A home stylist is a decorating professional who is very similar in many ways to a home stager. However, the purpose of styling a home is very different than the reasons cited for home staging, making a clear distinction between the 2 professions. Luckily, the skill sets are very much the same, allowing many decorators to work as both stagers and stylists, depending on the needs of their clients and the service preferences of each professional.
This essay documents the function of real estate stylists and spotlights the criteria that make stylists different than stagers.
What is a Property Stylist?
Home styling is an in-demand design art in which the aesthetic professional plans and implements a strategy to improve the look, feel and flow of a client’s home, based on the occupants needs and wants. Styling caters to the customer’s tastes and improves their property based on the idea that the client will remain in the home to enjoy the new décor as a lifestyle enhancement. This is very unlike home staging, which is performed exclusively in order to alter the home to match the target buyer demographic’s needs and wants, when selling a home.
So, in essence, the difference between staging and styling is not what is done, but instead, for whom the changes are made: prospective buyer versus present owner. Therefore, a property stylist is a design professional who chooses to concentrate on decorating for owners that will continue to live in the newly improved space, rather than sell it.
Unique Home Stylist Services
What makes a property stylist different than an interior decorator or a contractor is their unique way of optimizing the décor using as little money as possible. Renovation work is completely left out in most cases, although a stylist may recommend remodeling in some desperate instances. The stylist will instead tend towards surface and cosmetic improvements which cost little and typically can be done with a small team of decorating assistants or even by the homeowner themselves.
Some stylists work as consultants and simply guide homeowners in DIY projects for a far-discounted fee.
Stylists usually utilize much of the present furniture and accessories, but may modify these elements to fit a more cohesive design plan, as well as bringing in some new touches to finalize the property enhancement. This approach can usually be achieved for a cost far below any type of renovation and substantially less than traditional decorating services.
Home Stylists and Stagers
Some design pros work in many of these related industries at once. These multitalented experts might offer full interior design services for customers who want a complete overhaul, contracting and remodeling for clients who require structural and functional changes, full decorating for clients who want to take their décor in a different direction, residential styling for customers who want a cost effective interior facelift and home staging for real estate sellers who want to maximize their chances for fast and highly profitable sales. Some aesthetic professionals offer all these services or just a few of them.
Home staging and home styling are remarkably similar in their execution, with the exception of rental items being used almost exclusively for staging applications only. The exception to this rule involves styling for particular special occasions, or contracted seasonal styling, which may both utilize rental items to achieve the desired look.
The best thing about interior styling is that this sector allows one more avenue of income for staging experts to enjoy, while building a business which appeals to many different types of clients.