I use staging co's in my listings. I have had excellent experience with professional staging co's. However, not all stagers are equal. In this particular instance, it was a miss IMO.

I would totally stage my house if my sweet family would leave it be. :-)

I’ll post some more before and after photos. I won’t indicate which photo is staged so people can give their uninfluenced opinions.

I prefer the staged room, much more interesting than the static positioning of the furniture in the first pic. The TV is obviously placed too high but other than that ...

One of the primary goals of staging, per industry literature, is to highlight the focal points of a room. Here are before and after photos (not necessarily in that order) where the goal was to call buyers' attention towards the home's selling features.

tqtqtbw - I can sympathize, I've started forming alliances with my family to ensure that common areas of the home at least are kept relatively neat. Admittedly I have a little OCD. It does bother me when people use a room and then just leave a bunch of their stuff behind.

That angled sofa looks like the corner of the room is the highlight we should all be focusing on. It’s odd, to say the least. Angling furniture is always tricky. If it works, it’s only when the room is very large, and most everything in the room is on an angle (otherwise it looks like you bumped into the furniture and it needs to be straightened). Here the room highlight is a fireplace (that obviously can’t be pivoted) so it’s a non-starter.

I, too, am 1000% not getting the angled couch thing as an improvement. Looks super awkward to me, uncomfortable and not a good use of the space. I know home staging is effective for selling homes, but I have a hunch that much of what formally staging a home entails (and rightly so) is getting rid of too much clutter and tchotchkes. In Ana's pic, the staged version of the room has the table removed, the rug removed, the blinds removed, the bench (?) and table-ish thingy on the right side of the picture removed, and the chairs flanking the fireplace are farther apart to clear the way for a view of the fireplace. It's certainly nice, a little sterile (and who the heck would sit in the two chairs 15 feet apart from one another), and it isn't necessarily how one would live and enjoy that space in real life. I'd be sittin' right next to that fireplace :D

I've never cared for randomly angled furniture in a space, and the photo above does nothing to change my mind. In fact, I think it makes the room look oddly smaller. In the second set of photos, it's clear that the staging is in the first pic. Sometimes staging removes clutter and extraneous elements. In so doing, it occasionally takes away personal touches and creates a more sanitized space. And in the case of the angled sofa, sometimes staging just does something a bit silly and tries to pass it off as an improvement.

Interesting to read the comments and personal stories, thanks everyone. All valid points I've read so far.

The second pair of photos is from the same staging book and the unstaged photo is meant to show that buyers were seeing the furnishings of the room and missing the fixed focal points of the room - the fireplace and cozy alcove. As has been pointed out, in the staged photo much of the furniture has been removed including the rug to highlight the two fixed architectural features that will stay with the property and are very difficult or impossible to change.

This pair of photos addresses an unexpected angle in a room. The before photo is described as an oddly-shaped room that looks small and difficult to furnish. The after photo is meant to show how proportionate furniture and an angled arrangement work to balance the angle in the room.

While the angle sofa in the original pic undoubtedly makes the room more photogenic, people who live in the home don't want to have an amazing view of the fireplace from the foyer (or wherever the photo was shot from). They want to have an amazing view of the fireplace from where they sit.

The placement of the rug in the last photo draws even more focus to the awkward layout. Where are these photos from?

It is difficult to know in the second pair of photos if the staging solved a problem without all the elements of the problem. Is the second property supposed to attract only single buyers? To me, this looks like a very small place and having seating for two in the living area only emphasizes how small and awkward the room shows. It would make for a difficult sale with this particular staging effort.

The staging needs to showcase the property properly, evoke a positive emotion AND show a solution when faced with an awkward room. In that respect the second pair fail. Sometimes that solution is not showing two uses for a small room, but one well done use that makes sense to the target market. The examples you show are not the best for staging ideas. But they are thought provoking.

For the second pair with the corner FP: a better solution would be to seat 4 similar to the pic below but with properly scaled furniture. Naturally there is no room for shelves on either side of the FP (and that's a good thing). The focus when you have this seating arrangement is on conviviality, conversation and use of the room with an amenity (FP) rather than focusing the entire room toward the awkward corner. The staging book you are using appears to either be outdated or these particular pairs you are showing are examples of unsuccessful staging attempts. JMO.

