Professional home staging continues to grow in the present time, however, many people are confused between home staging and interior design. It is a common misconception that the two are one and the same. Home staging is a type of home design but it is, in fact, different from interior design.
Both home staging and interior design require the knowledge as well as an understanding of design elements and principles. Both have the same goal which is making your home look its best, but each serves a very distinct purpose. Generally, home staging is a process of preparing a home for sale, while interior design, on the other hand, is the act of working with a homeowner to personalize the design of their space. If you’re still confused, here are other key differences in home staging and interior design.
Home Staging
Home staging is a branch of the design industry that highlights a home’s best features and helps clients sell quickly. Home stagers use their interior design expertise to dress a home for sale. They carefully improve their clients’ home in order to entice buyers.
Part of the improvements done by home stagers are, banishing clutter from different rooms, displaying a client’s unique decorative items in new ways or also known as re-designing, removing personal items from the home, and evaluating what repairs are needed to be done to improve the home’s interior and exterior. Home staging is currently popular and in high demand service. It allows buyers to imagine themselves happily living in a space which increases the chances of them purchasing the house.
Interior Design
Interior design is the most popular branch of the home design industry. It deals with the look and feel of a room. It is a process of transforming the space by using different accessories, artworks, window treatments, and more. An interior designer ensures that a homeowner’s personal aesthetic is incorporated with the functionality they need for daily living.
To further understand the differences between home staging and interior design, here are their other dissimilarities:
Neutral vs Personal Tones
The aim of home staging is to depersonalize your home and give it a neutral feel for it to appeal to all buyers. A home stager would choose to paint the walls a neutral color such as gray or cream and place neutral pieces of decor throughout the home.
Interior design, on the other hand, aims to bring the homeowner’s vision to life while adding in their own personal items such as family photos, and other personal things throughout the home.
Decluttering vs Accessorizing
How a room is used and what is brought into the room is another difference between home staging and interior design. In home staging, all items from a room that are not serving a purpose, or those that are making the space look cluttered and small would be removed. The rooms need to look as open and as clean as possible to avoid distracting the home’s features and floor plan.
In interior design, the things needed for the space will be brought in accordingly. It is done by bringing in furnishings and accessories. It uses the room’s full potential, but not necessarily cluttering the space. Unlike home staging, it does not place an emphasis on making the space look bigger.
Modern vs Custom Design
Home staging focuses on more modern designs. The goal of a home stager is to make the space look bright, calm, and inviting as possible. Interior design, on the other hand, is more of custom designs to meet the needs of the homeowner. Interior designers usually use beautiful wallpapers, unique furnishings, and other elements that will create a distinctive style.
Cost
The cost of home staging is based on the size and scope of the project. The average price of home staging for each room you want can be around $500 per month. And if you choose to rent some furniture or artworks to stage your home, the price can go up. Interior design, on the other hand, is a much expensive service because interior designers can charge more, ranging from $100 to $500 per hour, depending on their expertise.
These are some of the differences between home staging and interior design. If you are planning to sell your home, you might want to contact a home stager that will help you re-design your home to attract buyers. But if you want to improve the look of your home and make it more personalized for your daily living, an interior designer is what you need.