Leading up to the royal wedding, I learned about fascinators. Not that I’d never seen a woman’s head decorated with a small headpiece of feathers, flowers or beads. I really just hadn’t given them much thought until they popped up on all the TV talk shows.

I confess there aren’t many opportunities to sport a fascinator in my home staging life, and (thankfully!) I’m just not part of the social circles that would wear such things.

Watching Princess Beatrice and Victoria Beckham (a.k.a. Posh Spice) arrive at Westminster Abbey for the big day, all the media pundits could talk about were their crazy head decorations.

Which brings me to over-the-top home staging.

When decorating embellishments in a home completely overtake a potential buyer’s ability to see and appreciate a room, the home stager has gone too far.

Here are a few examples: Tying bathroom towels with raffia and attaching sea shells, filling a bathtub with rose petals, positioning a fully stocked tea tray on the bed, and using lentils to add color to every plate on the dining table. I call these “silly staging tricks,” and in my opinion, they do nothing to help a buyer fall in love with a house— they are just distracting. They scream “this house has been staged so you’ll pay as much as possible for it,” so if anything, these tactics have a negative effect.

What do you think? Share your comments below.