This model home visually illustrates the many differences between interior design and home staging.

For Part 1 of this project click here.

Listing agent Donna Blais contacts AtWell Staged Home in early August. Less than two weeks later, we meet at the home to create a proposal for the home seller, who will be flying into town in about a month.

At that mid-September meeting, the seller gives us the green light to proceed with our plan. Over the next 30 days, the primary bedroom and basement are painted, carpeting installed, and the faded hardwood floors refinished.

Not long after, in late October, we have an incredibly productive three-hour working session to put all of the furniture pieces into place. Unfortunately, it’s during this time that we discover that the home requires more mouse mitigation—in the form of an additional deep cleaning—on top of what has already been done.

Even with that discovery things are going well, and at this pace, we feel that we can still finish the remainder of the staging before Thanksgiving.

But as we’re waiting for the cleaning to take place, we receive some bad news. The heating system has failed, cannot be repaired, and needs to be completely replaced.

It’s now late November, frigidly cold outside, and everyone agrees that it makes no sense to do the deep clean until after the heat is working again. So we wait.

At the end of March we receive the good news that the heat is working and the home has been cleaned. We immediately pick up where we left off in late October and finish the staging on tax day.

Exactly two years after its original listing date—and eight months after Donna’s first call to AtWell Staged Home—the home is finally ready to list.

My favorite find in this 5,300-square-foot house is what will become the dining-room buffet. It is discovered while exploring the unfinished portions of the basement, still in its original packing box.

After bringing the dining table and chairs up from the basement, the dining area remains a bit too sparse. It feels out of balance in relation to the adjacent family and living rooms.

We need something big in this dining room to balance the spaces. An area rug is the logical answer, but we really don’t want the added expense. Not to mention how challenging it could be to coordinate something new with the existing “time-stamped” colors.

We remove the two art pieces flanking the massive dining-room mirror and place the buffet below. It fits perfectly. Although we have no idea what this piece was originally intended for, it works as a buffet and even better, it’s free!

The secret to staging furnished homes is in the editing and in the creative, and sometimes unexpected, use of existing pieces. The aim is to craft a balanced and cohesive feel so that potential buyers flow from room to room with ease.

Oh, and did I mention that prior to our involvement, the home was placed on the market to be sold “as is?” Donna described how buyers could not get past the condition. It blinded them from seeing the features, the potential, and especially the beautiful views.

For that reason, this home is on the market listed only as “land” while the staging, cleaning, and critical repairs are taking place.

This one-of-a-kind home and property are going to be a “tough sell,” requiring a unique and special buyer. My gut tells me that it will be on the market at least a year before that happens, so I’m ecstatic when I see the pending sale just 6 months later.

This 4-bed, 5-bath, 5,300-square-foot Pawling, NY, model home on 101 acres, sells faster than expected for $2.1M.

I know staging works, and yet I can never guarantee the results. A wonderful and skilled agent, a generous and kind seller, and a supportive property manager come together to get this home sold…finally. Just one more testament to the importance of staging when selling any home.

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