ON-SITE VISITS & DRAFTING THE PROPOSAL
When a client calls, whether first-time or repeat clients, we generally have a brief conversations to get a sense of the scope of the project. This is also a pre-screening process to see if we would be a good fit with their project.
After the initial phone conversation we schedule an on-site visit with the client. On-site visits are crucial because it gives us a lot of essential information that we need to take into consideration in planning effective staging – like what the neighborhood is like, who the target buyers may be, the flow of the space, what challenges we might be facing, particular issues with the home we may need to address through staging, and what finishes and color schemes we will use for staging.
This process can also become time-consuming on the back end, even though it may only look like we spent 15-30 minutes on site writing notes & taking photos for planning purposes. Many stagers bill for on-site visits, because typically with traffic, it takes about an hour or more to get to the site and back. After the visit, our 2 designers invest another 30 minutes to an hour in discussing the design plan for the property. So overall, drafting a staging proposal can take 2-3 hours.
IN STUDIO: DESIGN & PREP
Before we prep, our designers sit down together again and go through our notes & the photos we took during our site visit. We go through the photos room by room and double-check the proposal to determine what we will need to pull from inventory to enhance the home’s existing colors, finishes, and architecture details. On almost every stage, we procure some new items, specifically for that home, so time spent looking online for the right items, driving to and from stores, and shopping for just the right items is yet another time consuming task.
Once all items are in our inventory and the full design and staging plan has been laid out, we print out our prep list and off we go.
Much like our actual staging process, we work from big to small when pulling items from inventory for the staging. We normally pick the largest pieces first, like sofa, coffee table, rug, accent chairs, etc. and work our way down to the smaller items. Pulling and packing accessories takes a substantial amount of time.
Usually, our pull and prep process takes 4-6 hours with both of us working. We pull accessories and decorative items, then we pull lighting and artwork. After that we map out on paper the locations of the big pieces that are going to get packed first. (This is why we ask clients for at least a 3-day notice before scheduling the installation date, because we need to schedule time in for prep.)
STAGING DAY!
On staging day we are already hard at work on your staging project several hours before we ever pull up to the house. Typically, load-out takes about 1-1.5 hours, depending on the size of the job. It takes about an hour to an hour and a half to pick up the trailer and our moving helpers before we ever get underway. With traffic, once we’ve hooked up the trailer and picked up the movers, and loaded the trailer, we are generally in transit en route to the client’s home for about 1/2 an hour to 45 minutes. Once we arrive at the house, it’s a flurry of activities.
Our movers have been with us for a long time and they know roughly where we want to place furniture. They also know the routine we use for where to place our bins. Once bins are out, we start unpacking everything so we can visually shop decor pieces and accessories to style each room. We always bring more inventory than we know we will need, so that we have the flexibility to make design modifications on the fly, as we see how the space is coming together. Staging can be a dynamic process. Every space takes on a certain life of its own, and its important to be flexible when implementing the staging, to ensure to get the design right. Staging isn’t just furnishing or decorating – its product merchandising. So a lot of continued analysis and decision making goes on even once we are on site. Changes to the initial plan often have to be made on the fly as improvements become apparent. We do what is necessary to ensure we’ve packaged your home to sell.
Like the way we pull inventory initially, during installation we drop the big pieces first and then work on accessories and artwork.
We usually invest about 24 hours of actual hands-on work on site during install (2 stagers each on site for about 12 hours in total). Its a lot of time, but we are, afterall, moving into an entire home. After everything is in place, we do a once-over to make sure everything is perfect and we are happy with the overall staging. We don’t leave until we get it exactly right. The home is photograph-ready when we leave.
WRAP & PACK
Once the home is sold and contingencies are removed (until contingencies are removed, your home sale is not yet a done deal. The deal can still fall apart.), our Project Coordinator schedules a date for de-staging. On de-staging day we arrive at the house and start packing. Movers arrive to move everything out. Generally depending on the size of the project, on-site removal can take 2-3 hours. Once back at our warehouse, we spend another 1-2 hours on de-staging activities. After movers have unloaded everything and left, we unpack the bins and restock everything in our warehouse.
All in all, from initial contact (email phone, or facebook messaging), prep, on-site staging to de-staging, pack and wrap, a home staging project can take about 75-85 man hours on average to complete. Staging the home right is a time-consuming process. One that has a lot of invisible pieces that are unseen and therefore bit always understood or appreciated by our clients.
It is a lot of hard work. To have a fully stocked staging inventory of furniture, art, accessories, rugs, lamps takes many 100s of hours to curate, procure and develop. We also have to constantly be on our toes with trends and new inventory by frequently visiting vendors and furniture shows. But all is well worth each time we transform a space and pull together something awesome for our clients.