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Even the best designers stage their homes to sell!

One of the most common objections to staging a home is a homeowner's fondness for their design choices. I often hear "Oh, but don't you think my house looks nice as it is?!" or "We'll cut the clutter, we don't need a stager to come through" or "We had a designer come through to decorate for us!" etc.

What these homeowners don't initially understand is that staging, or at least modern staging, is about showcasing your home to the greatest amount of buyers' tastes as well as providing the most updated and current ideal-lifestyle for your target audience.

Photo by Julie Kwak on Unsplash


That means "cutting the clutter" doesn't cut it.

And your specific design choices, while they might appeal to you and people like you, may not appeal to the greatest audience possible. Further, they might not appeal to your target audience. So even though you decorated your home in rustic-chic decor that appeals to everyone in your circle, if that doesn't appeal to the ultra-modern lifestyle of the condo buyers in your neighborhood, you might be missing your greatest audience potential.

When I hear these objections, I often tell clients that even the best designers - the most popular and Insta-worthy- stage their homes and clients' homes to sell. Because even their on-point designs are person-specific and may not show off their homes or clients' homes to their best advantage.

Here are some of my favorite examples of designers turned stagers and what you can learn from them.

Young House Love - Sherry of YHL, one of the internet's most popular DIY and decor blogs (because of its charm and accessibility) stages for an agent on the side in her home state of Virginia. She tends to go with a less-is-more type of staging. What I think is important about this vs the upcoming examples is knowing your audience. If you are targeting young, middle-class families OR a wide range of people (like first time home buyers and downsizers), a super custom, high-end design look might not be ideal. Click the link for Sherry's tips and tricks.




Emily Henderson - Emily is one of the most famous designers out there, alongside Joanna Gaines. You've probably seen her with Target so... enough said. Emily's typical design clientele, though, are higher-end customers and her staging is higher-end to boot. This is great for a narrowed audience. For example, designing for a lifestyle is huge right now if you know you are targeting lux city living buyers or high end buyers looking for their second home. You can advertise an instagram-worthy lifestyle to them with staging as long as your agent, designer or stager is on-point with current trends.

Here's one of Emily's staging projects in such a vain - Staging with Soul 

However, even Emily knew when it came to selling her own home, a more common-ground approach was needed. She even wrote a series of articles on styling her own home to sell -
Living & Kitchen 
Bedroom 

Chris Loves Julia - Another popular blog and Instagram-star, Chris and Julia just moved into a new home they are fixing up. But before they got there, they had to sell their previous home and they made some choices to get it staged beforehand (even though their home is probably one of the more Pinned ones out there!).
I love this article on the quick change they did converting an office to a bedroom. The change seemed appropriate for their target audience and likely showed off the room to its best ability.


Do you have any favorite designers who staged to sell? Please share!

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