Home Staging NJ Luxury Real Estate

Hi folks,

I just got a Kodak v705.  I"m not loving the photos I'm getting?  I can't get a crisp shot.  The Kodak Easy SHare software doesn't appear to have a "sharpen" feature?  Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong - just by looking at this one?

It's the foyer of my own house - please don't look at the staging/layout/ etc.

All comments gratefully received.

When selling your NJ home, call (973) 477-7000.

Every now and again, a house comes along that everyone loves.  No-one can tell you why.  It's a feeling.  A sense of space and calm.  The essence of belonging.  Home.

So it is with this home listed by Victoria Carter in South Orange, NJ.  With 4 spacious bedrooms, 2 full baths and 2 half baths, 2 family rooms, lots of room in the basement still to be defined, a gigantic deck and a sizable, deep lot, this house offers many different options.  See for yourself, and then call Victoria - it's the warmest welcome around.

Juliet Johnson stages homes for sale throughout North and Central New Jersey, with specific focus on Essex and Union counties. We specialize in congruent staging, to illustrate not just the potential, but the legacy of a home.

Aw, c'mon, really?

 No.  Well, sort of, yes.

Actually, staging principles can apply to presenting vacant land for sale.  They would serve the seller well.  In fact, anyone selling a sizable lot should take these points to heart.

1. The buyer needs to see what you're selling. 

i.e POST the perimeter, or at the very least ribbon the thing.

 I have trailed all over 22 acre lots, 9 acres, 3, 8 today and I'm exhausted.  But I couldn't see what I was being shown.  Without at least that pink nylon ribbon surveyors use, one tree looked very much like another; there was no way to assess the potential.

2.  De-Clutter:  Why do farmers leave broken machinery, abandoned carivans, old tires just lying around?

C'mon, it makes the place look awful, literally a dump.  City Slickers are moving to the rolling hills in droves with their laptops and internet connections.  They don't find rusted out stuff charming - it looks like a hazard at best and a law suit more likely.

3.  Focal Points: The Hunter's Stake Out, up a tree, camouflaged with a bit of old shower curtain? 

Bad.

 4.  Architectural Character: Falling down barns and moss covered silos? 

Great... but rope off all entries.  Termites make those floors mighty unsafe. 

5. Light, location, space: If you're selling the views, make sure a buyer can see them.  Plough out a track so they can get to the top of the knoll and see what's what - especially the horizon.

 Here ends the lesson.  Now, please open your hymnals to 453 and join me as 'We Plough the Fields and Scatter' ...

Forgive my forthright comments, but seriously, folks: the market's marshmallowing at least until Spring.  You wanna sell something?  Make the effort to present it so at least buyers can see it!

Click here for more on staging homes for sale in New Jersey

I am in that most delightful of all places - the mid-season lull. 

I do love it. 

That it coincides with crisp Fall days, and pre-Halloween festivities with my boy (Pumpkin Picking at right) is luck indeed.  And since I'm about to be assigned another cotton-picking Split, I reckon I've earned it!

The lull is often filled with clearing the build-up multiple installs make inevitable, and updating my website, posting results, creating slide shows and pulling together a photo book of the last season.  Looking back at the last 6 weeks, I'm noticing, I've tackled some assignments I had not initially anticipated as I became a stager.  Yet they are such a logical extension of what we do. Of all that we CAN do.  Of who we become once staging principles get into our blood.

 1.  The Wall Street Divorce

(So-called to simply suggest a divorce wherein money is NOT a problem as they rend their families apart.) 

I was surprised to be called in for this; wouldn't a designer be better, or a personal assistant?  It makes perfect sense.  You see, a stager is an expert in temporary design, with the ability to create an entire "look" in a short period of time, often without spending a huge amount of money.  The ideal candidate for the job.

You see, a rich man is unlikely to stay single for long.  The new "girl" is bound to want her own "starter castle" (what Susan Susanka (of 'The Not So Big House') calls a mega-mansion).  So there's no point spending a fortune getting something expensive organized.  Furthermore, once he's out, he's got to have a place organized and ready to receive the children in time for the next visitation.  Especially if there's a court date, and an inspector coming round to see what's what.  Who else knows how to furnish a 5 BR center hall colonial with full basement playroom for $25,000 with a combination of sturdy kid-proof stuff, antiques in the main, formal areas and a sports room below?  I can only think of a stager.

