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How to stage your house to sell: 11 best staging ideas

Once you’ve decluttered, depersonalized, hidden all traces of pets, and done a better-than-spring cleaning, you can tackle the actual staging of your home. Read on for the best staging tips.

1. Increase lighting everywhere: Staging a home is no time for mood lighting. One of the first things many potential buyers comment on is the amount of light in a home. Replace any burned-out lightbulbs, swap out for higher wattage bulbs, clean your windows, open the blinds, and don’t forget to turn on the lights before any showing.
2. Create conversational furniture arrangements: Take a look at each room and play around with the arrangement of your furniture to create more conversational spaces. Point loveseats and couches toward each other, which will actually increase the amount of space in rooms. Don’t be afraid to mix things completely up. In real life, you’d probably point the couch toward the television. But staging your home for sale isn’t about living in it. It’s about selling it.
3. Stay neutral for broad appeal: Yes, that bright red accent wall really shows off your personality. But there’s only one you, and you’ve already bought this home once. You need to tone down the colors. Neutrals are your friends. You’ll also want to make sure to keep spaces gender-neutral. Your home’s new owners won’t necessarily use the rooms (or decorate them) the same way you do.
4. Update the finishes: Walk through your home with a critical eye, noticing little maintenance issues like a serious buyer would. It’s likely worth a Saturday of work to repaint a room, re-caulk or re-grout, strip wallpaper, or change out dated or worn hardware.
5. Take a look at the exterior: Your home’s curb appeal is the ultimate first impression. Mow your lawn, pressure wash any dingy areas, repair chipping paint, plant some flowers, and tidy up any patio furniture.
6. Arrange in odd numbers: From throw pillows to accessories and chairs to artwork, professional stagers and designers swear by decorating in threes, fives, and sevens, which gives some visual interest to otherwise symmetrical spaces.
7. Set the table: It’s a nice finishing touch that, again, can help the buyer visualize living there. Holiday dinner party, anyone?
8. Only style with polished accents: For example, only stage your master bath with new bath towels, or none at all. Just say no to your still-drying bath towels from this morning’s shower.
9. Make the space appear larger: Add mirrors to reflect light, swap a heavy powder room cabinet for a pedestal sink, or remove a leaf from your huge dining room table.
10. Show value in unusual floor plans: Highlight what makes your home unique and special. Add a reading nook, show the benefit of an extra storage area, or tuck a desk in an unused corner.
11. Use extra rooms deliberately: Never leave a room empty. Instead, make that unused guest room feel usable, staging it as an office, craft room, or guest bedroom — but never all of those things at once!

Don’t leave rooms empty when you stage your house. An attractive seating area can help potential buyers imagine the home as their own. Photo from Shutterstock.
source zillow