I am making an assumption here that the table is not necessary at all. That this is not the eating area for the property. If it is the only eating area, then the design would focus on that rather than seating.

Many furniture arrangements that work very well don't photograph in an interesting manner. Many arrangements that make for a nice photograph would not be all that functional. Staging for photographs is primarily to make the room look good in photographs, not necessarily to be a livable room.

now I understand this is about staging, and I also understand a TV in a room is not always important however if there is a TV it should be placed properly. The TV in the room the OP posted is not only in a bad place for general looks it is useless.

The TV in the OP is also outdated technology, and it's unlikely the space would be used for that these days.

Whenever I look at a listing that has angled furniture, I assume that the room is to small for the regular placement of furniture. It is a turn off for me.

palimpsest, I agree that staging for photos is to make the room look good in photographs. However, staging to sell a property is to not only make the room look good in photos to attract buyers but to show the best use of the room when the buyers show up to see the property. Otherwise the staging falls flat on its face. I don't think having the room look good in photos and perform well are mutually exclusive.

No they aren't especially not a bedroom. Here, it's important to stage bedrooms because they are all pretty small and people can't visualize how beds will fit.

I was speaking in more general terms Even in design magazines things are often juggled a bit to make a good photograph and while the back of a sofa presenting itself to the door may not be objectionable, especially because we look over it, it may not make as good a photo or look as inviting as the sofa on an angle.

" Whenever I look at a listing that has angled furniture, I assume that the room is to small for the regular placement of furniture. It is a turn off for me. "- actually, I had too much empty space in that room..which allowed for angling and all:)

these yellow chairs-I couldn't reuse them in our current living, because they are too big. I went with older, smaller armchairs.

I couldn't even use the yellow ones in our much bigger family room-still would protrude too much.

Me and my ex traded-I took two old armchairs we bought together two decades ago, I gave him one new one..and another, lives in our beroom in the corner. And that was pretty much all where I could use it.

I guess that's why stagers repeated the angling but put furniture further apart..to "fill" the room more

I was interested in cozy living situation. They were interested in having pics for the listing(and they didn't quite succeed either lol)

But the fact was: the furniture could be angled because the size of the room allowed for it.

These photos are from a book by Christine Rae (http://www.stagingtraining.com/). I borrowed a few books from a friend on staging and interior design and I can post photos from some of these other books. I’m curious if the reaction to other sources will be the same.

In the pair of photos showing the awkwardly angled room, I wonder if an effective alternative would be to counter the angle by positioning a striped rug parallel to the fireplace to try the old designer’s trick of using a striped rug to “push” a room’s walls out more.

The before photo shows the living room of a six bedroom home in an affluent suburb of New York City that was on the market for $1.6M. It went unstaged for months and received only one offer, for $1.3M. This room had a dated carpet with a small floating rug and too much furniture and personal belongings. The result according to the author is that potential buyers couldn't see past the dated decor.

After staging, the house sold in four days for more than the asking price with multiple offers.

So far I've learned two universal truths from reading about staging:

1. Declutter, declutter, declutter

2. Hardwood floors with tasteful area rugs always trump carpeted floors

Denita - I agree, I think it's possible for a staged room to also be the optimal layout for those who live in the home. The fun part is playing around with different arrangements and seeing what works both aesthetically and functionally.

The result according to the author is that potential buyers couldn't see past the dated decor.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'd have to seriously wonder about the cognitive ability of a buyer to effectively enter into a real property transaction if they were already this conceptually "challenged." I'm sure that sounds snarky, but GAH.

This pair of before and after photos is from a different book on staging to sell homes quicker and for more money. It does seem that angling furniture is kind of a thing in the staging industry. The other books I borrowed also show the same sorts of photos.

N.B. This is not a personal vote for angling furniture. I'm just passing along what I came across.

I have heard a real estate agent making a comment in the tune of "People would just want to have your lifestyle!", when he walked into a living room of a prospective seller. The house of the said seller was done with great style, sophistication and élan, yet it was clearly very personal. It wasn't staged. It was just what it was. The house had multiple offers, sold quickly for above asking price. The real estate agent didn't have to invite a stager...

Perhaps this is one of the appeals of "staging". Buyers might want to emulate the seemingly perfect, magazine-picture-worthy and so on lifestyle, however impractical it would deem (for them) to be :).

