“This looks like a million bucks!” I thought as I took a look around my latest stage. I have to be honest. I haven’t had too many million and over stage opportunities, until now. Suddenly, I am getting calls for this level of staging. There are some big differences in staging a small home versus staging a million dollar home. Most of them I had to learn the hard way. I will make it easy for you and just tell you!
For the sake of this post, let’s assume we are talking about new construction. An older million dollar home is a whole other kettle of fish.
Let’s also assume 3 other things.
- Each room is bigger than average
- Finishes and fixtures are new, high end, and shiny
- There are separate and dedicated rooms for life activities i.e. Formal dining, informal eating, study/office, etc.
Each room is bigger than average.
In today’s building acumen, the open floor plan is desired. When you combine bigger and open it presents a wonderful challenge for design and furniture placement. This is especially true when you have doorways, french doors, open kitchen plans, and no outlets in the middle of a giant room. My first rule is place the most seating aka couch facing the feature that you would want to look at if you were enjoying the room. In some cases it’s the view, in other cases, it’s a fireplace. Once you have the first large piece in place you fill in around it.
Staging a luxury home is all about playing up the amenities… pool, outdoor kitchen, wine cellar, movie room, over-sized formal dining room. Staging around those particular features is key.
Finishes and fixtures are new, high end, and shiny.
As a stager, I have learned (always the hard way) to design with the 3 ‘F’ in mind Finishes, fixtures, and flooring. For example, with shiny chrome light fixtures, it’s best to use shiny accents on furnishings. My industrial distressed metal pieces just don’t work in this scenario. With espresso stained hardwoods, I use as little wood accent as possible, or as close to the same wood stain as possible. I can’t use my matte oak footed mid-century modern pieces with dark hardwoods.
The quality of the furniture, art, and decor need to match the quality of the home.
There are separate and dedicated rooms for life activities.
In my beloved bungalows where each room needs to do double duty i.e. office/spare bedroom. In a million dollar house, there is a room for everything and the staging needs to be specific.
In my latest million dollar stage, I had the pleasure of staging a study. I could almost smell the expensive cigar as I was laying the faux, calfskin rug and the heavy leather-topped desk. 
The butler’s pantry I filled with white and red wine glasses as well as brandy snifters and cocktail mixes. You get the idea.
I had the pleasure to stage for Andy Krumholz, Listing agent at Keller Williams Lake Norman. Contact me if you want to check out this listing 2324 Kingsbury Dr.
I’ve proven I can reign in my eclectic bent, a bit when it comes to a higher priced home.
Staging is all about helping the right potential buyer feel at home by setting the scene so they can picture themselves there. I can do that no matter the price range.
