Home Staging NJ Luxury Real Estate

This was a fun one.  An estate sale.  A postwar split with some furniture already in place.

Our brief

Hip the place up to tempt first time buyers.

The Results

It's been sold not once, but 3 times!

It turned out that the coffee table is a well-respected vintage piece....

 and so was the end table, 

 With Ikea's silver bowl and bright, bright green potpourri, plus some edgy magazines under the glass, we had something that was much more fun that those sofas deserved!

Here's the kitchen - a mix of vintage and mod -

Curious how far 3 dishtowels will go, huh?

 And the Master... not much to work with, but we punched it up some.

Ikea for the Euro-shams, pillows I made of cobalt raw silk with bright green beaded trim and the sarong I wore at the greek island in the picture.  First time I've done handkerchief points on a window.  It's a real cute look.  Is that the oldest rug you've ever seen? <grin>

As I said, this home has sold 3 times already.  The contracts don't stick. Despite being on the sellers' disclosure, it always distresses potential buyers to discover that there was a water leak this last winter that created a sizable mold problem.  That problem was remediated, but for some reason, mold is a deal breaker.

So sad... it's such a cute place -

The staging's working; it's delivering multiple offers.  Yet, home staging is no panacea.  Our job is simply to bring the offer to the table.  Keeping the contract together... that's where the other artistry of real estate takes over.

 [Vacant, but furniture in the place....so, it still qualifies for you, right Val?]

For any questions regarding the Township's 150th anniversary, please call 973-921-2829 to leave your question/information and someone will return your call.

This announcement is brought to you by Juliet Johnson Staging, a local Short Hills-based firm that specializes in preparing home staging for sale in the luxury real estate markets of Essex, Union, Morris and some of Somerset counties.

So, after my last couple of posts on making sure that the staging is congruent to a home's architecture, it is just typical of God's sense of humor that I should have been assigned today's house.

Here below is a very nice, respectable Tudor. (Please forgive the crooked picture, I've not edited the thing yet.)

Perhaps built in the early 30s, I'm thinking,

overgrown shrubbery,

tweeny trees need mulch. 

The door is a bit like the entrance to Frodo's house - strangely low -

but all of this is charming

 and I'm really looking forward to seeing inside,

yapping dog notwithstanding.

 It's all Arts and Crafts!  Every stick of moulding, every light fixture, every bathroom, every door, everything about the kitchen with it's glorious weathered hexagonal tile and dark, dark cabinets with dark beams.  Holy Smokes, now what?

Do I repackage as "Hollywood Storybook"?  "Architectural Whimsy"?  Or do I just do the standard clear, clean and punch up what we got?

That'll teach me to take a position on something, huh.

Another Fun Staging Success Story!!

Juliet Johnson Staging just finished staging a home in Short Hills, NJ. Short Hills is the perfect town for Wall Streeters, with Midtown Direct train service, top-rated schools, treed streets and a tasteful mix of old and new manor homes, a few small, most large, all luxuriously high end living at its best.  My company was called in for a consultation on a center hall colonial just 3 weeks ago. We had 1 week to get on the market; the family was being relocated to the UK and had to be in place for the beginning of school.

Mercifully the house was in really good condition; there was just a lot of untidiness to deal with.  The challenge initially appeared insurmountable, but with many hands the work became light and fun.  The client and her 4 children worked tirelessly into the night.  She was a whirlwind, while her husband made repeated trips to the town dump.  These clients were the best one could hope for.  I brought in minimal props - including some colorful table settings for the EIK and the DR and lots of fresh flowers.  It certainly paid off.

Opening Weekend - multiple offers - all over asking!

Is our market changing back to the way things were or was this house just a really good buy?  When staged, it looked colorful, peaceful, spacious and inviting.

