My wife just finished up her fourth staging job for an outside investor. The investor hired her to stage a particularly challenging property — one that certainly benefited from staging — due to its unique layout. It’s a 1950s ranch which has undergone a complete renovation, including removing (and moving!) several walls for an updated, open-concept living space.
The new floor plan brings the house into the 21st century, but as we learned with The Second Chance House, buyers are able to make a better connection to their potential new home when open-concept living spaces are defined for them through staging. There were a few rooms that had some wacky colors (bright orange, bright yellow) that might have seemed good in theory, but didn’t really fit into a non-custom remodel, but my wife was able to stage around the colors and incorporate them into the design.
I was amazed at how differently this house looked after it was completed…the layout/design of the furniture made a tremendous difference. Here are some pictures:
Wow. Looks great. Wish we could find furniture that looks that good for a reasonabl price.
What are you useing for your beds?
Brad
I have to agree with Brad–looks great. Your wife has a good eye for style. Does she rent some of the furniture, or have you just collected a ton of staging materials over time?
Brad, Greg,
Thanks for the kind words…I know my wife will appreciate it!
As for the furniture, we own it all. You’d be very surprised at how inexpensively you can furnish an entire house if you know where to look and are willing to put in a bit of effort. If you want more details, shoot me an email…I’m happy to give you more info about where we buy our furniture.
As for the beds, we use two boxsprings instead of a boxspring and a mattress. Not only is it a lot cheaper (you can find twin boxsprings for about $40 and queen boxsprings for about $50), but it’s also a lot lighter, making it easier to move into and out of the houses.
FWIW, I discovered a staging “trick” to create a bed where you can use an inflatable mattress and then prop it up with boxes or plastic toy blocks.
Just make sure you have a small sign that says not to sit in bed!
Luis –
Inflatables tend to look better when there is a good frame to support it. For example, in the Staging #4 pics, you’ll noticed that there is a day bed in one of the rooms. This has a metal frame to support it, so we used an inflatable. In general though, when there is no frame to support the bed, boxsprings tend to look more “real” with the sheets and comforter.
This is just our experience, though…