FAQs

Home Staging is a proven and effective sales technique that integrates decorating with marketing to create an experience for home buyers. 

It’s more than just furnishing a home – it’s the visual presentation of a property, clearly defining each space to sell a lifestyle. The process of Home Staging focuses on eliminating all potential distractions within your home to draw the focus to the best-selling features of your home, maximizing your property’s potential in the eyes of potential buyers. 

By removing distractions, potential buyers can focus on the home’s selling features. This can be as simple as reducing clutter and reorganizing spaces through furniture placement and accessorizing or a more involved process including the creation of a staging plan and the addition of furniture and accessories needed to execute the plan.

Home Staging is about creating an emotional connection with potential buyers. Most of today’s buyers look for their next home online. Your property needs to not only capture their attention but capture their emotion! A staged home looks great in MLS photographs, allowing you to market your home to the largest audience possible. It is critical to differentiate yourself from the competition and connect with buyers on an emotional level. 

Specifically, Home Staging works to clearly define each space in the property which supports selling a lifestyle. If your home is filled with personal items, an excess of things, or bold colours, buyers are often distracted and fail to see the true potential of the space. Home Staging eliminates all potential distractions and draws focus to the features of the property instead of the items within. 

By neutralizing colours, clearing out clutter, and creating proper flow, potential buyers can better visualize themselves living there. Not to be forgotten, a goal of Home Staging is to remove any limiting factor a potential buyer may find when they are considering whether to purchase your home. Take a look at our portfolio to see what we mean.

An owner-occupied home is one in which the homeowners and/or their furnishings will remain in the property while it is for sale. A vacant home is one in which the property is fully vacant of furnishings and unoccupied.

It is recommended that you don’t make any renovation decision before reviewing them with your Home Stager. We understand that you may already have started repairs and/or renovations, or have ideas for updates, but we want to ensure that the money you are spending or want to invest, is done in a way as to increase potential buyer’s move-in-ready criteria and provide you with the greatest Return On Investment (ROI). 

If you have selected any new finishes (i.e. light fixture, kitchen sink faucet, flooring for your basement, paint colour), it would be ideal if you have those available for your Home Stager to review at the consultation.

You don’t need to prepare or declutter before the staging consultation. During the consultation, we will provide you with our recommendations for the areas that require decluttering and cleaning attention. If you have already started the decluttering process, be sure to set aside any non-personal decorative items that we may be able to work into your staging plan.

Did you know that only 10% of people can visualize what an empty space can look like furnished? This is just one of the reasons that Home Staging is so important in today’s real estate market. Staging a vacant home defines spaces for buyers. Each room of a house has a purpose and staging the space clearly identifies this for potential buyers. Staging also showcases the scale of spaces by showing functional furniture placement. Empty rooms actually tend to look smaller and can leave buyers questioning whether or not their own furniture will fit in each room. By setting up a room properly, buyers can they see that the furniture fits and provides them with ideal placement but helps to inspire them with the decorative touches included. 

Our Home Staging plans serve to create a complete look and feel. If your property is occupied (already furnished) we focus on using your existing furniture and accessories where possible, showing rooms as they were intended to be used, and where recommended, augmenting rooms with additional items to fully showcase them. 

Particularly with vacant properties, we understand that cost can be a limitation. In such situations, we work to provide an estimate for both a complete and a partial staging plan, with the partial plan focusing on those rooms that as a minimum, should be staged. Typically, those rooms are the entry, living room/ family room, dining room, kitchen, main bathroom, main floor powder room, and master bedroom/ensuite.

If your Real Estate Agent is a qualified Home Stager that includes this service as a part of their fees, there may not be a need to hire an outside stager. However, your real estate agent is busy listing and marketing your home, which is why most agents choose to work with a trained, professional Home Stager, in order to allow each professional to focus on their areas of expertise.

The cost varies depending on the how much or how little your property requires to look it’s best for potential buyers. For more information on the services available, as well as pricing, see our Home Staging Services page.

