Whether you’re trying to sell your home or just want your home to look its best when your relatives arrive, these tips and tricks of home staging will help your home shine.
1. Cut the clutter.
Ask yourself what you can live without and donate or dispose of it. A good rule to live by: for every item that comes in, another must go out. This helps rooms look much bigger and appeals to most peoples’ desire for an orderly environment.
2. Create furniture groupings.
Don’t be afraid to push the furniture away from the walls and create floating, conversational furniture groupings. These groupings give a cozier, more open feel to a room and make it appear larger.
3. Move things around.
Don’t chain yourself to an idea when it comes to what goes where; rearrange specific pieces and you may just find that a piece that went unused in one room becomes the focal point of another. Moving things around can create much more compelling placement than originally intended.
4. Repurpose a room.
If you’ve got a room that isn’t living up to its potential, change it. If you’ve already cut the clutter, a junk room can easily become a craft room, reading nook, yoga studio, or even an extra bedroom.
5. Optimize lighting.
While lighting plays a large role in setting a room’s mood, many homes suffer from improper lighting. Try increasing the wattage in your existing fixtures, aiming for approximately 100 watts/50 square feet. The three types of lighting you should have are ambient (general or overhead), task (pendant, under-cabinet, or reading), and accent (table and wall).
6. Make rooms appear larger.
Painting adjacent rooms the same color gives them a seamless look and the feel of one big space. Matching walls to drapery or vice versa is also a great way to give a room a larger, more sophisticated look.
7. Neutralize. Colorize.
Tone down dated finishes in large spaces with a fresh neutral wall – anything from beige to honey or soft blue-green. Bold wall colors tend to reduce offering prices. However, don’t be afraid to try a deep tone on an accent wall, or a soft, complimentary color inside built-in shelving areas to make them pop. Darker colors can also make spaces like bedrooms, dining rooms, and powder rooms seem more intimate, dramatic, and cozy.
8. Accessorize.
In decorating a room, vary the heights, patterning, and grouping of wall-hanging pieces you want to catch the eye, as stereotypically placed art can seem nearly invisible. Decorative accessories should be in odd-numbered groups to please the eye, varied by height and width, largest to back and smallest in front. Grouping accessories by some unifying element like color, texture, or shape is extremely effective.
9. Put up a front.
If your cabinetry is looking a little worse for wear, or just out of style, the easiest, most inexpensive way to refresh your kitchen is to put in new doors and drawer fronts. If your dishwasher could use a makeover, check the manufacturer’s website for available front-panel replacements, or use laminate paper to put a fresh skin on the existing panel.
Bathroom tile can be professionally painted to look brand new. Add a few spa-inspired items like decorative candles, baskets, and rolled towels, and your well-loved bathroom will feel like a five-star hotel’s.
10. Finish those projects.
Got a home improvement project you never finished? How about a missing floorboard? These things are pretty simple to fix, and leaving them as is could scare off potential buyers or result in a lower offer. If you’re not moving, getting those projects wrapped up will not only increase the beauty and safety of your home, but will help impress those in-laws.
Even if you’re not planning on selling anytime soon, why wait? Following even a few of these tips will have a noticeably refreshing effect on your home and uncover undiscovered aesthetic potential.
Do you utilize any of these tricks in your own home? Tell us your favorite!
