MANN REPORT: May 2009

Stage with art

By Jill Vegas
Jill Vegas LLC

This apartment is a celebrity apartment that lacked furniture. Open House NYC called in our crew to bring in furniture and make it home in 3 days!

Here’s the crew from Open House NYC taking a break in the living room after we furnished it and created a home. The client was radiantly happy with her cozy and colorful new space. This celeb loves to entertain so this was the perfect nest away from her LA home.

Gestalt: The theory in which context is considered vital to perception, in which things are described as more than the sum of their parts. Christian von Ehrenfels wrote an essay describing this in terms of music. When a melody is played in one key, and then in another, the listener recognizes the tune as the same song, even though the notes are entirely different. That’s because it’s the relationship of the notes to each other that give us the melody, the whole.

At Jill Vegas Staging, we understand design as a function of gestalt. The feeling a buyer gets when she or he walks into a property is greater than the sum of the individual pieces of furniture in the room, greater than the individual pieces of art. It’s how it all works together, the gestalt; that is what we pursue.

Think of the space you have on the market as notes to a song. Add more notes and elemental layers---artwork, paint, a rigorous cleaning—to create a symphony.

Hanging works of fine art can add a great deal to the overall feel of a property. Bold works of color add a feeling of energy, of finesse, of luxury that delights the buyer.

I recently staged a nearly $8 million downtown loft that featured large walls and open spaces. I worked with Fred Bernstein who owns the store, Home 114 and Karen Boltax, whose gallery Boltax Gallery, on Shelter Island provided inspiration to me. We chose works of art to elevate the condominium. I also worked with Condé Nast archives to obtain prints. Boltax said she believes that art “completes a home.”

“It really can help identify a home and give it a gravitas that is immeasurable. I’ve had enormous success as an art dealer generating business through staging. I’ve rented or loaned artwork to clients many times. People buy the home and buy the art.”

For this loft, I worked with Boltax to create an artistic feeling that would appeal to an art collector. “The walls needed to speak to a degree of sophistication and stature,” Boltax said. “I think the art provides that.”

Regardless of whether the property is as grand as the downtown loft we staged on, here are some rules of the road that we follow at Jill Vegas:
First, toss out the junk, clunk and clutter. If you don’t love it, buyers won’t either. Even if you do, ask yourself if the piece of furniture or design clutters the space or accentuates it. Throw unneeded pieces out, donate them to charity or put them in storage.

Clean, clean, clean, and clean some more. I recommend hiring a cleaning service to shine floors, walls and lighting fixtures. Dust those light bulbs! Shine mirrors and windows!

Once you start with a clean, dust-free, clutter-free canvas, add some artwork. Depending on your budget, you can visit many a Manhattan gallery to find pieces to accentuate your walls.

Jill Vegas
212-627-9402
jill@jillvegas.com

 

©2009 Jill Vegas LLC