Home Staging Blog

We all love comfortable homes, right?  We like to come home, sit down in our favorite spot, kick back, relax and put up our feet.  When guests come ’round we want to be sure we have plenty of seating and, especially during the holidays and special celebrations, we want to make sure there are plenty of chairs at the dining table.

But when you are putting your home on the market, you are going to have buyers coming in and out of your home, and if you’re lucky, there are going to be quite a few of them there at the same time.  One of the last things you want is to have them dodging your furniture or each other to avoid collisions.

So if your home is occupied, chances are that quite a bit of your usual pieces of furniture and accessories are going to be stored elsewhere while your home is on the market.  Take a walk through your home as though you had never been there before.  Is there a clear path to get from room to room?  Can you see out the windows or is there a piece of furniture blocking the view?  Can you actually open the door to the backyard? 

  

Who would know there is a door leading to the backyard?

  

Now you can show off this selling feature!

On the other hand, if you have a vacant property that is being staged, resist the temptation to insist that it be filled with furniture and accessories to the point that it feels like your own living room.  There is a difference between staging a home for sale and the way you live in it daily.  While a lived in home needs extra storage pieces for china and personal collections, these pieces often feel heavy and take the buyer’s eye away from what you are selling, the home.

Stage a lifestyle, you don’t need to fill the home to suggest what awaits…

Find a happy medium.  When staging for sale, think about the selling features of your home and how you can showcase them with your furniture placement.  If you have awkward or small spaces, be creative and show buyers how they can be made to work for today’s lifestyle.  Eliminate pieces that are going to block pathways or obscure views.

When staging your home to support you in creating the lifestyle of your dreams, use pieces that fit the way you live now.  Create arrangements that will work for you rather than against you.  If you constantly find yourself banging your knee on a piece of furniture, maybe it’s time to rethink the furniture placement in that room.  Or if you find your guests not knowing where to place their glass when visiting, you may need to add a small table or shelf.

Furniture in a home is more than just a place to sit.  It can showcase the house, give a home personality, and create an environment to support a comfortable lifestyle.  As life evolves, so too do your needs within your home.  Little changes can go a long way, both to get a home sold and to bring greater harmony to your day to day life.

Part I -Collections

Part II-Driveways

Part III-Paint

Part IV-Clutter