Staging vs. Decorating: What's the Difference?

Unlike decorating, staging your home isn't about personal style — it's about creating ambiance and appeal for buyers

If you ask the average person what “home staging” is, they’re likely to say something like “decorating a house to make it look good.” The truth is that home staging is absolutely not the same thing as decorating.

Selling your home means selling a lifestyle, but not necessarily your own. In home staging, you're striving for a look that is fresh and welcoming yet not really taste specific. People with varying tastes need to feel that they can make the home their own if they purchase it. Although everyone has different tastes in decor and furnishings, most people want a home that is welcoming, functional, peaceful and organized. Tailor your house so that buyers will describe it in those terms rather than by your style of decorating. Getting rid of clutter and having fewer but larger accessories is a great place to start.

Making sure your home isn't taste specific doesn't mean your rooms should be devoid of color. Instead, keep color schemes simple and dose them with an on-trend neutral, like a clean tan, a soft gray or a warm white.

This is the distinction between decorating your home and staging it to sell. It can be hard to understand at first, but if you don't know the difference, you might not sell your house as quickly as you like.The bottom line is that you have to get outside your head and inside the mind of a potential home buyer. It's very difficult to be objective about your own home, but it's crucial if you want to sell it. If you have a distinctive decorating style — whether it's Tuscan, shabby chic or modern — you're going to need to scale it back a bit. If you don't, your home will appeal to the small percentage of potential buyers who love your chosen style. Staging is about strategic editing and depersonalizing, rather than decorating and personalizing.

Sure, this may not be what normally sits on your counter top, but doesn't it look better than the usual bills and coupons? Remember, you are selling an idealized lifestyle, not your reality.

Dated is dreary. Strive to stage your space with a current and fresh feel. Use updated neutrals on the walls and furnishings that are clean-lined and simple. Punches of color are great; just use them sparingly. A room arranged symmetrically and centered on the architecture reads as peaceful — one of those important aesthetics every buyer is drawn to.

If you are updating a kitchen or bath before putting your home on the market, keep the finishes neutral and classic. This is not the time to show off your personal style. You want to broaden your buying audience by appealing to a wide variety of tastes and preferences.

This bathroom would definitely appeal to buyers with either traditional or contemporary taste, and could later be personalized with the new homeowner's preferences for color and accessories.

This clever arrangement draws attention to the unique architecture in the space and illustrates a smart use for the area under the stairs: an office nook. This area is nicely decorated, not staged.

If I were staging this area, I would keep the desk, chair and lamp, remove overly personal items such as family photos, and leave a few pieces of art and an attractive notebook and pen. Simple accessories can help draw attention to a functional space.

Decorating one’s home is personal. The décor you create is based on your personality and your taste. Decorating a home is the process of turning a house (the physical building) into a home. And not just any home—your home. Staging, on the other hand, is the opposite of personal. Staging is about highlighting possibility. It’s about showing a prospective buyer the potential of the home. And it’s about making the home as appealing as possible to anyone, not one specific person. The reason should be obvious—it’s a mistake to stage a home with a particular style because not every prospective buyer will appreciate that style.

Specifically, that means:

Choose neutral colors. Bold, distinctive colors won’t appeal to everyone. Keep it neutral and let the buyer imagine the home painted in whatever colors they would like.

Take down family photos and art. You want potential buyers to envision themselves owning the home—and it’s hard to do that with pictures of someone else’s family all over the wall. And anything but the most neutral, “vanilla” art is injecting too much “personality” into the décor.

Get rid of clutter—even if that means putting furniture in storage. When you’re trying to showcase the potential of a home, the last thing you want is clutter everywhere. Give the prospective buyers the space they need to visualize the home as they would decorate it. If that means helping your client find a nearby storage facility, do so!

This guest bedroom is full of great staging ideas.

It has lots of on-trend design details, but it's sparse on accessories and other distractions. The color palette is simple, easy on the eyes and would be attractive to both men and women. Most potential buyers would remember this appealing room long after leaving the house.Dated is dreary. Strive to stage your space with a current and fresh feel. Use updated neutrals on the walls and furnishings that are clean-lined and simple. Punches of color are great; just use them sparingly. A room arranged symmetrically and centered on the architecture reads as peaceful — one of those important aesthetics every buyer is drawn to.

If you have a distinctive decorating style — whether it's Tuscan, shabby chic or modern — you're going to need to scale it back a bit. If you don't, your home will appeal to the small percentage of potential buyers who love your chosen style. Staging is about strategic editing and depersonalizing, rather than decorating and personalizing. Although everyone has different tastes in decor and furnishings, most people want a home that is welcoming, functional, peaceful and organized. Tailor your house so that buyers will describe it in those terms rather than by your style of decorating. Getting rid of clutter and having fewer but larger accessories is a great place to start.

Making sure your home isn't taste specific doesn't mean your rooms should be devoid of color. Instead, keep color schemes simple and dose them with an on-trend neutral, like a clean tan, a soft gray or a warm white.

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