Home Sale Staging Artistry

Photo by: Anne Robertson Photography

“A house shouldn’t look staged,” Odence says. “You want people walking out saying, ‘I love that house, I want to live there.’ In staging, quality and comfort really matter.”

The furnishings in Odence’s design business reflect her design sense: an uncanny blend of high end and artful. “Things come to us in a variety of ways,” she says. Auctioneers and appraisers, such as Doug Stinson—who is based in Lincoln, but frequently works on the Cape and Islands, scout pieces for Odence on travels around the US and Europe. Sometimes, she and her staff will transform the pieces for a cleaner or more upscale look. One project that was in her workspace on a recent afternoon, an early 1900s Victorian-style chair with turned arms, was being renovated by Centerville artist Karen Crocker, who works with Odence. “If you’re concerned about the environment, this is your place,” Odence says. “We recycle, redo, and reuse.”

Photo by: Anne Robertson Photography

Photo by: Tyra Pacheco Photography

Crocker and Odence also collaborate on creating pieces. A big curio case in the workspace is filled with fabric throw pillows in softly colored prints, hand-sewn by the two women. Odence also has hired Cape and Boston seamstresses to hand-sew hundreds of pillows for a new branch of Design No. 5 – private-label home décor, which also will include bed linens in beautifully textured, natural fabrics.