Mum uses ‘home staging’ to be a property sale star
Concept puts Natalie’s firm up for seven awards
SELLING a house can be a stressful time, especially when you list it and nobody takes an interest.
But savvy house sellers have been making their properties stand out with a helping hand from a staging company, set up by businesswoman Natalie Evans.
Natalie, from Titchfield, set up Little Barn Door two years ago – and the business idea has taken off much quicker than she could’ve anticipated, and even seen it listed for seven Home Staging Awards.
The 35-year-old said: ‘When we put our family home on the market, it was in me to think how to give it that competitive edge. It was just a normal terrace house, the same as all the others in the street, so I needed to do something to make sure it stood out to people.
‘It worked and it sold within 12 hours. That’s when I thought there might be something in this.’
Natalie, who has three children – Olive, seven, Edie, five, and Rory, three – with her software engineer husband Gareth, quit her job in HR after her last child and began to explore home staging as a career.
She said: ‘It took me a while to understand that home staging was even a concept. I had not even heard of the term before I started researching.’
Natalie found inspiration in America, where home staging – making rooms look appealing to buyers through styling, staging or even using virtual furniture – is a much larger industry.
She undertook training courses in Texas and joined the Home Staging Association, becoming the founding member of the Home Staging Association UK & Ireland.
Now just two years after setting up the business, Natalie is delighted to have three members of staff, who work out of their office in a scenic 17th Century barn in Shedfield. This year, 80 per cent of properties touched by Little Barn Door have sold within six weeks.