Celebrity Spotlight: Meridith Baer

A creative storage solution for her plants was all Meridith Baer was looking for when she undertook her first home staging project. The former screenwriter and star of HGTV's Staged to Perfection had 250 potted plants in her rental home in Los Angeles when the landlord said he was ready to sell the property.

So she called a friend and convinced him to let her bring the plants and a few pieces of her furniture into the vacant home he was trying to sell. And just like that, it sold – in a bidding war, no less. Now, when celebrities are ready to sell their homes for top dollar, they call Baer.

As founder and CEO of Meridith Baer Home (MBH), she blends luxury with a refined sensibility to help sell homes for top dollar. With a celebrity clientele including Beyoncé, Brad Pitt, and Elon Musk (just to name a few), Baer is now expanding the MBH brand to include a San Francisco office and her own furniture line.

How has your vision of the MBH brand expanded from when you first started?

In the beginning I decorated homes for people to help them get top dollar. I did it because it was fun. I never believed I would have a business doing this, let alone a brand. Now we've expanded into seven cities and even staged internationally.

At what point did you realized the growth potential (and your potential) in the staging business?

After about six months, my phone started ringing off the hook and I started to hire anyone I bumped into that could speak full sentences or had the brawn to lift heavy furniture.

What are some of your current projects to diversify within the industry?

Currently we have over 500 homes installed in Southern California, Northern California, Florida, Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Connecticut. We are installing about 400 projects a quarter.

Besides staging, we are working on everything from resort condominiums in Cabo, to hotels, luxury rental furnishings for clients to live with (not staging), multi-million-dollar interior design projects, furniture, and accessory manufacturing. We are working on charity projects to give back in 2015.

What goes into developing a furniture line? How did you identify that need in the market?

We got into manufacturing because we couldn't find all of the new and exciting pieces we were looking for. Joe Asher and Heide Zeiker from our company said, "Let's just make them ourselves!" We aim to keep our look basic but fresh and exciting by staying ahead of the trends and introducing unique new pieces. We get our inspiration from history, our travels, and everything we see and do.

Where do you see MBH in the next five years?

Given the brilliant and talented group we have become, I don't know where we will end up in the next five years. Mars? I am certain Martians want to live beautifully, too. Kidding aside, I believe we will expand to other key cities, including Houston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Las Vegas, and resort communities like Aspen and Sun Valley. Maybe even London and Paris. I'd also like to see our manufacturing double or triple, since designing the furniture line has been a highlight of mine this year.

What are you excited about right now outside of business?

Life outside of business . . . what's that? I have not had much of a personal life in the last 18 years, and would love to do something about that. As always, I am excited by design and designers all over the world. Everyone in our group wants to find ways to give back to the communities we work in. We are currently working with this amazing charity, A Sense of Home, that I'm thrilled about. Their organization changes the lives of foster youth who've "aged out" of the foster care system by creating homes for them. Using furniture and housewares from our collection, we're working with their team of volunteers to help these youth start their life with a place to call home and help them achieve self-sufficiency. It's been a heartwarming and uplifting experience.

TIPS FROM MERIDITH

My philosophy is, start with a very quiet palette and bring the personality and color onto that palette, as if the furniture were a blank canvas.

What brings the luxury to the room are things like rugs, cashmere throws, and beautiful décor pillows. To [make it feel lived in], we have little vignettes around the home that show where the kids would probably play, where you put your glasses beside the bed, a cookbook open in the kitchen, hints of clothing in the closet, and tons of fluffy white towels in the bathroom-different things that are attractive, but still tell the story.

When it comes to staging a home, the key is showing prospective buyers the ideal lifestyle that they can have in the space. We sort of make it easy for them. We really show them what their home could look like if they buy it.

Photos courtesy of Meridith Baer Home