HER Home Design never rents from third-party vendors. In order to maintain quality and flexibility, we own and offer some of the finest Home Staging rental items in the region - all furniture, artwork, linens, and accessories rented from HER Home Design are the property of HER Home Design. This allows us to provide variety of style and availability.

The goal for each Home Staging project is to make potential buyers become emotionally attached to your home so that they will want to make an offer. 

Wall art plays a key role in making rooms feel inviting and polished. Artwork also pulls a room together, setting a tone through colour and style. Artwork can also serve to visually widen a wall or create height in a space. Occasionally, we have a client who is concerned about us putting nail holes in their walls. Realistically, there are very few homes that come without nail holes. When hanging artwork, your Home Stager uses the smallest nails or hooks possible.

It can be tempting to want to hide any negatives in your home. We don’t ever recommend hiding a problem however we will work to provide you with solutions to deemphasize the issue if possible.

In order to proceed with Home Staging services following the consultation, we require the following:

1. Payment in full on the Estimate and subsequent Invoice provided
2. A signed terms and conditions document or contract depending on the size of the staging package
3. A signed credit card authorization form which we keep on file in case of damage to the rental items or if payment for the balance of the work is not paid by the final due date.
4. NOTE: A staging date and associated Home Staging rental items will NOT be secured and held until the above items have been received.

Selection and placement of artwork, furniture, and accessories is at the discretion of HER Home Design and it may not be to your personal taste. You have hired us for our skills and expertise, and we always ensure that the staging items are chosen and placed to best showcase your home. We all have the same objective in mind – to sell your property!

HER Home Design is a licensed general contractor. As a one stop shop for all things home, we can address and repair any issues that come up in your home. Our goal is to get your home ready to sell and have it look and function at it’s best.

The time to call us is as soon as you think you are ready to sell your home. If you are thinking of staging your home, it really helps if you contact us sooner than later to allow us the time necessary to address all of your home’s needs.

While the time to stage depends on such criteria such as whether it is occupied or vacant, its size, and the quantity of staging items we are bringing, we work to complete a home staging within the range of 48 hours.

We know that it can be difficult to keep the house perfectly staged when you are living in it. 

Please note that all inventory provided by HER Home Design is meant for staging purposes only, and cannot be used. 

It is possible to keep your home decluttered, clean and neat however and make quick adjustments in preparation for any viewings with the tips and tools that your home stager will provide through your home staging consultation.

You are responsible for any inventory items left in your home, regardless of whether the property is occupied or vacant, and any damage to HER Home Design’s  items is be billed at the full replacement cost. We offer the Staging Risk Management (SRM) policy for an additional fee, which provides coverage for the rented items for a variety of perils.

For more information, contact us.

HER Home Design is a full service design build, interior design and home staging firm. We are a one-stop shop for all things home. Whatever service you need to make your house a home can be fulfilled by the HER team.

YES! We offer a free virtual consultation of up to 30 mins.

HER Home Design is your one stop shop for ALL things home. As a full-service design build firm, we expertly manage the process from concept to installation. We specialize in both residential design projects. We also offer consultations paid by the hour.

Simply contact our office to set up an initial consultation. During this meeting we will discuss your budget and your design needs. We will ask questions regarding yourself, your family, your preferences, household habits and hobbies, functional needs, and desired outcome for your home. All of this will lead us down the right path in defining your unique style. Our goal for every project is to realize the vision of the homeowner.

We are located at 4400 W 96th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46268

We are open M-F from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Bring all your ideas! Reviewing any inspiration images that you have collected, such as from magazines or Pinterest, will help us further uncover your style and direction. It might also be a good idea to have some pictures of styles you do not like, so our designers know what to stay away from during your interior design project.

We serve the Greater Indianapolis area.

We do not have a minimum project size. As a guide, most project have design fees starting around $2k. This fee is in addition to any items purchased.

We will create and maintain an Excel spreadsheet of your budget upon request. The budget will include furnishings separated by room, and monthly design time fees.

Most interior design projects will take anywhere from 3–6 months depending on the size.

