On one hand, home staging blends art, science, and a lot of passion. We use elements and techniques of design to tell a unique story that resonates with the real estate market in your area. A professional home stager highlights your home’s selling features and will leave a lasting impression with potential buyers. The result is more buyers will fall in love with your property, and therefore give you a quicker sale, for more money.

On the other hand, decorating a client’s home draws on similar elements and techniques from staging, but with a completely different purpose in mind: to enhance the daily life of the family living in the home. The goal of decorating is to make your everyday life a little brighter and more enjoyable.

To help clarify, while not an exhaustive list, here are six key ways that decorating and staging differ in both purpose and execution: 

• You are the “consumer”. The whole design is focused on enhancing your family’s personal preferences.
• Color schemes and paint choices matter, but it’s not always about making a room feel bigger. Sometimes, we just want a space to feel cozy and inviting, or we love surrounding ourselves with colors that make us happy. This is absolutely fine in home decorating.
• Furniture layout should be customized to your family’s lifestyle. Staging is about modeling a lifestyle that anyone can imagine themselves stepping into; home decorating serves you.
• Wall art and other decor can be more fun and personal, letting you get creative and show off your unique style—especially compared to the more neutral vibe of home staging.
• Family photos and souvenirs can be front and center. This is probably one of the biggest difference people see. While personal items have to go when staging, so buyers forget they’re walking around someone else’s home, that’s not the case with decorating. Featuring the treasures of your life are a big part of creating personal spaces.
• Rooms should work for your family and your lifestyle. Many homes have rooms that serve more than one purpose and can be turned into a perfect spot for guests or a hobby. While staging focuses on appealing to a wide audience, when it’s your home, our goal is to make each room just right for you.

At the end of the day, the difference between decorating and staging comes down to this: your own happiness vs appealing to potential buyers. Funny enough, so many people tell us they wish they’d worked with us to make their home shine while they were still living in it, instead of just sprucing it up for someone else to enjoy!

Just a little reminder—life moves fast! You deserve to love your home and enjoy every moment in it while you’re there. Whether you’re getting ready to sell or making your space perfect for yourself, we’re here to help with both staging and decorating. Whatever your needs, we’ve got you covered!

With love for design,

Ana