Naturally, kudos to Wendy Drucker of Burgdorff-ERA in Short Hills, NJ for once again believing in Home Staging and speaking to her clients about the benefits of homes that are staged prior to listing. Sincere admiration goes to Pocono Marketing for their luscious photos and outstanding brochure.  Lastly, huge credit goes, rightfully, to the homeowner. Not only did she agree to all necessary changes, but saw the game and the adventure of presenting a home they'd cherished in a way that everyone could see for themselves.

Week 1 - Prep to Sell

Week 2 - Open House

Week 3 - contract, deposits down, de-staged & owners out.

Now THAT's the way to sell a house!

Juliet Johnson Staging is the preferred vendor for Burgdorff-ERA of Short Hills, with over 5 years of experience in the luxury real estate market of Essex, Union and Morris Counties.

Every consultation, every estimate, every appointment, I'm asked "What is your position on closets?"

There are lots of rules about closets.  Here are my favorites, depending upon how much time there is before the home is "thrown up" onto the market.  (Thank you, Frank.  I shall be using that one for the next 6 months at a minimum!!)

1.     Straighten: everything standing up on the shelves, hangers facing the same way, shoes in their pairs.

2.     Group things such that you can see thru to the back wall on every level.

3.     Color Code it all.  It may sound OCD, but honestly, it's a much more efficient way to live (you can coordinate your outfits really quickly and can see at a glance wehre the "holes" are) AND, for some reason, it always makes the closet look bigger.  Maybe because it's orderly?  Dunno, it just does.  And if you do the open shelves dark to light (bottom to top) it makes the ceiling look taller.  Don't understand that one, either!

4.     Put the shoes away, Imelda.  Men, women, children - you really don't need any more than 3 pairs out at any one time.  Pack the rest in a suitcase, upright in the back.  (For those of you with shoes in clear pastic containers, with photos taped to the front.... that's a lotta time... )

5.    Look to shove a chest of drawers into the closet under the short hang.  It frees up wall space in the bedroom and utilizes dead space in the closet.

6.    Empty/Vacant?    Don't fill it up with a table, chair, lamp, mirror etc.... c'mon.  No-one's gonna use it that way.  Be realistic.  That's stacking the rental bill.  A much more fun way to handle vacants is with brightly colored gift bags, with tissue coming out of the top.  Stagers, as a species, tend to have a feel for color; this is a great way to flex that muscle.

7.     Another stylish way to do a closet is with a coordinated look:- not sure of pricing ---These are Home Goods, but lots of places have them these days.  I have a set of purple toile from the Gift Building in NYC, which I've always thought a bit nice for a closet, but I'm rethinking that position for next season. 

8.      Door Open?  Door Shut?  I vote for shut.  I know, however, that buyers and realtors will open them on every visit.  That they then leave them open always irks somehow, but in the greater scheme of things.... <shrug>

What other "rules" do you subscribe to?

Many items were tudor-ish in style, but colored in orange and teal for the reno in the 70s.  what to do?

(I need Cindy on the lighting and editing of these shots. )

Elements of Tudor style... kinda...sorta....

The embroidered fabric on those pillows came from a designer's remnant I found at my local sewing studio.  The fruits and pattern are actually reminiscent of many Elizabethan patterns and images.  As for the homeowner's scultpure...

 We have the damask right, and the colors...

Why do snap closures never cooperate for the photo?!

 There were lots more rooms, but how's about I share this one, and leave it at that?

I love cobalt blue... but you can't guarantee other people will.  I was sad to see it go.

Once again... with congruence... keep the flavor but generalize the overall look and feel.

This house took a while to sell, becuase of it's layout.  The kitchen, Dining Room and garage are on the garden level, next up is the Living Room and a wing of bedrooms. The mezzanine had a family room and another bedroom.  Then the Master was across the back of the Living Room, along a minstrel gallery.

 Yeah, I know, check OUT the piano!  And that's a lucite bench in front of the window in the Minstrels' Gallery.