If you are on a tight timeline, we will do everything in our power to complete your home as quickly as possible, but please let us know at the beginning of the process. Because custom furniture is often built-to-order, items can take anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks to arrive (sometimes more, sometimes less). Our vendors appreciate knowing in advance that this will be a rush job and can sometimes accommodate our schedule, but please note that rush charges will apply. By scheduling frequent meetings with your designer and making decisions quickly, you can also speed the process along.

Each project is unique. The first step is to setup the initial consultation, so we can discuss exactly what you are looking for and see if we can help. We will gather all necessary information to be able to define your style.

Over a series of meetings, we will take what we’ve learned about you and your style and turn it into a thoughtful design for your home. We will present you with furniture plans and color palettes to ponder, fabrics and materials to touch and see in your space, and images of furniture and lighting we’ve thoughtfully selected specifically for your home. If desired, we will create photo-realistic renderings with our selections so that you can truly visualize your space before making any final decisions. We generally present one or two rooms at each meeting, if the construction schedule allows, and we will always discuss pricing of items along the way. We take your budget seriously and work hard to balance special, splurge-worthy pieces with every day, cost-conscious items.

Depending on the scope of your project and the timeliness of your decision-making, this phase can take a couple of weeks (for one or two rooms) to a few months or more (for a full-scale design or remodel). Your feedback is vital during this phase so that we can be sure we are expertly translating your style into the perfectly designed home of your dreams.

This is our favorite part of any project. We aim to provide a special “reveal” of a newly designed home to our clients.

Ideally, you will spend the day with your feet up at an off-site location while we manage the delivery and installation of all of your items into your home. We will style your shelves, hang art, bring flowers and accessories, and have your home photo-ready when you walk in your front door.

Before we conclude our time together, we do a final walk-through and prepare a list of any remaining items needing attention, and we will discuss the care and maintenance of your new finishes and furnishings. While we expect you will be thrilled with your new space, if anything is not what you had expected, we will fix it to the best of our ability.

Custom furniture is built-to-order, which means it can often be sized to our specific needs, and we can choose our own finishes and fabrics.

When we build a color scheme for your home, we usually start with the fabric, with emphasis on the upholstery pieces. Your designer may bring you lots of great fabric swatches to choose from, as well as photos of the upholstery pieces we are suggesting. Once furniture and fabrics are selected and ordered, the fabric is shipped directly to the furniture manufacturer and applied to the selected item. 

With retail or in-stock furniture, the fabric has already been chosen by the store and applied to the frame, and size and finish options are a bit more limited.

Interior design and home decor is a highly personal experience. Sometimes clients do not love what we design. We promise not to take it personally! Please just tell us what you don’t like and why, and we will fix it at no charge whenever possible to an extent. It does take a little extra time at the beginning of the design process to get to know your taste. If you are having trouble visualizing the final outcome of your home, we can do photorealistic 3-D renderings. These really let you “try before you buy.” We aim to make our clients very happy.

We utilize a wide and varied group of antiques dealers, to-the-trade-only showrooms, local workrooms, and retail stores around the country. It is entirely up to you whether you would like to see items in person. Many of our clients never see the furniture until it shows up in their home. Just let your designer know your preference. Additional design fees may apply to personal shopping experiences.

“Shipping” (or freight) charges are incurred when an item travels from the manufacturer to our receiving warehouse. Under the umbrella of “shipping” fees are “crating” fees that are sometimes incurred for items that must be packed into wooden crates to be shipped safely. “Delivery” charges are incurred when the delivery team brings the completed items from our receiving warehouse and places them in your home.

We strive to have all of your items delivered and installed together to give you that “Wow!” reveal moment. Seeing your space as a finished and cohesive design is preferable to seeing individual items arrive over time.

We prefer to have all of our items shipped to our receiving warehouse. We have trusted professionals who unpack and inspect every item, note damage or turn away broken items, and safely store until installation day.

If you accept the shipment yourself and something was damaged in transit, is it very difficult to get the vendor to refund us. For larger items, you must also be available during certain hours to accept, unpack, and inspect the item, and often the shipping company will not place the item in your home where it needs to go. For these reasons, many vendors require that their pieces are shipped to a receiving warehouse rather than to a private residence. Note that you will incur storage costs after 30 days. These are typically $179 per month.

