HANCOCK COUNTY — When prospective home buyers head out to the houses on this weekend’s Hancock County Home Tour, builders will want them to be able to visualize how they could live there.
So, they employ the careful practice of staging their homes’ interiors, which requires creating definition and exhibiting popular trends while maintaining a sense of neutrality that will appeal to the broadest possible audience.
Each of the 15 homes on the free, self-guided tour has been carefully decorated. A lot of thought goes into everything from the obvious (furniture placement) to the subtle (how books are arranged in a shelf).
For Dave Sego Builders, that job falls to Cari Chastain of Studio 6.2.6, an interior designer who staged the living area of the local builder’s model home in the Stone Ridge neighborhood, west of County Road 200W and north of County Road 100N. The home is on the tour.
She furnished the space with a couch, chairs, end tables, rug and coffee table. Chastain also filled the shelves flanking the fireplace and television with books, plants, glassware and other adornments.
Because the home has an open floor plan, the furniture helps establish the limits of the living space, Chastain said. Seeing the fixtures there will allow visitors to translate their own possessions into the area, she added.
Chastain said she wanted to keep the space as neutral as possible with creams, whites and grays. The only exception, she added, are the green plants.
Interior design is trending more monochromatic: gray, white and high contrast, Chastain continued. The living space aligns with that style through its gray and white walls and white cabinets.
Then there are the books. Chastain maintained the neutral style she was going for by placing the books with the fore-edges facing forward as opposed to their spines, which vary in color.
Not everyone hires someone like Chastain. Tom Joyner of Joyner Homes stages all of the firm’s model homes himself. Joyner Homes has two properties in this weekend’s home tour. Becca Steuer, sales manager for the firm, said Joyner first pays attention to what customers are asking for along with what’s showing up in magazines and on popular home improvement television programs. Modern farmhouse decor is one of those trends, Steuer added.
"He really has a good eye and can go out and pick things out very quickly," she said of Joyner.
Steuer echoed Chastain’s sentiment on how staging needs to quell the daunting limitlessness of an empty room and allow people to visualize possibilities.
"If someone can picture themselves actually living in the home, it’s a lot easier for them to have that emotional response and want to build or purchase a home," Steuer said, adding it’s also difficult to tell the size of a room when there’s nothing in it.
Paul Carroll, president of the Hancock County Council Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis, said this weekend’s home tour is the first since the housing economy was mired in the Great Recession a decade ago.
With housing starts on the rise, more speculative and model homes are popping up in newer communities across Hancock County. It seemed like the right time to bring the tour back, he said.
He added visitors heading out on the tour can expect a variety of the kinds of homes in existing Hancock County subdivisions as well as custom-constuction opportunities available locally.
"It’ll be a nice snapshot of everything going on," Carroll said.
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The Hancock County Home tour will be from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 15 locations. More information, including a map, is available at www.hancockhometour.com
Sagebrook
Arbor Homes
6080 N. Cedarwood Drive, McCordsville
2,404 square feet, three bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms
Keystone
Arbor Homes
2260 Santa Fe Drive, Greenfield
2,343 square feet, four bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms
Autumn Woods
Arbor Homes
2648 Autumn Road, Indianapolis
2,128 square feet, four bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms
Wyndstone
Arbor Homes
605 Flint Boulevard, Fortville
3,200 square feet, four bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms
Sunrise Lake
Bridgenorth Homes 4544 W. Rising Sun Drive, New Palestine
3,027 square feet, five bedrooms, 4½ bathrooms
Stone Ridge
Carrington Homes
2326 W. Stone Ridge Trail, Greenfield
3,700 square feet, four bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms
Stone Ridge
Dave Sego Builders
2243 W. Haines Pass, Greenfield
4,400 square feet, four bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms
The Preserve
Gateway Communities
4483 W. Preserve Pass, New Palestine
2,635 square feet, two bedrooms, three bathrooms
McKenzie Glen
Joyner Homes
1016 Forest Glen Drive, Greenfield
2,407 square feet, three bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms
Summerset
Joyner Homes
1562 Summerwood Boulevard, Greenfield
1,820 square feet, two bedrooms, two bathrooms
Sunrise Lake
P&W Development
4607 Meadows Lane, New Palestine
2,621 square feet, four bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms
The Trails
Pyatt Homes
4607 W. Meadows Lane, Greenfield
1,525 square feet, four bedrooms, two bathrooms
Noelting Estates
Ryan Homes
7189 W. Frederick Circle, New Palestine
2,423 square feet, four bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms
Sawmill
Westport Homes
2790 Winding Creek Lane, Greenfield
1,583 square feet, three bedrooms, two bathrooms
Stone Crossing
Westport Homes
4541 W. Lawrence Way, New Palestine
3,082 square feet, four bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms
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A list of the homes on the Hancock County Home Tour is on Page A8.
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