Background
It was my 50th birthday and we had to go somewhere: Nick had gone golfing in Scotland for a week for his, so we needed to do something for mine. I quite fancied a trip to Machu Pichu in Peru, and found a package that would put us on the mountain on the day, but it was with my college and my husband refused to go. (I told him older Smith women aren't like that but he doesn't believe me!) He also refused to go to a Bach Festival in Barcelona or Mozart in Salzburg suggesting I go with my girlfriends. Call me crazy but I wanted to be with him on my birthday. (I'm sure it won't last much longer, but after only 7 years, I still like being with him. A bit.) So we compromized on a city break. We couldn't really leave our boy for long, so a few days somewhere, and a city with lots to do that interested us both, was the goal.
We thought of Charleston. It's a city I'd heard so much about, from Spoleto in my event planning days, to the rebuild after Hurrican Hugo, and all of the beeyootiful architecture one sees in magazines, I've longed to go. Plus, it had the added benefit of dropping in on a person I've loved getting to know on Active Rain. A person whose work I admire more and more over this last year and whom I really believe has "got it down"! Quickly checking to see if Melissa Marro would be around that week, we got a hotel, flights and a plan together.
Wow!
You know, forget Finlason & his cow pouf, the real WOW in staging today is Melissa Marro! Strikingly pretty and smart as a whip, this lady is 3 years in to an enviable business model that I am convinced is exactly the way to build a staging business. I'm going to leave it to her to tell you how she does it. You need to hear from her the intricacies of why it's inventive, imaginative, clever, practical, so do-able and so fun... 
and you can because she teaches a class on it all! 5 days worth: in-class in the morning and onsite in the afternoon. I heartifly recommend it for each and everyone of us!!! Realtors, too. People, she. really. is. that. good.
Kindly, she tooled around with us for one long, dreamy afternoon, where Nick and I wandered into home after home of calm, elegant, gorgeous living-scapes. I wanted to buy every property I saw. Even the one opposite a graveyard in a ferociously bug-infested swamp!!!! Overwhelmed often (and for those of you that know me, that takes quite a bit... I've seen so much in so many places - stately homes, castles, Manhattan high-end, low-end, slums, suburbs, rural estates, oceanfront, lakefront cabins, European flats, homes, on and on) and at the time I could neither explain to her nor to myself why I was so overwhelmed.
Yes, the low country architecture that Melissa (and rapidly expanding team) get to play in every day is beautiful. It's the epitome of what we all want at the moment. High ceilings, luscious chunky molding, open flow, softly soothing colors, state of the art fixtures and fittings, a touch of luxe and grandeur tucked in to spaces that look easy to run, and comfortable to live in.
Yes, her style touches you viscerally and mentally; each room ignites a spark of yearning that doesn't quit. It just ebbs until the next room starts another, just the same.
Yes, there are mistakes. Well, that is to say, things I'd not have done, pieces I'd have added, things I'd have left home, colors I'd not have combined. It's deliberate, of course. Ms. Marro does NOT make mistakes. These are strategic errors of omission designed specifically for reaction in the buyer. (And before you think I've lost it, check back at one of my earliest blogs last year when I first joined AR, and talked the Strategic Mistake as a viable strategy. Y'all ignored me then, and shouldn't have. Here's a true artist using this strategy ve-ry successfully.)
See? It's still difficult to explain. I could ramble on for pages more. How's about I share 4 of my favorite, clever strategies? These are things we can all incorporate in our work, no matter what level of stager you are, or where you are geographically.
1. One Color Palette
I had read about this strategy and thought it not helpful. It would make an entire home boring, surely and smaller. Surely, you want every room to be a fresh experience? The way MM does it, the home becomes a cohesive whole, soothing, flowing and affecting. Exactly because there's no sudden contrast, a buyer/viewer relaxes into the space wandering "safely" from room to room.
Another reason this is a clever strategy is that buyers tend to look at more than one house at a time. To have your home be all one palette will help the buyer remember it more clearly. It won't smudge together into a profusion of colorful, textured rooms where folks forget which bit goes with what.
2. Provenance
Charleston is all about its history. MM and the First Impressions team tend to do a lot of new construction. How to marry the two? She puts a smaller lamp than you might expect on a pile of old books. It looks great, stylish, fun, speaks to age without actually having to have some rusty old something sitting there. She'll take your gross "mid-century" dining room chairs and paint 'em, sand 'em & stain 'em. They look like this month's William Sonoma catalogue's stuff. (For $699 a chair!!!) Just great.
3. Errors of Omission
The strategic mistake. MM says, and I believe quite rightly, that you don't need a 3 seater in every living room. Neither do you need 8 chairs in a Dining Room. It's why Matthew Finlason was right to put only 4 seats in the breakfast room on Sunday (though his explanation was inept, from a staging technique viewpoint). I'm going to let her tell you more about this technique. She's right and it's a brilliant strategy.
4. Duplicatable
MM has network marketing in her background. A lot of us do. Whether it's Avon, Mary Kay or Arbonne, Mona Vie, PrimAmerica or that travel thing, they all subscribe to a simple model for profit. Co-opt or create a system, refine it, duplicate it, train your replacement and repeat. When I came back to staging full-time after a year's solid effort in Arbonne, I too looked for a way to create a downline-upline model for staging. Real estate varying so widely by geography; the notion of training my competitors; not enough homes being alike to warrant templates; I found a lot to dissuade me from this option. MM is onto something, and for those of you looking to expand into teaching, who own your own props/warehouses of furniture, I strongly recommend you sign up for MM's course and lear
n how to do it yourselves.
What of Charleston?
It's beautiful. Just as I thought. The history comes to a rather abrupt end, but you can see why. It's a shame it happened so much sooner than the industrial revolution. They might have been able to create a democratic, capitalist model that worked for everyone. Great food, fun restaurants, really lovely people. It's a super place to visit.
But for anyone serious about growing their staging business? Charleston is a must-visit Mecca, with a humble guru generously willing to share all her hard-earned wisdom. Melissa has gracioulsy agreed to share an upcoming project with me that will premier in the Fall. More on that as we refine the details.
In the meantime, do seriously consider a class with MM. Melissa Marro really is all that and then some!
ten, so that they actually hear it.