Generally, you can anticipate about 10-15% of your total budget allocated to freight, shipping, crating, and delivery costs.

We submit proposals to you once all the details on an item have been decided. We ask for the total amount, paid for by check or credit card, along with the signed proposal. We do not order the item until we have received the signed proposal and the requested deposit amount. The stated lead time (i.e. 10-12 weeks) starts counting from the time we receive the deposit payment, not from the date of the proposal. 

Invoices are created for the final cost of the item, plus shipping fees (if not included on the proposal) when the item nears completion and before it is shipped. We request payment on the invoice before the item is delivered to your home.

It is not always possible to accurately quote freight or shipping costs before an item is ordered. Most likely we had not charged you for freight or shipping yet. If there is a new charge related to the item, the invoice will say “upcharge” with an explanation.

We make every effort to focus our time on activities that are mission-critical to getting your home completed on schedule and to your desired outcome. On monthly time billing invoices, we clearly detail by date what room and what item within that room we are working on, but if it seems we’ve gotten off course, your designer will be happy to discuss options with you. The hours spent on your project will be higher in the very beginning (during the design and ordering phases) and at the very end (during the shipping and installation phases). You can keep hours down by making decisions quickly and avoiding making changes to items already selected. Please speak to your designer or Melanie if you have any concerns.

While every project is different, after over a decade in business, we can give you an accurate estimate of what you will need to spend to achieve your desired outcome. We will also work with you to create and stick to a budget based on your project’s scope of work. Some things to consider when creating a budget include how involved in the design process you want to be, how quickly you can make decisions, and if pursuing a remodel, how involved in project management you would like us to be.

We do not have a standard mark-up. Instead, we make sure that our prices are never above the retail cost, that they are fair to you as our client, and that they fit your budget.

When you decide to renovate your home, you can hire a designer to create the concept art, and then hire a contractor to bring the design to life. Or, you can hire a design/build company to handle every step of the process from start to finish. HER Home Design BUILD offers a design/build remodeling process to unify the workflow from initial concept to project completion. This means you have one contract, one point of contact, and one team working in unison to bring your vision to life.

The benefits of this approach include lower costs, improved communication, fewer change orders, and faster project completion. We recommend the design/build option for anyone hoping for a streamlined home renovation project.

HER Home Design BUILD will take you through each stage of our design/build construction process with precision and care:

• Design: The first stage of the renovation will be the design phase. At this point, you will sit down with our designer and discuss what you are envisioning for your space. We take the time to learn about our clients in order to understand what is important to you, and how we can make this renovation turn from a dream to a reality. Once the vision is on paper, our clients can see the layout and even a 3-D model to help visualize the final outcome.
• Build: During this stage our experienced carpenters will bring your plans to life. While they are working, our designer will continue to have weekly on-site meetings with you to keep you involved in the process. They will go over what has been completed as well as what you should expect for the upcoming week.

While the work is being done, and when your home renovation project is finished, the area will always be clean. The designer will have a final walk through with you to ensure that you are completely satisfied with the final project. At this point you will be able to sit back and enjoy your new space!

If you have a renovation project in mind, now you must decide if you should hire a remodeler or do the job yourself? The chance to save money is the biggest reason homeowners consider DIY remodeling.

However, this could end up being the wrong decision if you can’t answer “yes” to all of the following questions:

• Do you have the time?
• Can you stay motivated to see the project through?
• Do you have the skills, tools, and experience?
• Are you certified to complete the necessary plumbing, electrical, and HVAC work?
• Are you an EPA Lead-Free Certified Contractor?
• Are you able to obtain the necessary and correct permits for this project?
• Do you have architectural plans to present to the township?
• Do you have the skillset to tackle any unforeseen problems?

In the end, you can save time, avoid headaches, prevent costly mistakes, and ensure a professional job well done when you leave your home remodeling project to the experts.

The length of a project will vary depending on the scope of work, but we can give an idea of duration early in design. All of our construction agreements include an approximate start date and completion date during our design/build process.

