Plastic fruit has come a long way and Grandma’s long derided basket of apples is no longer the punchline it used to be. There are fairly convincing fake plants these days, and from 50 paces, you’ll never clock it. However, more often than not you will intrinsically know when you look at plastic replicas of real things that they are not the authentic item. That subconscious is telling you something ain’t right. That’s one of the many reasons Spade and Archer does not use any fakery in our home staging.
Home buying is an exercise in fantasy. Buyers go into an empty house and pretend it is their own, suspending reality long enough to imagine themselves living in that space. If a buyer, lost in their dinner party dreams, stumbles upon a bowl of fake grapes and is ripped from their reverie, they’re not likely to keep fantasizing about the rest of the place. Studies have shown that the longer a buyer stays in a home the more likely they are to buy it. We want the potential buyer to picture themselves in the home and form an emotional attachment to it and have a complete experience where it’s all about them without any interruptions. The last thing they want is to be distracted by tomfoolery posing as plastic plants which is why the subliminal nature of home staging is one of its greatest benefits.
Believability is an important aspect and one of the reasons we don’t use any fake accessories throughout our stages. Items such as fake televisions and fake computers photograph quite poorly and the importance of designing a home for beautiful listing photos is extremely high as that is the home’s first line of attraction to buyers. Televisions are a fact of modern life though admittedly they are not all that attractive. In photos, a television looks like a big black hole in the wall, distracts from the architecture of the home, and forces the buyer to see only that particular arrangement of items. We like to give a gentle guide to those walking through the house, showing them what furniture will fit without forcing them to place their stuff exactly the same. Instead of a big TV that only takes up space, we will place beautiful art over a piece of furniture to give the metaphor of a television without scripting it so definitively. It looks better in pictures and gives the buyer freedom of creativity.
Integrity is a major tenet of the Spade and Archer philosophy and the third reason we don’t use anything fake in our staging. We believe that if a king bed is in a room then it proved to also actually fit up the stairs, down the hall, around the corner and into the room. Many stagers will use inflatable mattresses in their staging to save cost and labor. The problem is it tricks the buyer into believing something that may not be true. Imagine the surprise on move-in day when their real box spring won’t make the turn on the stairwell to get up to the room. Would you be happy buying something as expensive as a house and thinking all your stuff would fit only to find out it’s impossible?
Real things make a real impact. It’s important to know what you’re looking at without having to second-guess authenticity. Pictures are important and your first impression, especially in a time where digital content is ruling the world. Truth is important in all aspects, even if it’s just a mattress.