The people who bought it?  Had a house full of retro stuff that looked exactly the same!!!!!!!!!!!  Horses for courses, eh?

D'you think they have any fun?

The second house I ever staged, in 2002 when I thought more was, well frankly, better.  <chuckling> You can completely tell that's 2 card tables from church in lieu of a formal dining table, huh? ah well, nothing like OJT. 

 Getting better, eh?

This ver cute house in Millburn sold for a ton over asking, despite a dirt floor as a basement.  Different market then <sigh>

I loved the lady's coffee set.  Her dressing table tray looks quite "dishy" eh?

Back in inventory -- seem to have rather a lot of pear pictures.

Just when you thought you'd seen enough olive green to last the millenium... it's still ongoing. As are all of the traditional Arts and Crafts pallette.

Check out the Color Assocation's great new feature of interactive colors for Fall 2007.

http://www.colorassociation.com/site/colortrends.html#

Click on the section that is bolded:-

Click here to open the CAUS Fall/Winter 2007-2008 Interactive Color Forecast

Now, here's where this is really handy...

      when you walk into a home and find a strong dominant color, put it into the color forecast and try out any other colors from your inventory to see how to make it 'au courant', Fashion Forward, at least "of today".

Looks like bright teal is the only fun we're going to have this season...

hmmm, how to combine teal with unbelievable, LARGE, drift wood items at Pottery Barn and Home Goods this week!

PS --  is teal the new black? or is it still gray?

Sometimes a house has been renovated/built by someone determined to prove their vision is a viable, preferable one. It may not be everyone's dream to live in a Russian "villa" (think Rhode Island "cottage") on the Baltic sea, for example, but if you did, you would have marble floors throughout and very elaborate mouldings.   It is our job as stagers to make the house appeal to a wide base, however, and see that the builder's vision has a certain charm and efficiency no matter how mad it might initially appear.

The Background:

Some local Russian emigres decided to try their hand at the fix-and-flip game and made the house as nice as could be... in their eyes.  Their realtor is new to the business.  Anxious to take any listing and make it a success, she was told by everyone in her office: "Get this thing staged; it's your only hope".  Plus, it's coming on at over $2 million.

The Brief:

Make sense of a Russian-flavored renovation for an upscale American market.

Living Room

Dining Room

The Family Room

 The Bar - Russian Vodka, of course, with some fun black stools.  I had ordered cream and silver, but the black came instead.  Looked fine given that the hearth is ve-ry black granite.

 This half of the room now has a glass chess set on it, with a famous game in progress: Fischer vs. Spasskey in the 1972 World Championship.

Yes, that's vinyl sheets on the glass... to minimize heat... "hey, whaddya want for $2 million?!!" said the REA when I asked if I could take it down.

Then I fell apart upstairs.  I was told to do a sofa in the sitting room.  I picked what I knew the builder would love (and pay for), not what was right for the home.  Still, it has a sumptousness to it, don't it?

Why so much yellow? 

"Ees forrrr sun."

Ok, there's kind of a lot of it.  We should repaint the principal rooms something else.

"I do Dining Room"

Not Kitchen?

"No. Cabinets."

Kitchen

 What you can't see here is the elaborate (foam) moulding in this space.  It's got personality but odd with the light fixtures.  The builder was a professional artist back in Russia.  He and his wife still paint in oils, but for fun now.  So, to them, lighting's primary purpose is to make the art look good and then light the area.

 My favorite space was an upstairs bedroom, which I did in adorable Peter Pan and Beatrix Potter.  I was asked to change it - too bland.  I had no more color left in inventory for non-gender-specific bedding, so rushed out for a pack of multicolored napkins.  With an ornate stitch on the sewing machine, we have COLOR:-

  The final chapter has yet to be written here.  It's a lot of money.  I was told I was "a miracle worker on this one".  Nice to hear, no question.

The Bottom line

Every house deserves to be seen not just in general terms, but also in context. 

