Ask anyone in the business where it is, and they’ll draw the line for you..
The problem: the line is in the sand. Tides are high, the wind is picking up, and everything shifts....all the time. The line keeps moving.
I’ve been criticized (not harshly), corrected (at length), and, uh.....squinted at (which is by far the most hurtful) for using The D Word: DESIGN.
UPDATE TO THE ORIGINAL POST: To be clear, I have been cautioned (in training, in conversation, at group meetings, and finally on a professional conference call) not to use the word "design". Rather, I'm advised, refer to it as "staging". As you all know, I'm fairly obedient when sober, so that's what I tried to do. But for me, like all the other potty mouths out there, the D word slips out when I'm not looking.
If you knew my family, you would not be surprised that my degree is in criminal justice. Never changed my major, graduated with high marks. Never worked a day in the field, but not by choice, by economy and job freezes. Happily, that’s a good thing. If you cut me in half, I don’t bleed red, but in “rich, velvety burgundy”. When I make strawberry shortcake, and the tender biscuit is still warm in the bowl, I top it with “gently whipped cream”. 
I paint pears and tangerines in metallic colors and scatter them on my Thanksgiving table. It is a very good thing no one ever gave me a gun.
My point -- and I do have one -- is that my brain naturally thinks proportion, balance without symmetry, color, texture, shape, light, and emotion. I can’t help it.
I’m a stager. I go in to every manner of home, and I don’t even have to flick the “on” switch to start doing my job. The job starts to happen the second I see the driveway, and continues, often at lightening speed. I cannot take notes or pictures fast enough. My ideas...my work, feels like DESIGN. It makes me happy, and my energy levels soar; I'm in The Zone. I may be “STAGING”, but who said staging may not be artistic, dramatic, powerful? What is the fear?
Okay...if I paid tuition, sat my tushie in a classroom, and studied for four years to become degreed and/or certified, I'd be peeved if someone after three days of training, or $49.99 for an on-line certificate was claiming the same credentials. [I know I'm on thin ice here, and have no interest or intent on offending. I'm making a comparison between a weekend of work and four years of work. Please hear this...thank you.] I DO NOT CALL MYSELF AN INTERIOR DESIGNER, but am I not allowed to design? Design is a VERB!
Further, I understand that DESIGN is TO PLEASE the homeowner. I AM designing for the homeowner; it just happens to be a homeowner that neither I nor the Realtor have yet met.
So where’s your line between staging and designing?
Just asking.....from DC!
Jaynee
AND, BY THE WAY, P.S.: Why aren't all the professional, experienced (and probably Unionized) stage hands at the Kennedy Center, the Met, or the Bolshoi, all screaming at us because we use THEIR verb?
Jaynee,
What a fun expressive post. When your not staging you might consider writing as well. You have so many great lines, my favorite is: If you cut me in half, I don't bleed red, but in "rich, velvety burgundy".
So what is the difference?
Decorating is pleasing the homeowner, it brings out what best reflects them.
Staging is pleasing the home it self, it brings out what quality will best reflect it.