  2. Propping a Photo Shoot

Who else has the Library of Props, the sense of practical usage, the ability to understand how to give warmth, focus and flow to a space but at stager?  (I've written on this extensively before: - Lessons From a Magazine Shoot )

       "somebody wanna give that woman a chair?"

3.  Event/Party Furnishing and Decor

Whether it be a thematic or just a large gathering, who else has a better understanding of traffic patterns, comfort and welcome, who also has access to rental furniture than a stager?

          "too much blooooooo!"

For more on this check out Cheri Duecker's blog on Weddings.

4.  Realtor Training

The person who decorated the house, emphasizing the positives, distracting the eye from the negatives, and creating a generic sense of "I want that" could teach a realtor the most successful way to show the house.  I spent an hour with a nice realtor last month, who didn't seem to understand the house he represented.  As I explained how I would furnish it, I realized he was seeing the home's potential for the first time.  We didn't get to stage it because he sold it.  The very next day.  At a most respectable price.  There's a profit center in here for stagers, I'm just not quite sure how to package it without offending the "ladies".

I know a number of you all do interior design for folks.  It's not for me.  Of all of them, it was the Divorce that was the most rewarding.  Despite the wretchedness of the situation, the challenge of doing a 5 BR home in a week was splendid, all-engrossing and ultimately successful.

 "NO personal pictures, NONE, I said."

Does anyone else have an off-season?

What do you all do?

However, Juliet Johnson Staging's primary business is to stage homes for sale in Essex, Union and Morris Counties, NJ. For more information, click here.

Art in Staging.

Back to this magazine shoot last week - Lessons Learned on a Magazine Shoot - the photographer does really wonderful panoramic shots as another revenue stream (and art form, presumably). 

His name is Stuart Tyson and he's a remarkably talented man.

He said a friend of his had borrowed 10 of his photos to decorate his home while on the market, and how much would that cost if a non-friend had rented them.  When I told him, very approximately, he then asked if I were interested in renting them also.

NO.

Heavens, NO.

Oh, goodness, no.

He looked a little unnerved, and offended, too, but startled mainly.  Er... whah?

"Well, the LAST thing we want is someone to walk into a room, have their breath taken away by a beautiful photo, walk towards it, really study and relish it and then move on to the next room.  A la museum mode.  They've enjoyed the picture(s) but missed the room... and likely the house, since the photo is what they'll remember most.

Now, I personally would love to own one, or several, don't get me wrong, but we need generic bland stuff that adds a splash of color on the wall, not something that steals the show."

Huh! he said.  I hope he understood and didn't write me off as a loony.  It's an important point -

                             keep your art simple, elegant and unobtrusive, unassuming, subtle.

Great art is too distracting. 

In Owner Occupieds, I always ask the homeowner to take down the nude paintings.  (and religious stuff, if you can)  Art in staging is all about adding color, style and texture, moving the eye left and right, NOT drawing the eye in and keeping it all to itself.

THIS is why I think it doesn't work when you get furniture stores giving you furniture for free in exchange for letting ti be for sale aswell.  With price tags or without, it doesn't matter.  People then find themselves looking at the furniture instead of what the room can offer them.  You miss the forest, you're too busy trying to ignore the numbers on the trees.

I tell you, I've arrived.  If someone wants to send me hate mail, I must be getting important, worthy of note. And for that, I say thank you.

I consider a rude, snide mail hate mail, don't you?  After Cindy's very good, amusing post on fake/faux stuff defining us all as amateurs, I thought I might share this thing with you.  Plus, I get 200 points out of posting this blog - thereby proving that every cloud has indeed a silver lining.

He or She went to a lot of trouble to insult me.  That email is untraceable, the name does't exist, and now AR has blocked the IP address from participating on AR altogether.  So now, sir, you'll have to invent a new way to get to us.  While you're at it, maybe brush up your grammar, spelling and punctuation.  It's "people like you" that make me concerned for the Nation.  Thank heavens for the No Child Left Behind Act now!

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Let us remember that the first stagers - set designers - have been using all of these tricks and way more for centuries.  And the folks that do commercials for print and TV?   Elmer's glue for milk on the cereal, and that's an old one!