Vodka and chess anyone?

Yesterday's Open Houses were very interesting.

Unstaged houses that smelt of cigarettes = lots of available parking, bored depressed realtor, sad overall impression

Staged homes = hi volume traffic, hard to get through the door for the realtor trying to seperate the lookers from the buyers, nervous excitement that if you want the place you'd better get your check book out and bind an offer.

Well maintained, well decorated homes = good traffic, generally happy feelings all around with the folks I saw seriously considering the home's relative merits.

None of this will surprise anyone.

However, once again, I found my favorite vendor has been supplying furniture to quite a couple of other stagers/realtors in my (rather small) patch.  I recognized every piece, every accessory (from our mutual haunts), every angled placement the vendor and I have explored together in other properties while each of us was learning the inventory.

Naturally, I thought it ugly and crass compared to what I can do with the same stuff, but who am I kidding?  To most buyers, it's going to look the same.  My best hope is that the "feel" will be different. 

And of course, I was outraged that given how much business I send their way, (I was the first stager in this town by far, etc. etc.etc.) but c'mon, Juliet, grow up. It's business, it's not intended personally.

So what's best done going forward?  How would we all advise this naive twit of a stager to shore up her "practice" so that it's a long lasting business?

1. Develop a wider selection of vendors and sources

2. Expand your "patch" so that you have more business than you can handle, with no time to worry about the competition.  (I'm learning that you always have to watch the competition....)

3.  Make sure that your story is the one being told as often as possible

Man, what else?  I've built a reputation on creativity and value.  How do you protect something as flimsy as reputation?

I can't get myself to write up the last consultation of the season.  Once it's done, I'll be free and clear for a while.  Other than typical Accounts Receivable issues, tidying up inventory, getting the mechanics in place for an easy-to-execute marketing plan for the Fall Season.  If there'll even be one.  Never know here.

It's a 1791 forge that's been converted into a 1 BR house.  On 3 acres.  On a river.  It's cute, but filthy, covered in cobwebs and filled to bursting with opera-iana and more "global" wooden figurines.  (My year for that stuff.)

The current owner received the home and its contents as a bequest.  Now he wants to sell it (contents and all) and go back to the City.  He is quite clear he wants to spend no money, no effort, just take what he can and clear off.  His realtor won't take the listing that way and insists he talk to me.

I think he has to spend some money.  Gotta paint, gotta clean and gotta tidy up the magnificent property or the whole history and fun of the place is wasted.  I reckon he should consider spending 1% of the asking price to get back  - what are our stats these days - 20%?  Why do I always have to be the bad cop?

And then, once it's done, I'm done. 

So why the procrastination?  Is it not wanting to tell someone news you know they don't want to hear?  Is it the fear that once done, one may never work again?  (AR has really helped with that; y'all are ve-ry encouraging)  or is it just summer lethargy setting in.

<sigh>

After 2 weeks in the Rain, this message from John Mason could not have been more timely:

Every person has specific gifts, talents and strengths. The book of Corinthians asserts, "Each man has his own gift from God." Marcus Aurelieus said, "Take full account of the excellencies which you possess and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them if you had them not." 

Seize the opportunities to use your gifts.  Never judge yourself by your weaknesses.  You are richer than you think you are. 

I have been seriously impressed by my comrades here.  I've even tried on your styles to improve my staging.  Oddly enough, it still looks like me.

Here's me trying to do Kate Hart:-

The realtor said, "Oh, you've made it look so English" <sigh> I suppose most people don't have a TV in their LR, huh?  These folks had flat screens in every room.

Here's a nod to Phyllis Parfumi:-

I had so loved her blue on that screened in porch.

"What, no tea cups?"  I don't do tea cups... that's like a Russian ex-pat always laying out nesting dolls.

Oddly enough, my through-lines are bold color accents, lots of textures and candy.  If I can work whimsy in too, I will - like a famous chess game (Fisher vs. Spassky  in 1972) already in progress - or a vintage opera scarf as a dining table runner.

