New Inman contributor Julian Buckner of Vesta Home talks staging, scaling and the complexity of styling a 22,000-square-foot Bel-Air property.
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Ultra-luxury real estate gets plenty of screen time, featuring spectacular kitchens, soaring great rooms and infinity pools overlooking world-class views. But beyond the showplace mansions, selling luxury is also about humanizing a property of overwhelming size and scale.
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As the leading luxury home staging company in the country, we’ve been fortunate to partner with agents on some epic homes — the kind of real estate eye-candy reality shows are made of. It means we get a front-row seat to some of the most remarkable homes on the market.
Our standard projects are already twice the size of the median U.S. residence — currently 1,834 square feet — but it’s when we are entrusted to design the 15,000-plus square foot estates that the full breadth of what we do comes to life.
The challenge, then, is how to make something so monumental feel inviting and human in scale. Here’s how we do it.
The timeline: 2-3 weeks to transform a megamansion
If real estate is all about location, staging is all about timeline. Most large-scale projects must be ideated, planned, manufactured, installed, refined and photographed in a window of two to three weeks. That requires exceptional coordination among designers, white glove delivery pros, builders and the luxury real estate broker, not to mention the property owners.
Stradella Court: Transforming a 22K-square-foot marquee property
Image by Nils Tim courtesy of Vesta Home
In the case of Stradella Court, pictured here, staged by Vesta Senior Creative Director Kiel Wuellner and represented by luxury real estate agent Aaron Kirman, the staging approach began with conceptualizing the potential buyer.
Wuellner envisioned the owners of this home as “globe-trotting collectors who gathered objects on their travels.” That sense of a home that’s curated rather than just decorated is essential to adding warmth and balance to architectural statement homes.
Strategic furniture placement creates intimacy within massive spaces and suggests the conversations, activities and events that could happen in such a space. The design quietly guides how people move through and interact with the space — even when they don’t realize it. That adds to the experience and helps them imagine their life there.
Because the outdoor spaces and 360-degree views are such an important aspect of what makes this home special, exteriors here are as thoughtfully designed as the interiors. After all, nothing says “L.A. dream lifestyle” more than a knockout outdoor entertaining space ready for its close-up.
9 secrets for staging large spaces
Image by Nils Tim courtesy of Vesta Home
Whether you’re staging on your own as part of your marketing prep or working with a professional stager, here are some of the key things to consider when staging a large space, so you can make the scale work for you.
- Anchor oversized rooms with appropriately sized pieces of furniture and artwork. Go for custom options, if possible.
- Create smaller zones inside of large voids. Think cozy seating areas designed for intimate conversations, grand gathering spaces for larger groups and private niches for quiet reading or reflection.
- Layer textures to add warmth and visual interest while counteracting the impact of sterile open space.
- Use lighting at various heights to direct the attention and change the mood at will, with options that enhance the space at different times of day.
- Add subtle, lived-in moments that warm the space without clutter. A book and reading glasses on a side table or a dog bowl in the kitchen make the space feel “real.”
- Steer clear of too many focal points. Give the eye a specific place to go when first entering the room.
- Avoid hyper-minimal interior design that feels cold, austere and, if poorly done, unfinished.
- Skip accessories that compete with architectural features and the style of the home.
- Resist staging that looks more like a furniture showroom than a real home.
Selling a high-stakes property is not for the faint of heart. It calls for a savvy mix of psychology and design drama, usually at warped speed. At its best, staging creates a move-in-ready buyer fantasy, differentiating your listing while making it come to life.
Julian Buckner is the founder and CEO of Vesta Home. Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.
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