Home staging provides space for imagination

Home staging is coming into its own.  In a real estate market that has seen better days, home owners and realtors are turning to stagers who can work a bit of magic... giving the property the aesthetic boost it needs to sell quickly and profitably.  It is proven that home staging works.  And there are any number of books, programs and courses that provide helpful strategies for preparing a home for sale.  But I believe that the best home staging is based not in a "formula" or a "one size fits all" approach to design, but in the stager's ability to unveil the intrinsic charm and appeal of the property.  It is really about making space for imagination... not only the stager's imagination but, more importantly, the imagination of the potential buyer.   A gifted home stager can create a space that allows the buyer's imagination to take flight.... to immediately picture the exciting possibilities  living in the space.  I say it all the time, good staging is an art not a formula.

WhiteHouse & Co. approaches home staging from the artful perspective.  We love houses!  Old, new and everything in between.  The possibilities that each new project bring are endlessly inspiring.  And the potential to create a space that will bring joy and a true sense of "home"

to the new owner is immensely rewarding.  No space is more important than home, is it?  It is the place that brings us comfort and restoration.  It is the place where we nurture our family and ourselves.  It is where we cook wonderful meals, read bedtime stories to our kids, languish around the table with friends over a bottle of wine, curl up on the sofa with a good book. Home is our sanctuary and it should nourish us in every way possible.  

What does home mean to you?  How have you created a home space that reflects your own spirit and imagination?  Creating spaces that matter starts at home..... it truly IS where the heart is.

Windmill palms bordering my front porch - a play of shadow and light.

The  water lotus are finally in bloom!

Mid-summer delights in my garden.

Creating sacred space

It looks like we are finally going to get rain today and so I am in a particularly grateful place.  My garden is thirsty for the kind of soaking that only Mother Nature can provide, despite my enduring efforts with the garden hose.  Blessed rain.  And so I am thinking about the life-giving force of gratitude and how important it is that we create spaces that nurture our spirits.

The Thai people have an extraordinarily beautiful tradition of creating sacred spaces that nurture spiritual harmony. Before a new homeowner takes up residence in their “vacant” house, a small Spirit House is installed in the yard so that the displaced spirits (who had been freely occupying the empty house) have a place to go.  By housing the spirits in this way, and through the continued offerings of gifts placed inside the Spirit House,  the new homeowners and the spirits establish a happy relationship.  And in gratitude for their new “digs”, the spirits protect and bless the new homeowners and their property.  Ahhh…reciprocity! 

I will never forget watching the Brahmin monks tie a string from our front door to the Spirit House so that the spirits could “travel” along the string into their new little home filled with offerings of flowers, food and incense.  That same Spirit House now resides in my garden in Greensboro, tucked away in a corner with the Frangipani and Jasmine.  Every time I pass by I am reminded that caring for Spirit, my own and others, is the ultimate act of gratitude.

What kind of space have you created to celebrate Spirit?  Where do you find your deepest connection to something outside yourself?   How have you incorporated sacred space into your daily life?  Does it matter?