Staging - Why or Why Not?

Staging is a layered, complex, and interesting word.  

“Staging is the fine art of pretending your lived environment has always resembled an IKEA showroom. Sociologists call this ‘false consciousness’; Realtors call it ‘value added.’”

“Every home showing is just Hamlet without the swords: you stand in someone else’s kitchen, whispering, ‘To buy, or not to buy?’ while the throw rug takes center stage.”

“Staging: the process of arranging items in a manner designed to suggest functionality, but not actual human occupation. See also: government flowcharts.”

---  witticisms generated by ChatGPT, 9/4/2025

That's AI's wit. The dictionary definition includes the method of presenting a play, a temporary platform, a phase in a progressive disease, and the arrangement of sequential components of a rocket. But in North America, it includes setting up a house for sale with art and furnishings so as to increase the appeal.

A.I. now allows one to stage and unstage. A potential buyer can physically be in the house, looking at the staging, then click a button and make it all disappear. Here is an example. Which one do you think is “real” and which is “generated”? 

 

We are selling our house, the above pictures are from our living room. We moved out, had the house painted, cleaned, and staged. Then we went to take a look. We didn't love it. Probably subconsciously didn't like it. But I had to step back and accept it, forcing myself to defer to the experts --- the realtor and the professional staging company.

What Do I Think?

There are two important questions here:

1. This was our house. We had lived there for years and knew the house well. Why did I defer to the experts when they were strangers to the house?

I’ve been a home buyer, looking online at all hours of the night in a competitive market, eliminating houses based on pictures and text. I know what I like and don’t like (if you are familiar with my blog you know I have strong opinions and am not shy about sharing them!) But here I was, deferring. Why?

Probably the same reason I defer to my dentist, doctor, plumber, lawyer, hair stylist, or even a wardrobe advisor (if I ever hire one). Because they are the subject-matter expert, not me. If I want something, or would benefit from their decision, I should defer to them.

2. Why did I not love the staging?

I had to really mull over this. AI's quotes above helped me figure this out. The house was utilitarian, not homely; it was vanilla, not chocolate chip cookie dough. That sofa should be moved there, the color was wrong, the art was meh. The list of complaints in my head went on and on and on.

When your stylist radically changes your hair, you probably don’t like it but its too late. It can't be un-cut. Later, it grows on you (literally and figuratively) and you get complements (sincere or not) that convince you that the new look is for the better.  Same with the new clothes. You initially don’t like it because its not you. Its someone else masquerading as you. Yes, you can take them back but the effort may not be worth it and perhaps you do look better. 

Its the same with the house. It’s someone else’s furniture and art masquerading within your four walls. Under my rules of human psychology, I posit, you technically shouldn’t like it.  

Why Should You Care?

In making a decision to defer to a subject matter expert (and paying them), are we abdicating our own responsibility? Are we giving up our role as a subject matter expert (after all we all think we are experts in our own way)? 

What happens when you encounter a supervisor who insists on being the decision-maker even if they are not a subject matter expert? Do you defer to them? What if their “decision” teeters on the brink of what you would consider objectionable or even unethical, immoral, or illegal?

In my opinion, ownership of a product, document, or decision, is derived from involvement. And the depth or sincerity of that ownership is directly proportional to the level or type of involvement. When I want a document reviewed and approved, I include some mistakes so that the reviewer makes the corrections and then subconsciously owns’ the document (don't tell them).

In the case of house staging, I don't “own” the outcome. I have no say in the furniture, art, and layout. I can only use AI to remove it. It doesn’t reflect me or what I like and, unlike my new haircut or new clothes, it cannot grow on me. It’s a one-time transactional cost and I should just think of it that way.