But fundamentally, I am British, and if all my stuff looks it, maybe that's OK? 

And that's OK.  If my homes are priced right, they sell.  If they're not, they usually sit there.  This is as sophisticated a market as Ebay here.  Things go at multiple offers if priced right, and sit around for the price reduction if not.  Homes that aren't staged usually don't sell well, but there are always exceptions to the rule.

Back to John Mason, who agrees with Sydney Harris:

"Ninety percent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities, their frailties and even their real virtues."

Don't expect anything original from an echo.

Musset said, "How glorious it is and also how painful-to be an exception."

Billy Walder adds, "Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's."

Abraham Lincoln said it best: "Whatever you are, be a good one."

We each have a different style, but a shared philosophy.  We each stand for the house, in a transaction where everyone else is out for themselves.  We collectively care, give over and above what we are asked for and above all stand for a new industry of ethics and style.

That's our certification.  Beyond that, we're qualified to be ourselves.

I got really lucky: I was invited to hear Lee Carlson, the publisher of NJ Biz (the business journal for our state) speak to corporate women about Marketing and PR.  Lots of seriously well-connected folks, who do all sorts of interesting things.  (Only 1 realtor who is developing a coaching business for divorcing women) it was a lot of fun meeting these folks.

Ms. Carlson led off by asking asked how many people in the room did 10 things PER DAY to market and/or promote their business?  A handful raised their hands.  (I stared at the ugly art, and wondered if I should offer to "stage" their seminar room.)

Hm! She said.  You need to be doing 10. In fact, 10's not enough.  You need 11 and here's the 11th:

"Enter as many competitions as you can and celebrate the victory."

Then, prominently, on all of your marketing materials and press releases you put the results:

•◦          Named as 1 of NJ's Top Builders (means you entered the competition or were nominated)

•◦          Finalist in NJ's 40 under 40 List of Women Who Make a Difference (means you got honorable mention)

•◦          Top 5 Preferred Vendors for Coldwell Banker (you get the picture)

These statements all add credibility.  Each says, "This is someone we should be doing business with."

Better yet, nominating someone for one of these lists earns you huge good will.  She said that most men have no trouble nominating themselves, but women tend to be more reticent.  So build good will by nominating others is a great way for women, especially to get started with this tool.

So, competitions...

Are there any for stagers?

Most newspapers do lists and contests apparently because it boosts advertising, and the supplement with the winners listed lives on coffee tables for a year.

Women Business Owners, Women of Influence, Top 50 Women in Business, Best Place to Work, Broker of the Year, etc.

Anyone here ever won anything?

If we were the ones who suggested a competition to a sponsor, supplier or vendor - Like having a furniture rental company (and some other folks) sponsor a competition "Top 10 Stagers in Texas" - would that make our chances of placing, let alone winning, non-existent?  It's a helluva marketing idea for them, think of the list of stagers they'd have who'd suddenly know their inventory, but what would it do for all of us? 

 (There were some other neat points about PR, which I'll offer up in a seperate post.)

Every now and then, Staging Rules fly in the face of everything America ought to be about.  Certainly everything America says it's about. And, if we all go along with it, our society will perpetuate what could be seen as really not right.

With the greatest respect to all, let me tell you the story, and maybe you will tell me what you all would have done, or have already done, in a similar situation.

I meet a (new to me, highly successful) realtor at a property where both parents are at work and both kids in school.  I'm to do an assessment and action plan that I'm assured the homeowners are looking forward to receiving and will definitely pay for.

Walking up the front steps, I note areas that need repointing, the front door needs painting, the dead plant pots need fresh, blooming material and then, with a nice wreath we have a welcome that'll pass the Drive By.

