Home staging and interior decorating are terms often used interchangeably and are misunderstood by home owners who don’t quite understand interior design concepts. While the two terms have some similarities, they are very different.

Knowing the difference is critical. It will help you sell your home and appeal to any buyers, regardless of age, gender, and lifestyle.

To put simply, interior decorating is about personal style and pizazz while home staging is not so taste specific. With home staging, you want to be more neutral and get rid of clutter and large accessories while formulating a positive impression along the way. For more on home staging, feel free to read our article on home staging tips.

So What Is Home Staging?
With home staging, you get inside the mind of the buyer – detach yourself from your home and your personal style and preferences. It is better to hold a more objective, all encompassing point of view, yet maintain a tasteful perspective. It can be a challenge, but this is a key point to consider if you are to successfully make your home appealing and sell it for good dollar.

You’re selling a lifestyle – not necessarily your home: meaning, you are selling what the home could be to buyers, not your home with touches of your own personal taste or bias.

It’s important to remember this point: buyers want a functional, welcoming, organized, and peaceful home, despite their tastes in home décor. When you style and stage your home, keep these four terms in mind – functional, welcoming, organized and peaceful. Everyone, given various tastes, needs to see your home as their future stay and have a sense of long lasting appeal on their own accord. Therefore, when it comes to home staging, you don’t need to implement the decor for them. Home staging in Vancouver, like any place, is about creating ambiance and appeal to buyers. Remember those four words mentioned above.

What about Color?
You don’t have to devoid your home of color; instead, stick to simple color palettes with current trendy neutrals – like cool grays, tans, and warm whites. Don’t use traditional white, unless you want to have a very modern look. And you’re appealing to a small percentage of buyers.

If you currently have a distinct decorating style, tone it down. Staging is not decorating and personalizing. It’s the opposite. Use pops of color to bring brightness and draw in the eye but use sparingly.

You need to center your furnishings, so they align with your architecture – clean lines read peaceful and relax the eye. Staging is about visuals; aesthetics draws buyers in. You want buyers to remember your home after they’ve left and looked at other options. Your house must be memorable.

Choose color palettes and home decor that’s appealing to men and women. You want to keep things simple, clean, and up-to-date with the current trends.

Head over to our article on ‘Trending Colors in Interior & Design’ for more information on trending colors.

What about Home Renovations?
When doing home renovations, keep them neutral and classic. Don’t steer toward your personal taste and style. You want to appeal to a large array of buyers. New owners can add their touche or flair of personality where they like at a later date.

The goal of home staging is to attract everyone and deter no one. You want to invite and appeal to everyone. You hear appeal a lot, and that’s because it’s about impact. It’s the keyword that will set you apart from other homes. Interior decorating is more about your personal preferences, needs, wants and style. It doesn’t appeal to everyone, but it suits you and your lifestyle.

Interior design in Vancouver is a huge market. But using it alone won’t help you here. For once, it isn’t about impressing buyers with how well you’ve decorated the place, but how well it’s neutralized to appeal to everyone – a clean, inviting space they can transform into their own.

Do you think interior decorating and home staging are different? Or are they the same? We want to hear from you.