Staging: Make-up . . . for Homes

Making the Most of What's Available

A rose is a rose is a rose.

--Gertrude Stein

Question: When is a chair not a chair?
Answer: When it's a prop.

Home stagers view furniture, framed pictures, rugs and various other objets d'art not as things in themselves -- but in terms of what they do for the room they're in.

So, what counts isn't the pedigree or provenance of a particular painting or piece of furniture (nice alliteration, huh?).

Rather, it's whether the item accentuates the room's size, natural light, and focal points (like a fireplace) -- or softens the room's negatives (like being too small or dark).

In turn, that often depends on the object's size, shape and color more than its craftsmanship or aesthetic value.

In fact, good stagers excel at using what's already available to them in the home.

That avoids the home owner having to go out and rent expensive props to accomplish the same thing.

P.S.: a good parallel for staging decisions is picking a stylish pair of eyeglasses. The right frame isn't necessarily the most expensive one -- but the one that shows off the person's best features.