Inside, the floors have just been redone, which means oxygen is in short supply, but the spaces are brightly colored with lots of interesting things to look at.  There's nice architecture, too, but the dazzling and joyful paintings, the leather furniture, the shag rug, and all the glorious African and Carribbean artifacts were a treat to behold.  Yes, there were piles of mail, and toys in all the usual places and recycling bins taking over one corner of the kitchen, but every house I look at has that!

"There's a look to this house, isn't there?" says the realtor.

"Er, yeah, great moldings, architectural detail," stutter I, struggling to refocus and come across as a professional.

"No, you know what I mean."

Well, I kind of did, but couldn't imagine that's what she was really talking about.  She didn't know me, and anyway, aren't those topics off limits these days?

I charged on ahead to avoid further comments.  Upstairs, the daughter's room was filled with black dolls; the son's was all trains.  The Master looked like Josephine Baker's studio in Paris (I longed to dive into the pillows and revel in all that jazz.  The guest room looked like Grad School 1985. I politely declined the attic.  (If only that had always been my policy. <sigh>)

Back downstairs she turns on me.

"You know as well as I do that even here (in North HipArtyTown) houses that are obviously decorated towards one racial group sell for less, and I mean a lot less, than those that are more generic."

"Hm!" I quipped back without thinking, "So you're one of those realtors that tells the Deeply Devout to get the Mary on the Half  Shell off the front lawn?"

"I sure do! And the mazzuzas off the door frames, and the prayer rugs off of the floor and anything in gold script off the wall.  That's just leaving money on the table. Nobody's cutting my commission but me!"

I stopped being flip and seriously asked her if she was asking me to whiten up the house.  Not if I could get the homeowners to do it themselves, I was told.  That would cost them less, but if they didn't understand I should offer to do it for them.  And they should pay me, first for my opinion and secondly for my labor. Brits are supposed to be quite good at diplomacy but this was surely absurd?  My mind is reeling.

"Isn't that what staging is all about?  Making homes look generic, neither one thing nor the other.  Just kinda Pottery Barn-esque?"

Politically, philosophically, rationally....well, folks, what would you have done?

One often hears - anything can be art.

As I was tidying up a Jazz musician's condo not so long ago, I realized I was gathering a stack of hats with nowhere to put them. The condo's bedroom was so white, a display of hats might be kinda fun.  You be the judge:-

And then I needed to make a tiny foyer have some character so that you would feel like you were going across a proper space.

So --

 Straw hats with fun ribbons would have been so much cuter, but - alls I had was a jazz musician, single guy in his late 30s.

Check out the rest of the master bedroom - Before and After

How do we incent homeowners to prep for us?  It makes the whole experience so pleasant... efficient... profitable.

 At the beginning of this weekend I was working alongside a nice lady with 4 little girls. A hugely untidy, jewelbox of a home that they are being re-lo'd out of in 2 weeks.  For some reason there's still a market in Short Hills, so the race was on to be ready for a Tuesday Open House.  Some race: every surface was covered in year-end school projects, laundry, mail, daily crud.

As some of you will recall, I'm a golf widow, with 2 teens and a 6 year old.  Working the entire weekend is not an option for me, and franky, I've not got the stamina when it's hot like this.  Plus, the noise of 4 little kids; plus, little girls are really chatty and it's not helpful to have them rediscover every Barbie leg I was shoving into stackable bins.  Plus, if I want to be a glorified cleaning lady, I could do my own house and save myself some money!  Suddenly, I realized the lady wanted to bellow at her girls, but couldn't because I (a non-family member) was there.  [Aren't well-mannered people extraorinarily nice and considerate]

"Look, I think you've got the hang of what I'm up to here.  Why don't I save you some money, but giving you a list and letting you get on with it?"

Man, I felt such a heel.  I was deserting this woman.  She liked the notion and asked for the list with great enthusiasm. I reviewed the whole house, room-by-room

"I'll come back on Monday morning to do the final touches before you get photographed."

