About decorating, self-expression and why it’s good for you as a client

Many home stagers choose a style and follow it. Their work is very recognisable and I love some of their styles. I love Barbara Horváth’s warm, luxurious downtown apartments with lots of wood, I love Imola Fodor’s natural, slightly ethno, cosy bright interiors and I love Éva Juhász’s glam, girly apartments with their greenish, pinkish powder colours. They have settled on a well-established style because they have a narrow area where and for what type of home and target group they work. They are following a proven and well-established path that is not worth changing. We like to say that we can deviate from the proven concept for our own amusement, but then we have to accept that every time we break new ground, we take a little risk. If we work in a certain style, focusing on one target group, we save time and money. In this case, you don’t even need to vary the furniture and decor sets, because they can be used in the next apartment. We save, or at least minimise, the time and energy-consuming process of looking for decorations. We get to know our target group and their expectations. We can work efficiently money-wise, and quickly too.

Home styling as self-expression

And then there are the home stagers like me – and I know I’m not alone – who can’t help but take every home in a new direction. For those of us in this profession, in addition to being a well calculated and effective method of selling real estate, which can generate significant extra returns on our own and our clients’ investments, it is also a form of self-realisation.. Let’s admit it, in the worst case, a little shopping passion can take a hit too. I love alternating styles, dreaming up and putting together different interiors. I and other home stagers like me are able to accumulate huge inventories by reimagining the furnishings and decor with each and every job. Unfortunately for me, it’s no longer enough to keep my things in decorative boxes piled up at home in the corner of the living room for my family’s ‘greatest pleasure’… For my ever-growing collection of trinkets and furniture, I have to rent a storage room, from where I can get the decor sets that match the style and quality in no time.

My obsession at the service of my clients

The good news is that I can put my obsession at the service of my clients. Because I like to give every home a slightly different atmosphere and because I am constantly working for different areas and target groups through my clients and my own investments, I have a wide range of styles and qualities of decorations in stock. I can decorate a luxury apartment in a new suburb or a suburban panel from my stock in no time. And up to 3-4 homes at a time, that’s how much stuff has accumulated. This way my customers don’t have to buy the decoration, but I can ‘lend’ it to them for the duration of the sale, integrated in the electricity. Check out my references to see how many different styles of apartments have been decorated from stock!

How is the level and quality of a decoration decided?

The quality of the decoration will be determined by the target group. You can’t decorate a luxury apartment in Buda or District V from Pepco, and you shouldn’t decorate a suburban panel from Zara Home. The quality of the decor must meet the needs of the target group. It is also not ideal if the style of furniture and decoration goes far beyond the expectations of the target group. Everyone would love a nice home, so we can always be a little more demanding, but we shouldn’t overdo it. It is important that our target group can identify with the apartment. It is important that they feel that this is not an apartment they can only dream about, but one they can actually buy.

How do I decide the style of a decoration?

Although it’s exactly the kind of business that works well in a pattern, and perhaps works most efficiently that way, I still need to create a slightly different atmosphere with each apartment. That’s what makes this job fun for me instead of ‘woodcutting’. When I work on a flat, it is important for me to be able to connect with it. It’s essential that I’m moved, that my imagination starts to work, that I can start to dream up the interior and somehow relate it to the environment. It might be the style of the building;the age in which it was built; a piece of furniture that is already there; a piece of wallpaper that is already there, or it might be the atmosphere of the street or the people who live in the area. It’s always something else. But there are also times when I just get inspired at IKEA, because I suddenly see so many cherry blossoms that I decide to decorate my garden-connected apartment in Wekerle with a Japanese flair. And my apartment in the new suburbs has a Parisian feel because of the wallpaper left behind by the previous tenant and the café underneath. See all the pictures of the little French apartment here.

Interior photo shoot done in a different way

I’m not alone with my bohemian ideas. Milesz-Nagy Orsi, the passionate photographer and home stager behind the Nagy Orsi Family Photojournalist brand, is a pioneer of documentary family photography. She immediately agreed to partner with me to take interior photos of an apartment to match the mood, so that I could enter the space with make-up on, dressed for the apartment and show what it would be like to live there. And Nóra Dénes of P. Paris Beauty Studio is the amazing woman who can evoke these moods in make-up and hairstyle one-to-one. I thank them for participating in my madness and even enjoying it!
Take a trip back to the 60s with me or check out the photos of a Japanese-style apartment in Wekerle! Follow me on facebook, because we have another idea in the pipeline, which will be completed by the end of summer. We are very much looking forward to it!