To sell a house, you stage it.
But, what are you doing exactly?
You run down the 5 senses, to make the house connect well with the buyer…
This is very rote, very common, but by calling it “designing for the 5 senses”, helps guide you.
if you design it right, the layering of these senses creates a calm, an attraction, a welcome to you, and your visitors.
Here goes:
sight
hear
taste
sight
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smell
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touch
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First a great house…
SIGHT
IMAGINE, a fantasy location, to make my point.
Place your house on a beachside cliff, say Edgartown, with views of both the empty ocean and Chappy…
Now add on great colors.
Think of the blues and raspberry reds of Ralph Lauren,
the white walls, the dark woods …
endless visuals… walking paths that draw you in, to a focal viewpoint, a fireplace, a window seat, a library…
clear open rooms,
Straight paths, no jogging around tables and chairs.
SOUND
Sound… the surf of course, and buoys, fog horns…
Or the quiet, or the music on the of Andrea Bocelli on speakers…this is a huge sense ignored too often…
Estate sales get this wrong so often…. too quiet, freaks people out, rap music is all wrong
…but just some music relaxes people into being able to talk normally, naturally, happily, not whisper….
You never want to have whispers…. that sets up a lot of tension…
This is why coffee bar music is so natural… it shatters any tension, and the people can evaporate into the background, and think quietly…even write books in the chaos of human noises…
Sometimes even babies & pets need the noise of life to relax and go to sleep. Just instinctual human/animal nature.
SMELL
Smell…nothing is as powerful as smells to jolt your memories.
The smell of a cigar from your old grandpa, the smell of a joint, a cigarette, coffee, garlic… the salty seaweed smell ocean air.
Maybe a loaf of bread just out of the oven…coffee…did I say coffee?
Then there is perfume… done right, is so classy!
TOUCH
This is another invisible draw…textures and surfaces can pull you into a room, just to touch, feel, examine, experience, imagine….
Touch, the solid wooden floors, a few raffia mats, the wooden beams, stone mantels you are drawn to, to touch.
A firm iron bathtub, the granite/marble surfaces… everything solid, natural, and real.
Real silverware, the weight of good silver spoon, in your delicate bone china cup.
TASTE
Taste.. well, coffee and scones out on the back porch of course.
PROSPECT & REFUGE
Finally add Prospect and Refuge, for the feeling of safety and adventure… an odd but significant 6thsense.
The secret garden, the curved path leading to where? The small room at the top of the house, the window seat, with a view… the pool away from direct line of sight to swim at peace and serenity. People just want to get away, NOT be seen… Quiet and privacy, is the most rare and treasured item…yet it costs nothing…. so add this into your design!
When selling a house, or a design, people naturally stack these layers, for a moment.
They are superficial, sure… they say nothing of your water pressure, or electric outlets, or heating bills or taxes….but….(leave that for the “physical inspector”. Your inspection is emotional, and sensual…all 5 senses.
But it is these 5 or 6 senses…..will hook your buyer….t
If done right, they will affirms to yourself, you have designed a good house.
Flip these 5 senses,
see how it can go wrong...
OK…Flip these 5 sense layers, to see how things can be wrong….sure in the extreme, but OK.
- VISUAL – No clear walking path to get from here to there, clutter, just everywhere. Closed in, dark, shadows, shades down, too many walls, no focal views… in a word claustrophobic.
- SOUND – Besides the street noise, sirens, there is the “en-suite” meaning the toilet is 5 feet from your headboard…every human sound is heard, in the still of the night… every single sound echoing in the cold tile floors and walls.
- SMELL …the pocket door of the bathroom opens… No ceiling fan can cover this sound or smell….the smell expands out into the “master bedroom” really? Smell, the “old car smell” of garlic and spaghetti, or in the old days, cigarettes… just some mystery smells crank up your nose….” what IS that?”
- the feel of a bouncy plastic bathtub, under your feet, as you wonder if it will “give” and crash apart. The feel of linoleum, Formica counters, the cold wet shower curtain clinging to your already cold wet body. The nappy dirty carpet. I stop.
- .. no food, no yellow lemons on the counter beside the pastries and coffee and pie…..just the bare lightbulb in the empty refrigerator…
- You feel exposed by being too close to the street, you feel vulnerable, not safe… no refuge, no views, no place to go….unsettled,
When these 6 senses work together, you walk in a house, and say… oh…wow, nice… usually you can’t put verbalize the reason a room or house works so well….or why pictures alone do not relay the FEEL