quote relates to yet another reason for needing an excellent stager. If you can not look at the room and simply know how to furnish it to utilize the space , Kariel Staging can. Every home is different in size, shape, occupied or vacant, and needs to be staged to show its full potential to possible buyers. We at Kariel, understand furnishing any size space well enough to stage any home correctly.
Final thought… Every inch counts in a small room, and every mistake can drive away a potential buyer. The solution, Staging!
Should I Stage My Vacant Home?
Before
After
Have you ever looked online at vacant homes?
What do you remember about that home?
Did it spark a feeling? Did you know which room you were looking at? Were you intrigued to continue on and look at every picture. Or, did you simply pass up that listing to look at the next home that was furnished and had character! This is Exactly why you need to stage a vacant home.
Vacant homes can all look the same, they are void of style and personality. They are, simply, a house with no character. You see all of the negatives; lighting, space, dated wood, confusing rooms… the list goes on. Vacant homes can amplify negative thoughts and features.
You wonder, “What room Am I looking at”? A staged home defines the space and rooms showing all of their potential. Buyers buy on feelings and emotion. Home Staging creates an emotion that helps the buyers envision their first home, a temporary place they want to call home, or maybe even, their dream home.
I have been in the staging business for over ten years. There are times when an agent asks for an emergency staging before an open house. I ask for all of the photos of that vacant home. (Now remember, I have been in thousands of homes at this point) I look at the pictures, then call the agent, confused! I ask myself , “How many living spaces? Dining spaces? Is that the same room, or a different room?“. Now, if I am an experienced stager and I can’t tell the rooms apart, how can a new potential home buyer!? They Can’t!! So they skip Right Over that MLS listing, and move on to another, with pictures of a more well defined, uncluttered, updated, freshly furnished home.
THAT should be Your home.
A VERY Important thing for you to Know… You have Three chances to sell your home:
- The online listing.
- When they are at the home.
- THE MOST Important! What they can remember of Your Home above anyone else’s!!!
Final Thought…
Will a vacant home leave the buyer with a lasting, positive impression? Definitely NOT.
But a home, simply staged beautiful enough to be in a magazine, WILL!
The National Association of REALTORS 2015 Profile on Home Staging found that 81 percent of buyers find it is easier to visualize a property as a future home when it’s staged.
Kari