"I believe each house has a soul, an essence that one connects with. I have a passion for decorating and designing which began when I was a child. I would drive my parents …
“If you have a love of decorating and know you have the talent, the Staging Diva Training Program is very informative for all the administrative ‘how to’ stuff. Debra is very clear about how to run this business, and her expertise is generously shared in this program.”
“The audio tapes are wonderful. I almost forgot the courses were pre-recorded, as I wanted to join in the conversation at times!”
~ Teri Stayner, Teri’s Interiors and Home Staging (California)
Wondering if you need to go to interior design school to learn home staging?
Even if you love decorating and have the raw talent to be a home stager, you may wonder whether you need to return to school to learn home staging.
Debra Gould always wondered if she should have gone back to school to become an interior designer. However, she wasn’t able to take 4 years off work to go to school full-time, and when she discovered home staging, she realized that she didn’t need interior design training because she had natural decorating talent.
Here’s Debra’s account of what she learned being a Professional Home Stager instead of being an “Interior Designer”:
- As a home stager, you get far more projects to work on because they are shorter term in nature. This means much more variety.
- As a home stager, your clients give you creative control because they know they don’t have to live with what you do to their homes. You get to be creative and make the decisions.
- As a home stager, you get projects for interior redesign and color consulting because your staging clients love what you do with the house they’re selling and ask you to work on the one they’re moving into.
- As a home stager, you get to work with people who wouldn’t normally hire an interior designer or decorator, which means a much larger target market.
The other important thing I learned is that I would have hated being an interior designer!
It’s really frustrating doing a beautiful room only to see your client later clutter it up with additions that clash with everything you’ve done. It’s also hard having to sit there for hours while they can’t decide which fabric they want to pick.
I love having the creative control I get from staging houses. I get to execute my vision because clients realize I’m decorating their house to sell, not for them to live in it. There is no way I could have done hundreds of homes in so short a period with an interior design degree fresh out of school.
Granted, because I’ve never gone through an Interior Design program, (or ever taken an interior design or color course!), I can’t tell you if a chair is Louis the XVI, or draw plans to build an addition off the back of a house, but I don’t miss having those skills!
The kind of people that hire me (upper middle class, usually professionals) don’t really care!
They hire me because they know I’m an expert in decorating a house to sell because they’ve visited my websites, they’ve heard about me from their neighbors or real estate agents, or they’ve read about Six Elements or Staging Diva in the media.
For the things I don’t know, I’d happily refer them to a trained interior designer! I know they have many skills that I don’t. But like I said, I learned I wouldn’t want to be an interior designer so that’s OK by me. And, it was a relief to finally let go of all the wondering about it!
Related Reading:
> California Interior Designer Finds Success as Home Stager
> Recession Proofing Your Interior Design or Decorating Business