What does Louise Hay write, the thing that annoys you most about another is usually something you yourself do.

I thought I might share a few things I learned while staging a magazine photo shoot last week.

I had been hired by the architect.  It was a spec shoot for Architectural Digest, at their invitation.  Which apparently means, I find out later, that they may take it, they may not.  If they do, chances are good it will be re-shot  and if they pass, the architect may place the photos with another magazine, or several.  The architect has already been featured in Renovation Style, and the Interior Designer, in Elle Decor; publication looks good.  Apparently the photos have come out well, but no-one can see them yet, inclu-------

Wait, there'll be an interior designer coming too? - how's that going to work?  "Oh, she knows you're coming and bringing all the props.  She's fine with it."  Highly unlikely, I'm thinking, designers think stagers are .... <insert your own adjective>  Plus, I tend to speak my mind, and I've yet to meet a designer who likes anyone's taste but their own.  Still, I was looking forward to this:  an adventure, something different.  I headed into the 2 days with courage and optimism.  All of which I needed, but what I needed more of was patience and endurance.

First Observation - Take LOTS of Options

If there had been no designer, I could have taken what I thought best and left it at that.  But this was going to be a "committee" gig - everyone was going to have a say from their own point of view.  Less so photo-dude, though he seemed to need most things moved before every shot.  I took no less than 12 runners for the dining room alone, and thank heavens I did because the oddest choice was picked!  Chinese silk.  It was the right green.

2.  Make sure there's a prep day.

Because you will have brought all the wrong stuff, and this gives everyone a chance to re-group.  Also, it gives you all a chance to fight it out before the crew and photographer get there.  That fight, so long as it's polite, is hugely productive, too: clears the air, relieves tension and gets everyone in a calmer, more knowing place.  Plus, with a prep day there's time to try different combinations, so you get a chance to earn your credibility with the designer before a clock starts ticking, and an audience gathers.  (Yeah, we had an audience.   Strangest thing.  No action at all, but people gathered, lingered, moseyed off, came back.  Weird.)

3.  Hire Moving Guys for the whole day. 

I had hired 2 firemen to move everything about.  They were great: cheerful, easygoing, incredibly strong and really good at handling the neurotic homeowner while the rest of us got on with it.  The problem was they had to leave at mid-day.  This left me to do all the moving - left a bit, right a bit - and then putting all the rugs back where they belonged after it was over.  The architect was kind and helpful, but had the crowd to deal with (lots of questions and some of the visitors were hers by invitation.) and then there was the ID, who was on a diet and therefore a bit weak to shift any heavy stuff.  Shoots tend to be long days, as I understand it.  But for me - with an IN the day before and an OUT that evening, it was a very tiring 2 days of constant hauling and schlepping. 6 rooms worth of accessories, multiple options everywhere.

4. Scale is more important than color and style.

This was a spectacular Arts and Crafts reno.  The family had not yet received all the new furniture that is coming, nor committed to replacing everything.  There were old pieces from the previous home's style left.  A battered drop leaf table sat in the Foyer under a long mirror.  To me, a small bench was the obvious replacement, so I quickly recovered one of mine in a fabric that went superbly with the pink-streaked-with-gold-with-blobs-on-it wall paper.  It was too small, apparently.  Nonsense, I replied, it emphasizes the height and thinness of the mirror, thereby making the ceiling look taller and the foyer longer.  Plus, the colors are perfect together.  Yes, on color, but NO on scale.  A very odd guilt-edged marquetry piece was brought in that did look perfect in terms of scale, but ridiculous in terms of authenticity and style.  (French, no doubt!) <sniff>

5.  Color

"Stagers need more than a 3-day training course."  the Designer

"Oh, you think so?  Probably right, what do you think they're missing most?"

"Color Theory...." <and other stuff, but that was all I heard.  My mind immediately started racing.>

It's taken almost a week of brooding, but I think she thinks I (and most likely "we" as a species: stagers) take accent colors too literally and overplay them.  I was consistently torturing myself to add more blue because she had very strong touches in every room IN ADDITION TO the typical Arts and Crafts Palette.  For her, just the merest touch was enough.  To me they looked out of place, if not connected to other things in each space.  She was determined to completely ignore some magnificent navy blue and coral tile in the LR fireplace to make the room a very interesting red (not brown, not red, not burgundy, but all of those) and a linen color.  Since I had brought so much blue stuff, and a really glorious Schmatko painting of blues, corals and red, she gave up in the end.  <sigh> Hopefully it will still look eccentric enough to be considered "new", "edgy" etc.    I dunno guys, what are we missing here with our focal points, patterns of flow and rich textures that portray a lifestyle?  Is Color Theory going to help people sell their homes - will it make such a difference?  She might be right? 

