By JULIA @ HOOKEDONHOUSES.NET
Real homes are to model houses what we normal women are to fashion models. Supermodel Cindy Crawford famously admitted, “Even I don’t wake up looking like Cindy Crawford. I have fat days, ugly days, blimp days, days that I just feel terrible about myself. I don’t want to have to be beautiful all the time.”
The same goes for our houses. If there are real people living in them–with dogs, cats, and kids–our homes are going to have fat days, ugly days, and days when we feel pretty terrible about them. That’s just life.
The House Always Wins author Marni Jameson says she spent a lot of years wondering why she couldn’t get her house to look as good as a model. Then she talked to a designer who specializes in decorating those model homes for builders, and this is what she found out.
There are things that a model home has that our homes never will:
A fresh start. When designing a model, designers begin with a clean slate. They come in at the ground level and specify every single finish and detail in the home–tile, grout, wall colors, flooring, cabinetry–to make sure the whole house coheres. Most of us make do with what’s there.
No baggage. Model designers don’t come to the project with favorite pieces of art they’ve collected or furnishings they’re attached to. Instead, they custom order and select art, mats and frames, and every stick of furniture to coordinate with the interior scheme.
No arguments. Model home designers don’t have to argue with spouses or kids over how to do a room. They just get their way.
Real money. Because builders know that the more decked out the model is, the more homes and upgrades they will sell, and the faster they will sell them, they give designers the budget and okay to do the whole house. I can only dream.
Smoke and mirrors. Model designers order furniture that allows foot traffic to flow and that makes rooms look larger when necessary.
Less stuff. Because their goal is to let people see the home and its architecture, not the stuff, they allow zero clutter.
False fronts. When staging bookshelves, they select books for their covers, not their contents. Sometimes they cover all books on a shelf in the same leather. Who buys books only for the color of their covers?
Theme rooms. Designers typically peg one child’s room for, say, a boy golfer, and another for a girl horseback rider. In the boy’s room, they’ll have four golf shirts, a bag of clubs, three golf hats, and golf ball handles on the faucet. The girl’s room will have tall riding boots, a crop, and some jodhpurs. No real kid is that one dimensional.
Storage Style. Model master closets feature a monochromatic wardrobe that ties into the master decor, meaning all the outfits go with the bedspread, and who buys clothes that way?
(From Chapter 3 of The House Always Wins. All rights belong to the author and Perseus Books.)
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This is part of a week-long series inspired by the book The House Always Wins. I’m giving a copy away on Saturday, March 22.
Check out the other posts in this week’s series based on The House Always Wins:
All photos courtesy Kalian Home Builders.
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well, poop.
I thought I was doing really well when I picked out my carpet to match my cat.
What do you mean…that office isn’t practical? LOL, I can just see it after one hour of real use…papers/books EVERYWHERE! Then the phone rings and company is coming. OK, out comes the trusty cardboard box out of the closet and everything gets shoved in. Company comes and oohs and aahs over the beautiful ‘work space’. Meanwhile, you’re standing there smiling and accepting the compliments while thinking about all that money wasted on a totally useless arrangement. In real life I’m trying to arrange a new work room for dh. I’m willing to spend some money because he really needs an upgrade, but don’t have money to waste. Oh, the choices/headaches/indecision!
Hi, Momster! Yeah, I was cracking up in that study because they put the desk in the middle of the room–meaning there were cords running across the floor to the outlets. I would be tripping over them every time I got up from my desk. And, like you said, there was no storage anywhere–including in the desk itself. (Although there was a place to hang your hat!)
Hairy–sounds like you’re the exception, since your carpet matches your cat.
Great post. I would love for me of us to understand these concepts. Isn’t a house really home when it evolves over time? You build layer upon layer of family heirlooms with favorite must-have new pieces, children’s artwork, a favorite piece of china from Germany, etc, etc. Rather than having it coordinated and themed. Keep writing!
Thanks for that post. Seriously, I have always wondered why I couldn’t achieve that look. Now I can finally let the dream go!
Hi, Erinn! Thanks for stopping by. I love your blog. Y’all should check it out:
http://www.happylivingdesign.com
TraceyB–your house isn’t that far off, actually! One of these days I’m going back down to Destin and photographing it to show everyone here on the blog. Fair warning! -Julia
I hate my home to be looked as an model place without any imperfections, it may derive from the fact that I`m a realtor in Toronto and I meet every day with different designs. I like to have a “cosy” mess in my room, keep everything around myself and also for my guest provide a warm atmosphere with making them feel like at a real home. I do really admire those people who manage to live in place like from a catalogue.
So great to remember! I love the Cindy Crawford quote.
Thanks for visiting my blog today!
I love going to model homes to get decorating ideas but i do realize that every single thing they do is for a purpose: to sell homes. It’s all so matchy matchy which I don’t like, but I do get some good ideas from them at times.
You forgot the fake food that is glued down. I’m personally a sucker for the wine glasses with fake wine inside. LOL
Love this post! I’m always tryitng to get my house to look like a model, but then I remind myself that if I want it to really look this way then I have to move out! haha
~melody~
Thanks for linking this again. I had just gone through a home show where everything looked perfect. I was feeling pretty “blah” about my own home and this post cheered me up.
I think this article hits a spot.
My home is lived in so a model it is not.
My former boss used to make comments all the time because he was so picky, his house was spotless. He worked to keep everything hidden. He even complained one day that on a Saturday, he was so bored that he had to dust of the top of the door trims.
If you get that bored, like him, good for you. I have not had one of those boring days that I had to pick up a cloth and start dusting because I had nothing to do, and if I was bored, I DOUBT I would be spending time dusting the wood trim above the doors.
We that live in our homes enjoy our homes. I am not a slave to the structure, I live and enjoy it.
I have occasion to redo or move furniture in a room now and then and for the moment, I have a model room. Then the items we all live with comes in.
My former boss was unreasonable in this reasoning, but then he was this way in almost everything. He worked in a Warehouse with a desk that was exposed to the warehouse environment, yet it looked like it belonged in the presidents office. If something was out of place, he would put it right back. I thought it beyond normal to a point of absolutely excessive. This made me wonder why he went down to the ABT store and bought DENTED appliances when he bought a new (to him) home. Then he would brag how much money he saved. The dents were fully visible in installed positions. Don’t think it was worth the couple bucks he saved.
AS the artical says, a model appearance is for first impressions, such as when a home is for sale. Then we live in them and the model signature becomes a little less important. Some people have a need to impress themselves, I guess, while we who live in our homes are comfortable with a slightly less Model Home environment.
This was a very interesting article! While I knew that designers for model homes or staging, are able to select furniture for the very purpose of selling the home for the highest amount possible, I never thought that they’d coordinate things like the contents of the closet to the rest of the bedroom.