How to work with an interior stager

Are you looking to put your home on the market or perhaps you want to convert a lived in home into a holiday let, then you may want to enlist the help of an interior stager. An interior stager can help you either bring your vision to life or help you create the vision in the first place.

An interior stager will work collaboratively alongside you to transform a dull and uninspiring space into one that’s either ready to be put on the market or to be advertised to aspirational holiday renters. 

If you’re considering consulting an interior stager, here’s how best to work with them…

1. Decide you need the help of an interior stager 

What exactly does an interior stager do? Every professional offers a different bespoke service however, a stager essentially transforms an uninspiring space into an inspiring one through the principles of interior design that will appeal to a certain audience or market. This may involve reconfiguring the layout of a property and introducing new furniture, lighting and accessories. 

This translates to being able to sell a home quicker or turning a lived in home into a holiday let ready to be rented out by holiday makers. 

2. Find an interior stager that you click with 

When hiring any professional, it’s important to do your research. Search in google interior stagers local to you and see what particular services each one can offer.

A great thing to do is to look at their portfolio, which should be on their website. You can see Nesh’s portfolio, here. This way, you’ll be able to get a sense of what some of their previous projects looked like and to see if their work suits you and your needs. 

3. Be clear on the services an interior stager provides

Once you’ve found an interior stager you think you’d like to work with, get in touch with them to see exactly how they can help you, this will involve individual services and you’ll also be able to get an estimate of what your project is going to cost.

Nesh offers…

• Empty property staging

• Occupied property staging

• Holiday home styling & installation

To see a full breakdown of Nesh’s interior staging services, click here. 

4. Work on a brief

Once you and an interior stager have had an initial conversation, it’s important for you to have a clear vision in your mind of what you want the stager to achieve.

You don’t need to have an exact look or finish in mind as the interior stager can work with you on this. But, it’s key to know what exact help and services you require. A project is likely going to be far more successful and efficient if you give the stager a brief to work from, from the beginning. 

5. Let the moodboards begin!

Moodboards and initial design concepts are key to start bringing an interior vision to life. You would have had conversations with your stager about certain influences and design elements that you wish to incorporate in the space as part of the brief, so seeing these come to life really is the exciting part.

This will include colour schemes, certain wall coverings, textures and patterns as well as exploring the surrounding location to see if this can be of any influence. 

Seeing a moodboard can really help you visualise what the final design will look like and can be crucial in making any tweaks or changes. 

6. Collaboration is key 

Every project is unique and will require different levels of collaboration. An interior stager should be happy to collaborate at which ever level you’re happy with. They should be flexible enough to work with your specific needs and creative enough to come up with ideas that you may not have thought of before.

The entire process from start to finish should be a collaboration, which makes the finished result even more rewarding. 

7. An ongoing relationship 

Nesh has built fundamental relationships with their clients over the years that has manifested in reoccurring projects. Trusting your interior stager that they are going to deliver the results you want is vital and once you have built that trust, it’s a relationship that can be nurtured for any projects that may come up in the future.

A great example is the relationship between Nesh and Timm Property Group, a property developer based in East Anglia. Nesh has worked on many of their renovation projects, turning period properties into aspirational holiday lets. Here’s what they had to say…

“Lorna has staged quite a few of our properties and she is a pleasure to work with, a great collaborator, and always understands the brief”. 

If you’d like to discuss an upcoming staging project, click the button below.