I recently wrote a post asking home stagers how they feel about gray walls. The reaction was amazing, in fact I think it’s my most commented on post this year!
Marie reacted to what I said about the builder telling me that “earth tones are out and gray is in.” She wrote:
It is true that builders should keep building, and with your experience and media coverage, you probably feel confident enough to argue with his statement. However, as a new Home Stager with experience in staging only my own homes so far (albeit successfully), his comment would make me doubt my preference for warm and earthy tones.
It’s almost a reflex to assume someone else is right and you’re wrong (even more so when you’re new at something), but this is a mistake that too many women make. I don’t think I’m being sexist here, there has been tons of research coming out recently that proves this point.
For example, studies have shown that female job applicants assume they have to have 100% of the qualifications listed, while males feel 60% is sufficient to apply for the job.
Consider how many opportunities we close ourselves off to because of this pattern of behavior and our lack of confidence!
This applies so well to what I see with the thousands of home stagers I teach and coach. We’re the first to doubt our natural instincts and think we need more home staging credentials even though there actually aren’t any.
That said, when the builder made his comment, I could hear my own little voice of self-doubt inside my head saying, “See you’re really not on top of trends anymore!”
Then I forced myself to look around again and see for myself that the house looked cold and dark, not warm and inviting! Now that’s my opinion, because when all is said and done, decorating and home staging are subjective topics. No two stagers will do the same home exactly the same way. It doesn’t mean one is “right” while the other is “wrong.” Though I’ve certainly seen some home staging solutions that look more right than others.
When I’ve finished a home staging project, the home looks perfect to me.
While staging a home, I’ve obsessed over every last detail down to how the towels are rolled and whether bed skirts hang perfectly parallel with the floor. But is the overall impression “perfect” to everyone who looks at it?
Does perfection really exist, what do you think?
I’d also love your thoughts on how easily we can doubt our own instincts and defer to others we assume are more “qualified.”
By the way, I noticed the builder pulled the gray home off the market already without a sale. Perhaps I wasn’t the only one who didn’t warm up to his color scheme 
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
Debra knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. She is frequently profiled in the media for her home staging expertise and is the author of 5 guides for home stagers.
I love your staging…
) Sincerely, Sandy
I believe this topic is subjective. Each project likely will have a limited budget and limited schedule to complete. The results of a project redesigned in an afternoon with a $500 budget SHOULD look entirely different than the same space redesign with a $10,000 budget completed in two weeks. The choices you can and should make will be entirely different based on budget,timeframe and speed that you can process the task. Is the $10,000 project the “right” answer? Not necessarily. The approach and resources are completely different. The space is the same and the end result in both cases is:Create an attractive space enabling the property to sell in the shortest amount of time for the highest dollar. You do the best with what you have to work.
Very well said Karla, thanks for sharing that point of view. I totally agree. Have also found that doing something great with a smaller budget is actually often a more interesting challenge than working with the bigger budgets.
This hits a nerve with me as I’m sure it will with a lot of other women! I KNOW I obsess too much about perfection when I stage, but even more so when I decorate, perhaps because the interior decorating is new to me (just finishing my 3rd job now). And I tend to doubt myself exactly as you state here, when talking to other stagers or designers I often wonder if my ideas are just not as good as theirs! Self-doubt when choosing furniture, paint, accessories really slows me down when decorating, although so far I’ve been very happy with the results, but I know doing these jobs should probably take half as many hours as it does for me now!
Amy, congratulations on venturing into interior decorating. That’s a great way to expand your business and even out the seasonality of home staging. I’ve been home staging and doing interior decorating and color consulting projects for 10 years and I too still worry about my abilities at times.
Every new project is a new creative challenge.
This is exciting (and what keeps this business from getting boring after hundreds of projects). The flip-side is that it gives an opportunity for that little negative voice in our heads to say, “Don’t screw this up!” Learning how to carry on in the face of fear and self-doubt is the real challenge, not the rooms themselves.
“Learning how to carry on in the face of fear and self-doubt is the real challenge, not the rooms themselves.” Thank you for that statement, Debra. I’ve never thought of it that way before.
Excellent Linda, thanks for commenting!
I have given away and undersold my work so many times because of self doubt. Perfectionism can cause me to think that there’s only one right way to stage a home as I tend to fear that I’ll get something wrong. While attention to detail can be an important quality in a stager, perfectionism will take the fun out of it and hold us back from taking risks. I think it’s time for me to grow up and grow out of that.
Linda, thank you so much for writing and adding your honest comments. I know your words will inspire others as we all struggle with this.