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How to start a career as a home stager

October 15, 2012

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Successful home stager Naomi Findlay was always being asked for her business secrets so she decided to start the International Institute of Home Staging (IIHS) to share her wealth of knowledge with the many people who are keen to forge themselves a flexible career in interiors. She spoke to Interiors Addict about the IIHS and shared some top tips for staging a home for sale.

Naomi Findlay of SILK Home Staging & Styling & IIHS

What exactly is home staging?

Home staging (also known as pre-sale property styling) is the process of preparing your property for sale in a way that gives you the best chance of achieving the maximum sale price in the quickest possible timeframe. It is a systematic process that involves many elements and aspects of maintenance, marketing and styling. All of these elements combine to provide a synergistic effect that showcases your property’s strong points and makes sure it shines and soars above its competition.

This is the kind of job lots of people think they could do. Why isn’t it as easy as it looks?

There are so many elements to the process of home staging, it is not all about pillows, lamps and throws. To stage a home successfully you require a thorough knowledge of the property market, astute research skills, project management abilities, strong foundational design skills, knowledge of the design industry and trends and high end communication skills, just to name a few. To top it off you need to combine all of these elements in often short timeframes.

Why did you decide to set up IIHS?

Running a busy home staging company (SILK Home Staging & Styling) I get the chance to meet and help amazing people and work with amazing properties every day. A week does not go by when someone doesn’t say to me “what a dream job…I wish I did what you do….. how great is your job, running around town creating amazing spaces… you are so lucky that you get to set your hours that work with your family”. It got me thinking that there was little available to help these people break into the industry so I wanted to develop a set of courses that could be used to either develop sound home staging skills to effectively stage your own home or to develop a thriving home staging company just like mine.

Some of Naomi’s staging work

Why is it important to have some professional training around home staging?

Similar to styling and designing in Australia, there is no governing body of home staging. Worse still, there is no formal qualification for home staging in Australia. With the industry starting to boom here, it is important for the industry and the consumer, that some professional training be available. This will help ensure the industry moves in the right direction, with high quality service and great results. For me, this is the first step in that journey and there are many more exciting developments that will come out of the IIHS in the coming year.

Why is this different to what’s already offered in Australia?

Currently in Australia there are very few home staging training opportunities. Of what is available, it is either primarily driven from the American home staging market and mindset or a residential course. The real estate system here is very different from that in the States and I though it was important to offer a course based on an Australian market. The courses IIHS offer also vary from those already on the market as they can be completed from a distance in a self paced manner. There are no added expenses of taking time off work and travel that a residential course imposes upon you.

What’s your background and why are you a good person to write these courses?

My background is actually in education. I have been a university lecturer for many years now and hold a PhD in the field of reflective learning. I am also a published author in the field of home staging and property investment. With a professional styling and design qualification behind me, I have developed a successful home staging business from the ground up and have a great understanding of what it takes to make it in this industry. It seemed like a natural fit for me to combine my passions for home staging, education and property development and parcel them up into courses, for all to benefit from.

Give us 3 quick tips for staging your own home for the maximum sale price?

  • Know your market and ensure your product is a good fit. This is where research is an essential step.
  • Get into the buyer’s head. Your property is no longer a home, it is a product, and to stage it successfully you need to view it from through buyers’ eyes.
  • Ask for help. Home staging is a multifaceted process and it is really important to utilise experts around you. These professionals can range from builders, cleaners, home stagers or building inspectors to name a few. Don’t risk leaving money on the table for the buyer by thinking you can do it all yourself.

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I'm THRILLED to be an ambassador for the brand new I'm THRILLED to be an ambassador for the brand new @madeinaustshow in Sydney this August.

🦘🐨Forget every tacky association you ever had about touristy Australian made and prepare to see a showcase of the best of home, lifestyle, fashion and beauty made right here. If the pandemic has made you appreciate buying local even more, this is for you.

It's the first business to business trade event connecting retailers with Australian made products to champion our local makers🙏

Apply to exhibit or find out more at their website, via their bio, now!

Are YOU buying more Australian made post covid?

#madeinaustralia #australianmade #aussiemade #aussiedesign
Do I recommend a timber vanity top? A big fat NOP Do I recommend a timber vanity top?

A big fat NOPE! 💧 

Which is why we have recently covered ours with a Caesarstone top (thanks to @justinplace_sydney for the advice and supply) and the sweet RELIEF of not having to worry about this high traffic area anymore, I'm telling you!🤗

Doesn't matter what they tell you or how many times it's sealed, I'm not sure it's a great idea in a room which is so, well, wet!

I love having the warmth of timber in the bathroom and it's a beautiful piece, but timber on the top? Never again.

Ours probably lasted a year (if that) before it started to go downhill (and we want a good decade out of a bathroom, right?!). 2.5 years on, everything else in this bathroom looks virtually brand new and the water marked vanity top was really letting the side down and making me sad!

But I'm so pleased with this solution, I have to say! Took the plumber less than an hour to remove the sink, install the top and connect the sink back up. We didn't need to move the tap and it isn't too close to the basin.

The kids are allowed to brush their teeth and wash their hands (liquid soap 🥴) in here again and I can leave my hair straightener on there with gay abandon 😆

The reflective surface (which I can clean with whatever I like!💪🏻) brightens the room up too!

Next week I'll tell you what I really think of my brass tile trim too 😉

#interiorsaddictbathroomreno2 #interiorsaddictfamilyhomereno #timbervanity
Is there a more decadent and delicious soup than F Is there a more decadent and delicious soup than French onion?

I think not!

Grab the recipe on the blog this morning via link in bio.
Get to know me! I haven't done one of these in YE Get to know me!

