We all like touring model homes not so much because of the design options but because they are so neat and orderly. And they smell nice, too.
Is there a secret to why they are so pleasant?
I called a couple of people who decorate model homes, and what they told me was eye-opening.
For example, Kathleen Kellogg, director of interior design for builder Cambridge Homes, admitted that her model homes would never represent the real world.
“We’re selling people a place they would like to live in,” she said. “People want their homes to look like our models but our models are just that–models.”
Just like those skinny folks in the catalogs who look so much better in our clothes than we do.
“People aren’t going to buy a messy home,” said Maria Despaltro, the design center manager for Centex Homes. “We’re trying to sell them a dream instead.”
But don’t people know that such tidy model homes are truly a dream? Most lack the nuances of a well-lived-in dwelling, especially those with kids and animals. Where are the broken crayons? The solo dirty sock? The unidentifiable game piece? Or the half-eaten twisted rawhide treat the dog has been gnawing on for the past week?
“That’s not what people want to see in a model home, especially empty nesters,” said Kellogg, who admitted that her own home is far from a model home, thanks to the recent addition of a child.
And a model-home refrigerator never resembles a real-world appliance–inside or out. My refrigerator has grown a second skin thanks to hundreds of magnets and coupons that expired during Clinton’s first term. (The up side is they that serve as insulation and help keep my beer even cooler.)
“We don’t put things on the refrigerator because we don’t want clutter,” Kellogg said. “And in the kitchen, we may have food boxes, but they’re empty.”
There is a good reason why interior decorators don’t put real food out in a model home: People eat it.
“We used to do cookies on a platter, but those disappeared,” Despaltro said. “And in one kitchen, we had dry cereal in cereal bowls on the table. One day, a family came in, sat down, and just started eating.
“The stuff was out there for a couple of months, so it must have been pretty crunchy,” she added.
“We had a bowl of popcorn in one home that had a home-theater setup,” Kellogg said. “The popcorn was sitting there for about three weeks.”
Then a guy walked in and started eating from the bowl, said Kellogg. “The funny thing is that late that night he called the salesperson for the subdivision to complain that he had a stomach ache,” she said.
Thank heavens the designers don’t put out chewed-up pieces of rawhide.
