Stop Insulting Home Buyers’ Intelligence with Silly Staging Tricks – Part 3

I’m having so much fun with this series of blog posts! But I would love to see more comments with examples of silly staging tricks you’ve seen. Please share!

Earlier this week I shared some creepy staging tricks and some silly staging tactics which happen in the kitchen and dining room of many homes. Today’s post is all about something I’m very sick of seeing and buyers are becoming very aware of:

The obviously staged bedroom.

How many times must we be forced to see a throw ”casually” draped diagonally over the foot of a bed with a tray sitting on top holding a couple of wine glasses or a teapot with cups?

This might be okay for a hotel honeymoon suite, but normal people don’t live that way.

Speaking of diagonals, I can’t understand why people place a bed diagonally in a space – I have never seen a case where it worked. It usually just makes the room look weird and crowded.

Worse than a bed on a diagonal, though, is an imaginary bed. Some home stagers will put a rug in a room with throw pillows and some books to represent a bed.

When it comes to the ever important master bedroom, if the buyer can’t walk in and see how their bed will fit or how they can live in there with all their other furniture, they’re going to decide that the room doesn’t work for them. Make sure there’s an actual bed with usable night tables on each side and some nice bedding.

There should be one long dresser (usually with a mirror on top) and one “high boy” dresser or tall chest of drawers. To fit all that in, you may need to use a double bed rather than a queen or king. And be careful with sleigh beds or tall canopies, they shrink a bedroom faster than any other piece of furniture and should only be used in an unusually large bedroom.

Monday I’ll be posting about silly staging tricks that buyers would never fall for – in the bathroom.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva knows how to make money as a home stager and has taught over 4000 other men and women to do the same. She is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.