Home remodeling can be performed year-round depending on the project. Renovation or remodeling of interior spaces can usually be completed any time of the year, though there are aspects of projects that can be weather dependent. For example, when completing a home addition, foundation or footing work should be completed when temperatures are above freezing.

During your initial consultation, we can answer any questions you have about timelines of your project.

Meridian Construction takes your remodeling project very seriously. That’s why we give special attention to each step along the way. Here’s what’s involved:

• Initial Meetings – A primary in-home consultation to get a sense of the scope of the project and if we are the right fit for one another.
• Site Evaluation/Project Space Measure – Measurement of the current space to determine what work will need to be done.
• Design Kick-Off Meeting – Discussion of the initial design and hearing out any concerns.
• Preliminary Design Phase – Detailed computer-aided designs drawn up for review.
• Design & Budget Overview – Project overview, tentative design, and project budget determined.
• Final Design Development Phase – Modifying proposal as needed.
• Construction Agreement & Deposit – Setting construction agreement and putting down deposit.
• Project Selection Finalization – Finalization on hardware and finishes, as well as schedule.
• Pre-Construction Meeting – Meeting to review contract and schedule.
• Start of Construction – Beginning of demolition and construction.

Home remodeling is a complex process. Each project is different according to the existing structure, the size of the job, and the wants and needs of the client. To get a better understanding of the different cost ranges, you can review the Cost vs. Value Report for the current year.

We take time with our clients during the design process to help understand costs associated with your project. We also do our best to identify any options you may choose in the future and include pricing for those options in our proposal.

We advise all clients to set aside a contingency budget of 10-15% of the total project budget for unexpected remodeling challenges.

Typically, when we sign a contract with our client, we hold true to the contracted price. We take the time to go over every detail of your project to ensure the cost is accurate. If there is any additional work or changes made to the project by the homeowner, this could be an additional charge, but our designers will go over the new changes with you before any charges are incurred.

In general, yes you can! Our carpenters take care to section off the area where they are working to minimize disturbance through the rest of your house so you can experience livable remodeling.

As a distributer of three major cabinetry lines including Dura Supreme Cabinetry, Kith Cabinetry, and Wolf Cabinetry, we will be able to show you different samples of cabinet styles as well as the different finishes available. Our designer will be able to help you choose according to your vision for your kitchen remodel.

Need inspiration for your kitchen remodel? Check out our kitchen remodel gallery!

HER Home Design BUILD will file for all of your construction permits.

HER Home Design BUILD has been servicing clients in Greater Indianapolis since 2018.

NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry) members have to meet certain criteria to be eligible. This includes practice of NARI’s Code of Ethics as well as a pledge of commitment to high standards and practices.

We have NARI Certified Remodelers on our team to bring your home renovations and remodeling visions to life.

Learn more about NARI Members, their qualifications, and why you should hire a NARI contractor for your home remodeling project.

To work with our team of NARI Certified Remodelers, contact us today!

Sit back, relax and let us handle this phase of your project! We will manage all of the orders for your furniture, rugs, lighting, and window treatments, and make sure everything arrives on schedule, in the correct finish and size, and undamaged. We keep track of everything going into your new space with a project binder organized by room, which includes: floor plans and drawings; images and renderings; paint, lighting, finish and plumbing schedules (i.e. spreadsheets listing the specifications of permanent elements in your home); copies of all proposals and fabric samples; and anything else pertinent to your project. We can prepare a binder for your own reference if you desire.

If your interior design project has a remodeling or new build component, we stay in constant contact with the contractors and frequently visit the job site to ensure work is progressing on schedule and that our designs are being built as intended. We share all of our paint, lighting, finish and plumbing schedules with the contractors, so they know exactly what is going where. 

To make sure that our design intent is clearly communicated, we provide the contractors with detailed construction drawings such as cabinetry layouts, lighting plans, bathroom layouts, and fireplace design. If desired, we can assist you in reviewing contractor bids to ensure accuracy and fair pricing. Throughout this phase of the project, we will check-in with you often to address any questions or concerns.