Ever wonder who’s helped stars ranging from Kim Kardashian to Jeff Bezos spiffy up spaces before they’re deemed worthy of gracing with their presence? It’s interior designer to the rich and famous, Cheryl Eisen.

Eisen and her New York–based staging company, Interior Marketing Group, specialize in tricking out houses for some of the biggest celebrities in the world. Her home styling work has also been featured on reality TV shows like “Million Dollar Listing New York,” award-winning scripted series such as “Succession,” and hit movies like Jennifer Lopez‘s “Hustlers.”

Yet Eisen reveals the personal properties of the household names she’s hired to furnish rarely start off camera-ready.

“Having gone into celebrity homes, the way many of them actually live before we stage them or design them, it’s completely average Joe,” she tells Realtor.com. “That was always surprising to me.”

Excited to gain access to the private pads of her well-known clients and get the latest scoop on decorating like a celebrity, we got Eisen to share exclusive photos of the famous cribs she’s made over.

If your home style is in need of some star power, take note of Eisen’s signature design moves that can take any “average Joe” home, even your own, to a whole new level.

What design work did you do for the Kardashians—I heard it was an Airbnb stay?

They were Airbnb-ing a place in New York City. This was [after Kim Kardashian] was robbed in Paris [and] she came to Manhattan. We designed that space, and we had like three days to do it. She FaceTimed so we could show them stuff.

They were like, “Move that to the left. I don’t like that. Make that this. Simplify that,” and it came out beautifully.

It was very Kardashian: very serene, very white on white with beautiful textures. We made a little play area for the kids. I love their style.

How often do you make over temporary rentals like Airbnbs for celebrity clients?

We do it for a lot of celebrities. If you’re looking through listings for $100,000 a month—which is what they’re paying at these places—you really can’t find something super perfect. There’s tons of mediocrity.

Celebrities are used to a certain level, and they can get that if they hire a designer [before they] Airbnb the place.

What other celebrities have you designed homes for?

A lot of celebrities buy our places furnished. Jeff Bezos bought one of our places furnished. He could have bought anything, anywhere. He could have furnished it in a minute with some famous interior designer, but he bought one of our places furnished. [It] was more sophisticated, more Upper East Side feeling, which is more investment banker-type style, a little more luxe, a little less edgy.

The loft Zayn [Malik] bought furnished appealed to him because we targeted that cool Tribeca buyer. We used a set of TG-10-inspired sling dining chairs with a raw-edge wood dining table, oversized modern art, and warm midcentury light fixtures.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend bought one of our places furnished. [It] was a supercool Tribeca loft, and we honored that. We had cool, comfortable, downtown furniture. We did two cute kids’ rooms.

For celebrities who were selling homes, how did your staging help them?

One of the most interesting stories [is] Fredrik Eklund. He was a client before he was a famous broker. No one had heard of staging, and I kept sending him flyers, and finally he called me. It was this cool loft downtown, and I said, “It gives me James Bond vibes, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

I staged it, and he called me like 10 days later and said, “You are never going to guess who bought this apartment. Daniel Craig!” He won it in a bidding war, and the thing had been on the market for a year before with no offers.

Keith Richards—his place was on the market for a year [and] would not sell, so they hired us. We did an homage to rock ‘n’ roll. We staged it as if it was Keith Richards’ home.

We put a guitar in the corner, made an original piece of art that was like a [David] Hockney British flag, and just whimsical, rock ‘n’ roll-style stuff, more color than usual, and it sold immediately” for $9 million in 2018.

How much input do celebrities give you?

They’re very involved in the choices, but they come to us because they like our overall aesthetic. And so there’s a lot of leeway they give. Then you infuse personal things that speak to the celebrity.

Bethenny [Frankel] had a sign that said, “I know it all,” [and] we built a custom bar because she was serving alcohol to her guests, so that was very specific to her as a celebrity.

Fredrik [Eklund], he had just had his two children, so we did a gorgeous twin bedroom for the kids. It was really beautiful and unique, and he had a lot of say in that and loved what we did.

How did you get into this line of work?

It’s a rags-to-riches kind of thing. I was entrepreneurial. I didn’t go to college, I dropped out of high school.

When I was 24, I started some Internet company, and then when the bubble burst, I went out of business and went broke. I moved in with my mom. This was not a cute moment in life. I was like 35, completely broke, [and] nobody would hire me because I didn’t go to college.

In my free time of unemployment, I had been watching HGTV. There was a show on called “The Stagers.” I had zero money, so I had to sublet my New York City apartment.

I fixed it up cheaply and prettily: I got some Ikea pendants and hung them flanking the bed. I put mirrors on the walls so [it felt] like a much bigger apartment. I just did some funky, cool things, put it on Craigslist, and there was a line out the door to sublet it. I understood what people responded to.

I got a job in real estate, staged my first apartment, and it sold immediately for a record price. Then other brokers started hiring me to stage their apartments. I fell into it at the right time.

What’s a day in your life like?

Every day is different because every apartment is different. We happen to specialize [in] the most expensive apartments in the world. We get these $100 million apartments, $50 million apartments, so it’s a very exclusive niche. We have like 150 [listings] in New York at any given time on the market, so I’m hopping around from place to place.

