Home staging is the preparation of a private residence for sale in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to make a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers, thereby selling a property more swiftly and for more money. Staging techniques focus on improving a property’s appeal by insuring it is a welcoming, attractive product that any buyer can see themself living in and, thus, desire to purchase.
Home staging is not just decorating, but also needs to include an understanding of how to find the equity in that home and property, where the real estate market is for that home, in that neighborhood, so the homeowner can choose where to make those investments. Comparable houses for sale on the market in the area also needs to be considered to know how to stage the home so it sells quickly and for more money. Return on Investment is the purpose of staging.
As for simple decorating to stage, people often use art, painting, accessories, lights, greenery, and carpet to stage the home, to give potential buyers a more attractive first impression of the property. They also rearrange or “temporarily replace” furniture. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features, while down-playing flaws. Different areas and rooms of a home can have varying levels of impact when convincing potential homebuyers, and therefore some rooms can be considered more important than others when it comes to staging.
When professional stagers descend on a home being prepped for market, they often whisk away as much as half the owner’s furnishings, and the house looks much bigger for it. You don’t have to whittle that drastically, but take a hard look at what you have and ask yourself what you can live without.
A mirror not only adds some style to a space, but its reflective quality can also open up a room, making it brighter and seem less cramped (even if it’s tiny). If you lack artwork, consider picking up a sizable mirror at your local home store.
There’s a common belief that rooms will feel larger and be easier to use if all the furniture is pushed against the walls, but that isn’t the case. Instead, furnish your space by floating furniture away from walls. Reposition sofas and chairs into cozy conversational groups, and place pieces so that the traffic flow in a room is obvious. Not only will this make the space more user-friendly, but it will open up the room and make it seem larger.
To make a room appear to be bigger than it is, paint it the same color as the adjacent room. If you have a small kitchen and dining room, a seamless look will make both rooms feel like one big space. And make a sunporch look bigger and more inviting by painting it green to reflect the color of nature. Another design trick: If you want to create the illusion of more space, paint the walls the same color as your drapery. It will give you a seamless and sophisticated look.
If your home is like most, the art is hung in a high line encircling each room. Big mistake. Placing your pictures, paintings and prints in such stereotypical spots can render them almost invisible. Art displayed creatively makes it stand out and shows off your space. So break up that line and vary the patterning and grouping.
Mixing the right accessories can make a room more inviting. When it comes to eye-pleasing accessorizing, odd numbers are preferable, especially three. Rather than lining up a trio of accessories in a row, imagine a triangle and place one object at each point. Scale is important, too, so in your group of three be sure to vary height and width, with the largest item at the back and the smallest in front. For maximum effect, group accessories by color, shape, texture or some other unifying element, stagers suggest.
Happy Home Staging!