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2/12/22 8:37:51 AM

To sell a house, you stage it.

But, what are you doing exactly?

You are running down the 5 senses, to make the house connect well with the buyer…

 

This is very rote, very common, but by calling it “designing for the 5 senses”, helps guide you in making your designing decisions…..

if you design it right, the layering of these senses creates a calm, an attraction, a welcoming to you, or your visitors…but mostly YOU,

First a great house…

SIGHT

IMAGINE, a fantasy location, to make my point.

Place your house on a beachside cliff, say Edgartown, with views of both the empty ocean and Chappy…

Now add on great colors.

Think of the blues and raspberry reds of Ralph Lauren,

the white walls, the dark woods …

endless visuals… walking paths that draw you in, to a focal viewpoint, a fireplace, a window seat, a library…

clear open rooms,

Straight paths, no jogging around tables and chairs.

SOUND

Sound… the surf of course, and buoys, fog horns…

Or the quiet, or the music on the of Andrea Bocelli on speakers…this is a huge sense ignored too often…

Estate sales get this wrong so often…. too quiet, freaks people out, rap music is all wrong

…but just some music relaxes people into being able to talk normally, naturally, happily, not whisper….

You never want to have whispers…. that sets up a lot of tension…

This is why coffee bar music is so natural… it shatters any tension, and the people can evaporate into the background, and think quietly…even write books in the chaos of human noises…

Sometimes even babies & pets need the noise of life to relax and go to sleep.  Just instinctual human/animal nature.

SMELL

Smell…nothing is as powerful as smells to jolt your memories.

The smell of a cigar from your old grandpa, the smell of a joint, a cigarette, coffee, garlic… the salty seaweed smell ocean air.

Maybe a loaf of bread just out of the oven…coffee…did I say coffee?

Then there is perfume… done right, is so classy!

TOUCH

This is another invisible draw…textures and surfaces can pull you into a room, just to touch, feel, examine, experience, imagine….

Touch, the solid wooden floors, a few raffia mats, the wooden beams, stone mantels you are drawn to, to touch.

A firm iron bathtub, the granite/marble surfaces… everything solid, natural, and real.

Real silverware, the weight of good silver spoon, in your delicate bone china cup.

TASTE

Taste.. well, coffee and scones out on the back porch of course.

PROSPECT & REFUGE

Finally add Prospect and Refuge, for the feeling of safety and adventure… an odd but significant 6th sense.

The secret garden, the curved path leading to where? The small room at the top of the house, the window seat, with a view… the pool away from direct line of sight to swim at peace and serenity.  People just want to get away, NOT be seen… Quiet and privacy, is the most rare and treasured item…yet it costs nothing…. so add this into your design!

When selling a house, or a design, people naturally stack these layers, for a moment.

They are superficial, sure… they say nothing of your water pressure, or electric outlets, or heating bills or taxes….but….(leave that for the “physical inspector”. Your inspection is emotional, and sensual…all 5 senses.

But it is these 5 or 6 senses…..will hook your buyer….t

If done right, they will affirms to yourself, you have designed a good house.

 light, views, soundproofing, weightiness….and especially using sash windows that open up, and let the sound of birds and wind, and leaves enter your house…. if designed well, you will have stacked the 6 senses well… a kind of check list, to say, OK, its done… you can stop now… Build it.

 

OK…Flip these 5 sense layers, to see how things can be wrong….sure in the extreme, but OK.

  1. .. No clear walking path to get from here to there, clutter, just everywhere. Closed in, dark, shadows, shades down, too many walls, no focal views… in a word claustrophobic.
  2. . besides the street noise, sirens, there is the “en-suite” meaning the toilet is 5 feet from your headboard…every human sound is heard, in the still of the night… every single sound echoing in the cold tile floors and walls.
  3. Smell, no ceiling fan can cover this sound or smell….the pocket door of the bathroom opens… the smell expands out into the “master bedroom” really? Smell, the “old car smell” of garlic and spaghetti, or in the old days, cigarettes…  just some mystery smells crank up your nose….” what IS that?”
  4. .. the feel of a bouncy plastic bathtub, under your feet, as you wonder if it will “give” and crash apart. The feel of linoleum, Formica counters, the cold wet shower curtain clinging to your already cold wet body. The nappy dirty carpet. I stop.
  5. .. no food, no yellow lemons on the counter beside the pastries and coffee and pie…..just the bare lightbulb in the empty refrigerator…
  1. You feel exposed by being too close to the street, you feel vulnerable, not safe… no refuge, no views, no place to go….unsettled,

When these 6 senses work together, you walk in a house, and say… oh…wow, nice… usually you can’t put verbalize the reason a room or house works so well….or why pictures alone do not relay the FEEL…

A picture of a church or museum, or grand reading room is so different that being IN a church, or museum. (this is why travel is so important….some things cannot be felt or learned in a book or computer.

Sure, all RE agents know this, RE stagers know this… but, running thru these 6 senses, help you see behind the curtain a bit, and might guide you in your design ideas, goals, justifications for allocating money for one thing or another.

FINALLY….Clutter…

There are the flowers on the windowsill…

sweet things, memory things… great…good touch, a house of love.

BUT, Then, get a box….a really big box…and walk thru a room, picking up stuff JUST LAYING AROUND AND FORGOTTEN!!! . This is clutter…

Then in a quiet dedicated moment, deal with this stuff.

Done

You do this by common sense, or good taste….to sell a house, you stage it with nice furniture, no clutter, have a good cookie smell in the kitchen, soft music somewhere, with all the lights and windows open for daylight.

Here are two extremes… using the 5 senses nicely and horribly.