There have been many blogs about not baking fresh cookies, or popping crunchy buttery popcorn, prior to Realtor Open Houses. This is as the overwhelming luscious scents can be very distracting and often times derail the potential buyer’s focus from the house to the food.
However, as a Professional Stager, there are occasions in which the scent of fresh baguettes can be useful to speak to all of the buyer’s senses, thus creating the full ambiance.
The reason I mention French baguettes, is that we used them on our last Staging Project to complete the visual of a French Provence Dining Room.
The blue and white dinner plates, cobalt wine goblets, gorgeous tall sunflowers in their stoneware vases, and the basket with azure wildflowers and long baguettes completed the picture. The added bonus was the heavenly but subtle scent of the fresh baguettes. Combining the colors of blue, white, and brilliant yellow, the black and white artwork depicting a French rooftop and cobble street, plus the aroma of the traditional bread automatically send us on a trip to a French countryside.
In Staging, scents can make a significant difference. A house with an unpleasant smell from the loved four legged friend, a dirty litter box, mold, dirty carpets, cigarettes, can and will turn potential buyers off. Just like First Visual Impressions matter when someone walks up to your house, First “Bad” Olfactory Impressions can make a potential buyer take your property off the list as their potential home, without giving your home a second chance.
So remember, buyers do buy with all their senses!