Well, this is what I came back to:-

Isn't this terrific?  Yeah, it's a little vanilla, but it's so neat and clear.... perfect for me to come and wave my magic wand.

  And, here's what I did --  

And, it was FAST.  The realtor was thrilled, (I think because she thought I had done all the clearing) and the photos/floorplan dude very pleased. (Makes his snaps look good when a room is open, well lit, has a few colorful focal points, etc.)

Another dreamy thing this lady did - I offered to move the running machine out to the garage for her.

"No, that's ok.  My husband and I will do it.  I don't want you to get hurt."

Why can't they all be like this?

I'm often asked what improvements a person should do to a house while they live there, so that they can ACE the sale.  HGTV has some good data and so does Elizabeth Weintraub at About.com.  (Isn't she fab - anyone else a fan?)

Here's a new spin:

Anyone catch this article on Yahoo yesterday?

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/103190/best-and-worst-home-improvements

If I read it right (and that's no certainty), it is suggesting that you shouldn't improve your home ABOVE and BEYOND your neighbors.  Keep in step but not surpass them.  This is the first time I've read that.  Surely someone has to take the lead?

Plus, I love the finance journalist's view that we fill a house with fresh flowers and high-tech TVs.  I've yet to add a TV to anywhere!  I'm still hauling them out of people's living rooms!!  That being said, I would LOVE to find a source for a fake, lightweight flat screen tv.  Any ideas?

Lastly, ""Forty percent of homes built last year didn't have a living room, and the square footage of the average home is getting smaller."  I knew homes were getting smaller, or going back to normal... but I thought Dining Rooms were going, not Living Rooms?  Really?

It was a new day, the first of a warm humid spell fast approaching.

I had raised Little Miss Thaing (my v. popular, v. pretty, v. tired 16yr old daughter) and insisted that she come along with to earn money and help her poor old mother pay for her lifestyle.  The sulking beauty threw on clothes and slithered into the car without breakfast, not too sleepy to be already texting on her phone!

We arrived at the home, where the door is never locked (remember the Picassos, Dufy, Klee, Lladro, etc.?), grabbed brooms and toiled up the 2 flights of elegantly arching stairs.  So sad, despite my efforts 10 days back, the home had not retained any of the freshness I had infused with sprays, candles, etc.  The A/C had been on, but the house smelled stale and frozen in time.

 We walk into the attic and Miss Thaing is horrified.  "What are we going to do here?" 

"We're going to create neat rows, generally tidy up and demonstrate this is a feasible asset to the home." 

"What, just you and me?" 

"Ye-es, now let's see how to begin.  Let's get a clean floor and we can start to move things around a little."  At which point, the child grabs a broom, collides with an old, uncovered light switch/box and falls to the ground.

"Oh honestly! What----"  Was her left leg was twitching a little?  She was fine.  Awake, confused some but perfectly fine.  She claimed she hadn't touched the wall, it was just that she was feeling faint.  She sat to one side taking deep breaths and got a vituperative lecture from me about the benefit of eating breakfast.

An hour later, she's rallied to manage a little sweeping.

I'm meanwhile perspiring out of places I never thought possible.  There's an unusually large amount of what looks like mouse droppings on a pile of old curtains.  Plus ski clothes, a revolting, disintegrated cheetah coat, and a very amusing old steamer trunk replete with drawers, special hangers, a beaded drape.  Everything went into a garbage bag - the cheetah, the mice, I reckoned we'd have to get the EPA in for a definitive identification - and gradually, at the bottom of the pile, I found a crumbling, black, maxi vinyl raincoat.  Was that the 60s or the 70s?  At least, we could think there was less chance of mice now that we'd identified the source of the "droppings".

I moved a pile of these limited edition prints from more noted 20th century painters, thinking now that perhaps the ones downstairs were less valuable given that there was a whole pile gathering dust in the attic.  I got down on the floor to pick up a "Matisse"  and on the way up, banged my head on the house fan's metal frame. 

