If “all the world’s a stage,” your home would be front and centre. So why not take a course on it?
For the third year in row Centennial College is offering Home Staging 101, a three-hour workshop on how to stage your home for living or selling.
“Staging for living is similar to decorating in that we involve the family and put a personality in the house,” says Bonnie Dell who teaches the course. The aim is to create a personalized, but uncluttered environment.
“We encourage homeowners to get rid of the stuff they don’t want. Many people are under so much stress they don’t realize that the visual noise that greets them when they walk in the house can cause even more.”
Take out the personality and you’re on your way to staging for selling. In this case “the house is the main actor,” says Dell. “Everything else is there to support the actual house.” Dell refers to this as show case condition: “Arrange the furniture and the accessories to showcase the house. If there’s a fireplace create a conversational area around it, making it the focal point. If there’s a bay window dress it up so you could sit and read in it. It’s all about accentuating the architectural features of the house itself.”
And if every stage production needs a director, yours is a camera.
“We say your camera is your best friend,” says Dell. “The Internet has changed the way the house is bought and sold. More than 85 per cent of people look on the Internet before they go and see a house. So pictures on the Internet are making the buy or not buy decision. Your house has got to look good in pictures.”
But even for living, “taking (the house) out of the three dimensional aspect and putting it into two dimensions gives the homeowner an objective view of their room,” says Dell.
Aside from just homeowners looking to feel comfortable in their home or gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace, real-estate agents also benefit from concepts tips and techniques of Home Staging 101.
And for those looking to stage homes for a living, this is also a good place to start.
“Ours isn’t a course to teach you how to be a home stager,” says Dell. “But it will give you the basics so that when you investigate further you have a general understanding and can choose more wisely which courses you want to take.”
