How staging can tell the story of your home in Cheadle

You may have heard of the term ‘home staging’, especially if you have sold your home before.  Basically, home staging is the art of presenting your home in a way that immediately attracts potential buyers. It is more than decluttering, cleaning and organising; it’s about transforming your house into a potential home for someone else.  One technique experts use is to tell the story of your home through vignette staging.

The definition of a Vignette is a short description, picture, or piece of acting which expresses very clearly and neatly the typical characteristics of the thing that it represents.

This may sound like another bit of jargon, but you actually see this style of staging all around you.  When you walk into a home store, flick through home magazines or even look at designer homes on television, all will have used vignette staging in one way or another. But how can it help you to sell your home?

The big chill

 If you’re thinking of selling, you have no doubt been having a little nosey at the types of properties available for you to buy on the market.  You will have seen homes where no attempt has been made to beautify them, and those that have been cleaned and tidied to an inch of their life.  These homes look soulless; they don’t inspire your imagination, and their starkness may cause you to pass them by without a second glance.

It’s all about the detail

 When staging your home you want to make it feel more inviting; you do this by creating vignettes, or small scenes.  It can be as simple as dressing a dining room table for dinner – your goal is always to create spaces that help the buyer form an emotional connection.

Staging your home in this way creates focus and gives buyers a glimpse of the lifestyle your home could give them.  Vignettes help to set the mood and can tell a story in an elegant way.  This is especially effective in rooms that have a lack of interest and need a focal point, helping buyers to see how they can use spaces that are not easily defined.

However you decide to stage your home, it needs to be memorable and creative.  Life can be brought into a room simply by placing a book with a throw and a pair of glasses – it gets the imagination working.  Creating vignettes is not expensive; everyday objects can work perfectly well when brought together.

Becoming inviting

Staging is successful because it turns a cold and soulless house into one that is inviting, one that feels like a fascinating, vibrant home you want to spend more time in.  If you can create an abode that buyers don’t want to leave, you know that your efforts have been worth it.

It doesn’t have to be complicated

 Instead of trying to transform an entire room, concentrate on one small area at a time.  You want to stick to complementary colour schemes and, when displaying objects, use odd numbers rather than even.  Designer Kelly Hoppen is an advocate of displaying items in threes, as a group of objects has more impact than one.

Kitchens are great places for adding aromas. Your chopping board could house a fresh loaf of bread partly cut, with a couple of glasses of fresh orange juice and a bunch of wild flowers to the side.  The scent of fresh bread alone is enough to entice buyers to stay in the kitchen, never mind the allure of a slice just an arm’s reach away.

The art is in the unordinary

 You don’t want to display something that is typical or ordinary, as it doesn’t create that sense of intrigue.  Think outside the box and put together pieces that will wow the buyer and give them a memorable first impression.  Instead of spreading things across a space, you can put together a more cohesive look when you cluster objects close together.

At Maurice Kilbride we suggest that whatever the vignette, it should look effortless. This is why an asymmetrical design tends to work better than a more formal look designed based on symmetry.

For more advice on how to present your home for sale, contact Joe, Patrick or Maurice for a free valuation and marketing consultation which will often include tips and hints to create the ambience which will attract buyers to your home over the competition. Call 0161 428 3663, e-mail sales@mkiea.co.uk or better still, pop into our office on Cheadle High Street for a friendly, informal chat.