6.  Less is puny; more is elegant, classy, right.

Both designer and architect wanted unusual items and collections of them.  Architectural Digest, in particular, and most home pubs generally have a thickly layered look.  Where one bold piece would work on a side table for us, for these, there needed to be 3 - 5 things at least, in varying heights all in the same color.  ("If only you knew Color Theory....")  Blocks, books, balls, vases, sculptures, candles, plants...tons of it.  I guess if they're all the same color they don't look like clutter???

7.  Personal Photos

We added them.  It's true.  There was a large bulletin board in the office on which we put a map (the one I had on hand was from Doctors Without Borders, good eh?), with pins and ribbons connecting it to the photos I mocked up on picnik.  (Thanks Betty and Jackson)  If I'd had more room in my car, and more strength, I'd have brought a mass of silver framed ones for the top of the piano too.

Gosh, I've been going on and on here.  I apologize.  I just think this an interesting extension of what stagers can offer.  It takes what we do one step further.  In some cases, we're "merchandising"; equally, you could call it Temporary Design.  We have the inventory, most of us have an innate feel for color and drama, we are gearing ourselves more and more to setting things for the photos first, Accessorizing Photo Shoots is a logical extension for us - especially in the off-season.

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HomeGoods has a book 'Color for Interior Design' from some professor at the New York School of Interior Design.  $14.99.  If it takes me longer than 3 days to read it, d'you suppose I could then say I get Color Theory?

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Home Staging in NJ, and the other services JJS offers can be found by clicking here.

Perhaps by way of karmic reward for the unstagable house I did this week, I was rewarded with the opportunity to accessorize a photo shoot for Architectural Digest on Thursday. What a hoot!

Such a cast of characters - the tall, stately photographer, the fastidious, finicky interior designer, the cool, calm architect, the nervous, perplexed homeowner and me, the stager.  What, a stager?  Well, I had the accessories, you see, and the crew to move all the distasteful rugs out of the shot, plus the ability to accomplish "temporary design."

I have yet to see the pictures, so quite honestly I don't know how successful we were.  But, man did I learn a lot!  The most useful tip I got, was probably something you all know.  Really good for Owner Occupieds.   On the off chance you don't, here goes -

The kitchen, breakfast nook and one of 3 family rooms are all open to each other.  We had spectacular floral arrangements brought in for the DR and Breakfast tables.  2 seriously awesome pieces, here's one -

   (These 3 are my photos, btw, which is why the lighting is odd, the framing a bit off and you can see a white plastic bag in the background!!!!)

We had typical faux fruit in a variety of places.  Here's the biggest one -

But then we needed one more.  I had arrived with more props than I would normally because I knew every piece would be a discussion between the architect, the designer and myself.  I also knew the designer would have to have options.  (This contributed to the sheer exhaustion of IN one day and OUT the next, but was an incredibly good workout.)  I had a basket left.

No problem, says the designer (who was perhaps warming to the whole usefulness of a stager/accessorizer, who knows?) and she heads over to the fridge.  She takes out every vegetable the lady has and voila - a very tasteful centerpiece:

  Good, eh?

She (the interior designer) tweaked when I wasn't looking. I tweaked when she wasn't looking.  The photo-dude took 35 minutes to frame and light each shot... 4 - 8 angles in each of 6 rooms...it was the longest day of my life!

In a day or so, I shall blog on all the other things I learned working alongside these amazing pros - just a phenomenally talented architect and the aforementioned, up and coming interior designer, whose work was in Elle Decor already, I think.  It could have been a nightmare, but we all agreed up front to be good friends when the project was over, and it worked. 

For owner-occupieds, I tell you, a vegetable display is a great quick fix.  I'm a believer, now!

Juliet Johnson Staging provides home staging services, in addition to accessorizing photo shoots, temporary design and holiday decorating within New Jersey.