I haven't done one of these in YEARS so there's possibly thousands of you who don't know my back story. Here's a few things you may not know about me!

✔️ I'm English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and I moved here (just for one year) back in 2008😆 

✔️ I can't end the day without a bath, even if I get home really late or on a really hot day. It's a mental health thing and my happy place. 🛁 

✔️ Before becoming a blogger and running my own small business, I was a journalist from the age of 18. My favourite news gathering times were as a newspaper crime reporter (bit different to interiors!) 📓 

✔️ I once worked at New Scotland Yard in London 🚔 

✔️I had an interview at Oxford (didn't get in!) but chose not to go to uni at all after being offered a job on the local paper #universityoflife 😁

✔️ My mum died when I was 3, I have an excellent dad and one sister (younger) in the UK ❤️ 🇬🇧 

✔️ At school, my favourite subject was French 🇫🇷 and I was head girl 🤓🤓

✔️ I'm addicted to ☕️ , long hot baths and💄 (been wearing it since I was about 14!)

✔️ I'm not a phonecall person and will never ever pick up an unknown number. Ever. They can leave a message 😁

✔️ My favourite cuisine is Japanese 🍣 🍜 and Damian and I honeymooned in Tokyo and Venice 

✔️ I have zero design qualifications. I just started blogging about my passion, which is trying to persuade everyone to #heartyourhome That was 11 years ago...

✔️ My favourite tipple is a good GnT or🍷 

✔️ Cheesy as it sounds, 💁‍♀️being a mum is my absolute biggest joy in life 🧒👦

✔️ I will never give up my old school paper diary! Has to be A5 and week to view 📖 

✔️ My official surname isn't Bishop. I kept my maiden name for work after I got married but changed it for everything else. Often confuse myself!

✔️ I didn't get my Ps until I was 37 and I'm still a terrible parker 😯 🅿️

Hope you feel like you know me a bit better 😘

📸 @vanlowvanlow
Blue, green or lilac? 🎨 @nood_co coloured con Blue, green or lilac? 🎨 

@nood_co coloured concrete basins is a great Aussie business success story. Although co founder Matt Di Costa first found fame as one half of Matt and Kim on The Block, he hasn't relied on this to build his brand.

“We are very honoured to have been a part of The Block, and all they have done for us. I am, however, a believer in letting the product take centre stage,” he says.

Read our interview with Matt via link in bio now.

🙏Share your favourite colour basin in the comments!

#colouredconcrete #noodco #colouredbasin #blockheads #the block #bathroomtrends2022

Pic 1 by @naibudesign_ and 2 by @twostyleinteriors
I'd love to see more colour in Aussie interiors! I'd love to see more colour in Aussie  interiors! 🎨 

At the end of the day though, it's a matter of personal taste. I love pops of colour but it's not for everyone. 

We couldn't resist featuring this Canadian house tour today. The amazing Kelly Green  hutch (swipe) was an upcycled $200 find 🤗

Head over to the blog via link in bio to see the rest including one of the best playrooms we've seen in ages!

Project by @in.house.design
📸 @philcrozier
Create an unexpected city oasis with an emphasis o Create an unexpected city oasis with an emphasis on light and nature.

That was the brief for the conversion of a corner shop and a warehouse bakery into a luxury family home in Sydney's Newtown. And how about the library?!

Take the tour of this very special @annacarindesign project on the blog now, via link in bio.

Pic: @justinalexanderphoto
The things that excite me as a 40 year old 🤭 N The things that excite me as a 40 year old 🤭

None of us enjoy laundry (OK, there are a few of you out there who do. Weird!) but we have to do it. And often. So if your laundry bin can be as good looking, functional and space saving as this, then why wouldn't you?!

I've lost track of how many baskets I've thrown out because they've gone soggy or mouldy. They look pretty, sure, but they're not fit for purpose and they're often messy and overflowing.

Here's what I love about his @brabantia_australia one:

✔️ ventilation holes
✔️ no need to remove the lid for small items plus it hides your dirty laundry from view
✔️ easily removable and washable inner laundry bag that velcros back on 
✔️ corrosion resistant so fine in bathroom or laundry 
✔️ Brabantia make things as sustainably as possible
✔️ compact, sleek, European design
✔️ 10 year warranty
✔️ tall and skinny so takes up less floor in my tiny laundry

The Rolls Royce of laundry bins? I think so 👌🏻

TOLD you this was going to be exciting!

Now I need to know, do you have your laundry basket in the bathroom, the laundry, every bedroom? We used to have one in each bedroom but moved to the laundry-only situation which I much prefer (one for colours and one for whites). My boys know to put their used clothes in the bin in the laundry each night and they're 7 and 3!  #raisingfuturehusbands

#gifted
"Living rooms are important spaces where our publi "Living rooms are important spaces where our public and private lives intersect."

So says stylist @nataliewalton in her gorgeous new book Style, the Art of Creating a Beautiful Home.

"They are where we gather to welcome guests and entertain. But they are also where we decompress and relax at the end of the day. Increasingly, they are open-plan spaces and need to work within a greater scheme. Bringing all the elements together cohesively requires care and consideration. And, if you want a space that lives up to its true potential, make it personal and create with conviction."

Read an extract, the chapter on elevating your living room, on the blog today via link in bio.

Published by @thamesandhudsonau Pix by @chriswarnes 

#livingroomdesigns #nataliewalton #coffeetablebooks #designbooks #interiorsbooks #livingroominteriors #elevateyourspace
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About Jen Bishop

Jen Bishop is our owner and publisher and an experienced journalist and editor. Interiors Addict has been her full-time job for more than 8 years. She is married to Damian and mum to Sebastian and Charlie.

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