The fully furnished model home, with its innovative decorating touches, color coordinated display of window coverings and linens, furniture you don't see in a furniture-store, eye-catching knick-knacks, and gracefully set dining room tables, can be likened to a runway model in a haute couture fashion show. It may not all be that practical, but it looks so good, that it gives you pause to stop and dream. It's a delight to the eye and a comment on our ever-changing attitudes and lifestyles.

What many of us don't realize is the tremendous strategy, planning, budgeting and physical labor that goes into decorating an entire model home complex, and how abbreviated the time frame is that most builders give model home furnishers to complete these masterpieces before their official "grand opening."

Nowhere can the phrase "time is money" be used more aptly than in the production homebuilding industry, where entire streets of new homes are on an assembly line of construction deadlines, the homebuilder grapples with their various stages of monthly carrying costs, and seasonal windows of opportunity open and close. The planning of a new home subdivision includes a hefty budget for a model home complex in most cases, whether the job at hand is for one or two, or an entire fleet of models. The goal? To show the home shopper not only the builder's craft and eye for quality and detail, but also to demonstrate as many creative uses for each room they can possibly muster, all in one place.

But let's look at the big picture first, and get to the details later. Builders begin strategizing by analyzing, in painstaking detail, what their target market is for the homes they are planning. This can cover everything from the income level of the potential buyer, their average family size, what their interests and activities may be, where they are coming from to relocate there and what decorating "styles" may be the most attractive to those buyers. Serious consideration must be given to exterior architecture as well as interior design and floor plans.

After demographics have been determined by the marketing folk, the model home contract decorators are brought into the fray. In tandem with the builder and marketing experts, these creative geniuses help to decide on a model home park budget that is manageable, but attractive enough to allow for a marketable product and create the "dream" to a potential homebuyer.

Bonnie Blickle, senior interior designer at Western Contract Interior Design Showroom & Galleria, in Rancho Cordova, CA, describes the process. "The first thing we do is to develop a color board and a design scheme," says Blickle. "We determine the colors based on the name of the community, the model home names given by the builder, or the overall market they wish to reach, realizing the popularity of some colors over others for different types of buyers (such as first time buyers or empty nester buyers). We then propose our 'theme' for each home using an imaginary family or couple, and we present this to the builder. At that time, either a contract is signed to proceed with our plans, or revisions are made."

If requested, the model home decorators may even do a CAD (computer-generated architectural rendering) of the homes' interiors to the builder to give them an idea of approximately how it will look once completed. With their color boards, furniture types and placements, the designers then get busy planning the design for each home to make each one to look as spacious as possible. Glass-topped tables give a small room the illusion of more space than solid ones; windows are "trimmed" instead of covered, letting in all the natural light possible, but showing off the builder's window shapes. Smaller scale furniture pieces make small rooms seem larger, and the use of drapery or wallpaper borders ceiling tops give the appearance of more volume.

The colors chosen by these experts revolve around a core of three or four basic colors, with an accent color thrown in to some rooms. These colors are used for the entire home, right down to the color of the book covers and on-display cooking utensils, and is an important reason the buyer's home tour "flows" more smoothly. The designers then hit the catalogs. This particular designer has an entire library of catalogs from which to purchase large, upholstered pieces, case goods (hard surfaces, such as woods, glass tops, buffets, armoires, etc.), and accessories. They carefully match colors, patterns and textures to blend, and advise the builder on built-in cabinetry wherever appropriate. The design firm also helps the builder choose floor coverings, cabinetry, and custom paint colors, showcasing buyer options at the builder's design center. These permanent large surfaces are usually kept fairly neutral, with the bulk of color in the surrounding decorating and furniture, since these homes will, someday, be real homes to some lucky buyers, who may want to furnish the former showplaces themselves.

Then comes the fun part. "Each home has a pre-determined 'theme' with people we think of as very real," explains Blickle. "We even select pictures of them to distribute throughout the house. They have their own activities, we know what they may cook, what kinds of flowers they may like, and what sports they play." The 'accessorizing' of each home can include anything from toys, to books, sofa throws, wooden fruit, strategically placed urns and pots on balloon walls; you name it - decorators have thought of it! "What we can't find in our catalogs, we become superb shoppers at finding," laughs Blickle. This may include trips to antique stores, import shops, old book stores, and crafts shops to achieve the "magic" they strive for within the model homes.

"The talent a decorator brings with them is like a pastry chef that can whip up a deliciously magnificent dessert, " says Blickle. "We whip up deliciously magnificent interior environments." The last touches are those Blickle calls "interior landscaping", with plants, pots, towels, and flowers. This, she says, softens corners and creates warmth when properly arranged.

And how long does this elaborate process take? Planning can take up to six months or longer, depending of the budget and number of model homes to decorate. Installation, usually a mere 2-4 days. "We even drive the trucks ourselves!" chuckles Blickle. "When the builder finishes his part, down to the paint and floor coverings, we come in like a whirlwind and do our magic."

Indeed, savvy model home furnishers have this boiled down to a science, with everything ready to put into place the minute the builder gives the go-ahead. And for the builder the job usually can't be done fast enough to save them precious marketing time. A virtual sea of worker bees descends upon the empty houses, armed with paintbrushes, glue, endless boxes of knick-knacks, linens, etc., just after the furniture arrives. The models become alive with color, accessories, ambience and portraits of their would-be occupants are displayed everywhere. Artistic types fuss over every pillow placement, remove and add items in rapid succession until they achieve just the right "look", and heave a sigh of relief only when the picture looks totally complete.

"It's a show, but it's part of what sell homes," admits Blickle. "Our real satisfaction comes when we overhear a potential buyer sigh, "I just love everything exactly the way it is. I wouldn't change a thing!" It's a love affair created between builder, decorator and buyer, and what helps buyers envision themselves living there. Although some predict computer-generated "virtual model homes" may someday replace the fully furnished model home concept, most believe nothing can truly replace the experience of walking through the decorated house itself. "Kicking the tires" at the car dealership and gliding into those brand new leather seats is part of what keeps us buying new cars, and so it is with new homes. Buyers just want to see, stroll through, feel and smell a brand new home, decorated with all its bells and whistles before they buy. And, although not everything about a model home may seem realistic, it's how some American Dreams begin.

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Published: October 15, 1999

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.