Punctured, more like.  Blood everywhere!  I grab some old drycleaners' tissue paper, shriek for paper towel and try to gush blood tidily!  I had forgotten how much one's head bleeds.  It's all over my face, running down my arms and all I keep shouting is "Polly, catch the drips.  Nothing on the carpet.  We've got to get to a sink that we can clean.... a metal one... the kitchen [two flights down]... Man, this hurts, maybe you should call 911... for God's sake don't let me drip on anything."

We teetered down the 2 flights of irratatingly "arching stairs" and called my husband. 

"Are you asking me not to play golf today?"

We called 911.  The police came first, but only so as to be able to explain to the EMS people where the house actually was.  Plus, I think he was kinda hoping for a more juicy story than 2 clumsy civilians cleaning an attic.  By the time EMS had showed up, most of the blood had been washed away.  We hadn't dripped anywhere... can you imagine?

But when a lady asked me today if I did "attic clearance" I referred her on to 'Man With Truck'.  So much for the glamorous, designers' life that is staging!!

We had not been hired to create murder scene.  Rather, we had been asked to pack up the attic, clear things into neat rows and generally pick up.  (i.e. Pick up the stray tampons, packing peanuts and cymbals lying on the floor that is.)

This is the house we found $367.23 in lose change, largely pennies.  The leather cigar case couldn't close because of the large plastic bag of very old pot.  We couldn't get to one of the cupboards in the dining room for the boxes of books of official papers, published in beautiful, gold embossed hardcover volumes, of Reagan, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Eisenhower.  Elephants everywhere, our owner must have been in government and on the Republican side. 

Perhaps I should go back to the beginning? 

Initially, we were contacted to do something to ready this house for a large neighborhood open house in 2 weeks time, without a full staging, and after the house had been vacantly sitting on the market for 18 months.  There were piles of clothes everywhere, boxes from an estate sale standing by to be sorted and a general sense that these folks had only just got out ahead of the creditors!

If the homeowner wasn't prepared to furnish the place, the least we could do was pack everything up, dust and tidy, and maybe create some vignettes using existing resources.  This the homeowner agreed to and in we went, Swiffer, i-pod and surgical gloves to the fore!

Naturally, we found some amazing things:

Signed and numbered limited edition prints by Picasso, Klee, Dufy, Chagal, Modigliani plus a weird (but stunningly beautiful) landscape made out of 3" pieces of white electrical tape that has to be someone famous....it's just brilliant!

Vintage Chanel Bags and belts hanging on the back of a closet door

Old wines, exotic liquers, cigars (and the pot)

An antique Norwegian set of fish dishes, half-packed in a room once used as gym

An enormous LLadro of some horses frolicking in the surf  (a real acquired taste)

....the list can go on and on.

We did the best we could to create some "scenes"

and then headed up to the attic.

 ... in the next post - the (6 year old) Master calls.

In Short Hills, there are plenty of rich people but more people who'd like to LOOK rich.  Therefore, staging around here has a very specific goal...to make each house look like HERE's where you can live that PERFECT, upscale, no limits lifestyle you've always thought other people lived.  The ultimate smoke and mirrors game.

Recently, I've noticed a certain realtor's listings all have the same look and feel.  They always get multiple bids, unless it's a corner lot and even then she gets an offer beyond all of our expectations.  She is branding.  In the old Proctor and Gamble, Marketing 101 sense.  Whether it's intentional, or just that all of her friends (who are her clients) all look and live just like her, I'm not sure.  She's certainly an A lister, if one cares about such things.  I've been told by builders and fellow soccer moms alike that she's "society" around here.  Could there be such a thing as branding within the realty world?  And does it make sense?

As stagers, we are by definition generalists - able to make any home look generic enough to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.  Maybe we should collect looks and styles the way "real designers" do?

What does anyone else think?