“STAGING” FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT AND RETURN.
You have just spent hours painting, finishing and perfecting a gorgeous piece of furniture… the last thing you want to do is spend more time making it pretty to take a picture… just snap one with your phone and move on….
Does this sound familiar? We’ve all done it. What’s the big deal.. Well… which one of these do you want to buy?
Here is the thing, while we are artists and can see the beauty and potential of nearly every piece we come across, there are a lot of people who just can’t. They have NO idea what a piece of furniture will look like in their home. While they think its beautiful right there on your shop floor, the fear of getting it home and trying to figure out how to use it is paralyzing and so they just walk away.
Staging is the process of pretend. So your customer can envision what your amazing piece will look like in their home or setting. If it’s a dresser, pull out a picture frame, some faux flowers (it’s a picture, who will know), a trinket or two and a hairbrush or hand mirror. Arrange them in an appealing way using odd numbers in gatherings, and unsymmetrically. Think about the ideal purchaser, are they young, older, a child? What kinds of things would they have on that dresser? Then take that photo with a quality camera and LOTS of light.
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box a bit and if you feel a piece has more than one purpose, stage it more than one way and take some photos. Long dressers can make great media centers too. Changing tables, and even a buffet in the dining room for the right piece. Showing it in more than one way, just gets creative juices flowing in everyone and opens up the number of people who will consider the purchase of something you have ready to sell.
Staged photos taken with a quality device look professional, they garner more attention and get repinned and shared FAR more often than grainy not-staged photos taken with the camera app on your phone.
Paint Safe!
