Houses come in all shapes and styles. A great house can get overlooked simply because a buyer doesn’t relate to the style. A modern looking house may turn some buyers off just from the street: it’s not their style, they can’t see their family there, they get defensive on how they live their lives. But once they come inside and see a blend of furnishings, they relax to the possibility of living there. At Spade and Archer, we use a mix of modern, contemporary, and vintage furniture and accessories in our staging to make it relatable to a wider range of buyers.
One of the great advantages of working vintage pieces into your home staging is the chance to elicit an emotional reaction from a potential buyer. Something as simple as a vase or painting might remind them of something they had in their childhood home, or Grandma’s house or even a favorite piece they’ve seen in a movie. That instant, subconscious connection to a particular item could keep the buyer in the house longer and make them dream of their own vintage pieces there. An emotional connection is a powerful resource and often outweighs the dozen other logical reactions they may have to the space.
If someone is into all modern, chances are that’s the kind of furniture they already have. They are interested in that style and they don’t need to be convinced of it. Someone else, however, may have a few modern pieces, but hardly live the Brutalist lifestyle. They have some inherited pieces as well that mean something to them. They have a lifetime of shopping and collecting and they need to see their eclectic tastes reflected in this home.
Having only one style or period of furnishings in a home makes it feel stiff and unnatural. An entire house filled with modern furniture is unapproachable. It can feel like a beautiful photo shoot- something that looks good but not something you can actually touch and have. In home staging, we of course want the home to look great, we want the pictures to be attractive and searchable, we want the buyer to be impressed and interested in our spaces, but we also want it to be accessible and comfortable.
You can easily work vintage pieces into modern architecture. Thoughtful uses of aged, curvy antique wood furniture counterbalances the sharp, cool lines of modern design. The difference of textures and contours is pleasing to the eye. Soft lines make sharp angles more special and vice versa. The lines of the home can actually be accentuated by contrasting them with something different. A straight line of a wall next to the straight line of a dresser can nullify both of them; the architecture of the home disappears. Contrasting that straight wall line with something different will highlight it and draw attention to the home itself. Our ultimate goal is to sell the house - not our style - so the more attention that can be redirected to the house, the better.
Style is subjective, taste is not. Trying to force one particular style on a buyer will result in a defensive posture. It would be a shame to miss out on the opportunity of a great home just because the buyer was turned off by its style. Mix and match is the way to go when trying to appeal to a wider audience. Selling the house is the point, and doing whatever is necessary to make each home stand out is the goal behind our staging.