No to the stager who wrote the book. The "after" above is not good. Would you care to share the name of the book? I have read Lauri Ward's "Use What You Have Decorating" book and she gives excellent advice on furniture placement.

Hamma - That is exactly what everyone who first walks into our apartment says. Just kidding, I wish. It's a nice goal to shoot for even if you never reach it.

Ana, most people have to start somewhere. One day at a time and you'll get there :)!

tqtqtbw - The books are "Staging to Sell" by Barb Schwarz and (don't laugh) "Home Staging for Dummies" by Christine Rae and Jan Saunders Maresh. I'll have a look at Ward's book, thanks for the recommendation.

It turns out I have a book by Lauri Ward called "Downsizing Your Home with Style" that seems relevant to this topic and includes photos to illustrate her points. I'll have a look at it.

Schwartz developed the industry of "staging". I know I read her books years ago but can't remember if the angles jarred me then or not.

LOL. I looked at the Amazon reviews to try and refresh my memory so I guess you know about her coining the phrase if you have read her book. :-)

Staging does work to show homes. I’ve always noticed that staged homes always have large plants, fake or real.

This might seem obvious, but if staging works to sell homes quicker and for more money, it would also make sense to stage an apartment that you're putting on the rental market.

My wife and I eventually plan on renting out our two bedroom condo and my goal would be that when the stager we hired comes in and takes a look around he/she says "There's nothing more for me to do" and walks out.

When I sold my apartment people assumed we had staged it, but we didn't really change a thing except we probably kept the desk and mail more neat.

Ida, I think that people are really losing their sense of the mind's eye and their ability to visualize and imagine despite being otherwise intelligent. Most people don't need that skill anymore and as knowledge gets more specialized, this just get shoved to the back.

We also don't need to be able to spell correctly, or write grammatically in many fields anymore. Obviously one sees a lot of misspellings and and poor grammar in these forums. Or at the very least poor proofing, which still sort of proves it's not important.

How many times have you read posts by people who misspell, have poor grammar, and don't seem very culturally literate who are building a 6000 square foot house with all the bells and whistles and no mortgage. It seems to happen enough. Obviously they are good at something. But being "educated" or well rounded is of less and less importance.

palimpsest - An enormous portion of this country's wealth is inherited. If someone is spending millions of dollars like it's nothing and cannot read or write, perhaps they have a large trust fund and indulging parents. Or they might be involved in illegal activity as part of the "underground economy."

palimpsest - By the way, you mistakenly wrote the word "and" twice in the third paragraph of your post :)

I don't know that an enormous portion of sustainable wealth is inherited--if by portion you mean that large numbers of different people get it. I think a relatively small portion of people get a majority of the wealth. I do believe that many people are put on a trajectory by their parents which places them in a better position to make more of their own money, but they still have to be able to work, or one day they are going to be in reduced circumstances.

But I know a lot of people who have highly remunerative jobs and are good at that one thing who are otherwise relatively ignorant both intellectually and culturally. I work in the office of one. Our current culture supports the development of a savant of sorts.

Sometimes one just needs new glasses, to more clearly see the errors that fast but clumsy fingers leave behind. :-)

Sustainable wealth is inherited. Just look at the performance of index funds over the long-term.

Pal, I see your point re my comments and see some validity there. Perhaps I'm too harsh in judging those who cannot envision a space void of certain easily voidable elements, but it's really hard to wrap my head around it. Staging to sell is a concept that remains a bit of an annoyance in my mind.

I do, however, absolutely know those who are poor spellers or writers but are still highly intelligent and effective individuals, so I shall take your point under advisement. :-)

Ana, I agree that people inherit sustainable wealth. I just think that the distribution of it is such that the majority of it ends up with a relatively small percentage of people, and not the sort of people who are posting on Gardenweb asking questions:)

Ida, I think staging has become somewhat over done. Yes to decluttering and making sure people have a good idea of what sort of furniture will fit in a particular set of rooms. (And lots of people have trouble with this). No to the artfully draped throw, the vignette of wine glasses and table setting meant to impart that romance is waiting for your if only you buy this house.

When I was in college I had a professor who was a Nobel laureate in physics who was a terrible speller.

palimpsest - I agree with you about the silly little vignettes. A personal favorite is the tray of fake crystal decanters containing what looks like whiskey but is actually iced tea.