How often do celebrity clients redecorate?

If done right, you shouldn’t have to redesign your home ever. You can sometimes replace or rotate art, but I try not to do things that are trendy so that it doesn’t go out of style. That’s super important to me.

What decor trends are you currently loving, and which ones are you over?

The Hèrmes blanket in the living room is so five years ago. We used to use it all the time, and same with the Tom Ford coffee-table book—the black one—so those are very overdone. However, the Hèrmes blanket for the baby’s room is adorable, so that’s where that would work.

Giant coffee-table books are an excellent splurge, and if you put them on a bookstand—open—it’s a conversation piece, so that’s something I love.

The new Tom Ford book is white with black letters, so it’s an updated version and I love it. There’s [also] a new Cartier book out that’s beautiful. The whole cover is gold stripes. Picasso’s photography [is] a gorgeous book; it’s a piece of art itself. That’s one of my personal favorite things to display. I am obsessed, and I have it in all my homes.

What is your top interior design advice for homeowners wanting to decorate like a celebrity?

No. 1, large mirrors. It brings light and space into a home. If you put one across from a window, you’ve just added a window and light. If you put one across from [a wall], you’ve just added like a doorway into another room. It’s like magic.

Sometimes we’ll do a grid of large mirrors, sometimes we’ll do a row of them, but it just makes any space feel twice as large, twice as bright.

No. 2, oversized art. That is a huge statement. I always see people having small art pieces, which leaves weird negative space on the walls, and it feels cold and unimportant. An oversized piece of art really makes a room. It should fill a wall properly without awkward negative space. Behind a sofa, I like the art—whether it’s a triptych or one huge piece—to be as large as the sofa. Depends on how high your ceilings are, but 6 feet by 4 feet is kind of our standard go-to.

And the third [tip] is statement lighting. If you replace those Home Depot light fixtures with some beautiful lighting, it changes the entire feel of the space [and] makes it look custom.

What are your interior design pet peeves?

I don’t like white walls; I like not-quite-white. If you must stay really light, a pale greige or neutral makes the home feel styled, warmer, and new.

Mistake No. 2 are white or cool lightbulbs. It’s the visual equivalent of nails on the chalkboard; it’s painful to the eye. The right lightbulbs are the warmer ones, which feel ambient and warm, not like an office.

How do you recommend displaying personal photos?

I love a wonderful family photo wall: gridded and all the same size. Or you can do different sizes, but black and white and beautifully matted.

Just have one wall in your house—not your main wall, but somewhere in your house where that belongs, and that’s where it stays.

The images, even if they were originally color, put them as black and white. They should also have interesting composition. They shouldn’t be that overly posed family photo of 12 people standing next to each other. It should be as curated-looking as Instagram photos.

What are the most common staging missteps you see sellers making?

The goal is to depersonalize without making it sterile, and making sure nothing detracts from the architecture of the home.

If you have a very ornate piece of art that someone’s going to stop to look at, those are minutes they’re not looking at the house. The star of the show needs to be the home, and people need to feel like they can live there comfortably.

Not painting is a huge mistake. A fresh coat of paint makes a place look new and fresh.

One time a place did not sell because I went a little too far. I painted one of the walls black and created one of those barn doors because it was a studio apartment. I thought that was cool and I guess nobody else did, so I realized you can go too far.

You’ve got to keep it broad appeal. You can’t go too specific. That was the mistake I made there.

How is your personal home styled, and do you have any upgrades you’re planning to make?

I just got a new home, which I have to renovate. But in the meantime, I’ve staged it so I could live here and not hate it.

It’s a quadruplex—a triplex with an extra floor—in New York City, which is really unique.

It looks just like one of our stagings. The walls are a neutral greige tone, the floors I painted white, the sofas are varying shades of beige, [and there are] floor-to-ceiling drapes. By the way, always make your drapes as high as possible and kiss the floor; it makes your ceilings look taller.

There’s oversized modern art, monochromatic. It’s a lot of black and white, white on white, [and] different neutrals.

I want to redo the floors because [they’re] very old. I want to redo the staircase because it’s very ordinary, redo all the lighting, [add] coffered ceilings, raise ceilings, create closets, [and] redo the fireplace.

What’s next for your business?

The next phase of staging? Yachts [and] planes. I’m very excited about that.

I absolutely see turnkey as the way homes will be bought in the future. In other words, no more schlepping all your stuff and moving—it’s painful. If you can find a home that you walk into and it’s exactly how you wanted it and you just take the keys and you move right in, it’s a dream come true.

Since COVID, I started flipping houses as a side hustle. I’ve done three in the last three years. They’re in Florida. I cosmetically updated them, staged them, and they all sold immediately for an enormous profit. All furnished, so they were turnkey homes.

Some sellers are hesitant to invest in staging. Can you make the case why it’s necessary to command top dollar?

Here’s how it plays out: When a property is on the market and is not selling, the first [price] reduction that is done is approximately 7% of the asking price.

Seventy-five percent of people who have to reduce one time have to reduce a second time, so that becomes 14% of the asking price already gone.

Staging costs about 1% of the asking price, and [the listing] will sell much faster, so it already is a return on investment on the statistical side. End of story!

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