When it comes to home staging, it pays to know a thing or two about what people like, and what colours and styles will trigger your potential buyers’ emotions.
This year for example, neutral, soft, calming colours are popular. White, pale grey and warm stone colours, like Dulux Goose Down and Farrow & Ball Skimming Stone, will not only help to create a neutral and calm interior, but pale colours are much easier for a new buyer to paint over should they want to stamp their own mark on the place. Did you know that there are actually 50 different shades of white? But there’s more to do than just add a lick of paint.
We’ve put together five of the easiest ways to stage a home. We’re not talking renovating your entire property here, becoming a designer, or spending a fortune. Instead, we’ll show you how to make a few small changes that can entice viewers to submit a great offer on your home.
So, let’s get started!
If you have a front garden, sort out the weeds and tidy it up. You can buy reasonably-priced garden plant pots or hanging plants from places like IKEA, Homebase, or Etsy, or have a look at your local shops as these often have excellent deals and hidden gems.
Don’t be afraid to go bold on colour for your flowerpots. Soft and calm colours work best for inside, but bold and bright does the job of catching someone’s eye outside. You want people to drive past and slow down when they see your home, what you don’t want is a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ exterior!
Once your garden is spruced up a bit, turn your attention to the front door. Is the paint chipped? Is the door handle old and worn looking? Is it the sort of front door you’d want to step through when viewing a home?
Painting your front door can make a world of difference, doesn’t cost a lot, and will only take you a few hours. Bright, bold colours will make a house stand out, but elegant neutrals can work just as well. Take into consideration the style of your property and the type of buyer you are trying to appeal to. Consider getting a new door handle if the existing one is broken, rusty or just unsightly. A tin of paint and new door handle can be purchased for less than £100 online, and it’s well worth the investment.
You’ll have viewers excited before they’ve even stepped into your property, and that’s the mood you want. Just be careful not to let them down once they get inside…
First, get rid of your front door clutter. This might be coats and jackets, a shoe rack, dog leads, keys, you name it. Tidy away as much clutter as possible from the entrance and hallway (or even better, throw away anything you no longer need). This is where your viewer gets their first impression of the inside of your home, so don’t put them off before they’ve even started to look around. A bad first impression is very hard to erase.
Next look at lighting. Is the hallway well lit, warm, and welcoming? Does it invite the buyer in? Make sure any broken lightbulbs are replaced, not only here, but throughout the home. A table lamp or warm light fairy lights would help to create a warm glow. Perhaps a scented candle would also work, as long as it’s something that most people like and not overpowering.
Do you have a rug in the hallway? What condition is it in? Is it the right size for the space? In the image above, the rug is a decent large size, and adds contrast and light to the hallway, increasing the feeling of space, so it’s a winner. Try now to picture this same image with a rug half that size, and in a dark blue or brown colour. It would completely change the style and feel of the hallway! It would seem smaller, darker, and less appealing. Now, have a look at your hallway, and decide what looks best.
Finally, invest in some fresh flowers or indoor plants for the hallway and stick to neutral colours like white if there’s already too much colour. Ideally, a plant or bunch of flowers in each room of the house would be best. They help make a home feel alive!
If you have interior walls that need a lick of paint, then it’s worthwhile taking the time to do this. Did you know that you can increase the appearance of size with light reflective paint? Dulux has a range to suit all kinds of needs and isn’t costly like some of the other brands, so check out their guides for the different types of paint and where each one is useful. Keep size first and foremost in mind – don’t do anything that shrinks your rooms!
If you’re painting wood, opt for satinwood – it has less sheen than gloss, stays white for longer and is easier to apply. Opting for the cheapest paint usually leads to regret, so buy the best you can afford and apply as neatly as possible.
Next, look at the artwork you have and decide whether it needs a slight tweak, and if you don’t actually have any artwork, it’s time to remedy that.
Having family photographs, especially if it’s wall to wall kids, cousins, aunts, and uncles, is doing more harm than good. Your viewers want to imagine themselves living there, with their family, not yours. So, time to take them down, and replace with some art.
Prints that are popular with most people tend to be landscapes, nature, and still-life subjects. If you can have a print from somewhere fairly local, then even better!
Needless to say, stay away from images that depict political or religious symbols, and people. Remember, you’re trying to appeal to the masses, not show off how artsy and unique your taste is.
And don’t go crazy here – you can have one large piece on a wall, or create a gallery effect with various smaller pieces, but there’s no need to clutter all your walls with art. It will only serve to shrink the size of the room, and that’s the worst thing you can do.
If you don’t want to spend a lot of money replacing or adding artwork, because you’re unlikely to keep it for the new house, you can try online for some decent deals at somewhere like lightinthebox, Junique or Riseart. But if you’re happy to spend a little more and take it with you (always a good option), then why not shop around at some of the local, independent art stores? That’s where you’ll find prints or paintings depicting the local neighbourhood or area like no other, and you’ll be supporting local businesses, which is something we personally love to do.
No, we don’t just mean wash the dishes and put away that dishcloth and oven mitts. There’s a bit more to it.
A lot of people tend to put things (plants, tupperware, ornamental plates, boxes, old coffee machines, etc) on top of kitchen cabinets, in the space between the cabinets and the ceiling.
This is a mistake. It has the effect of bringing down the height of the ceilings and making buyers think there is not enough cupboard space, whereas when you leave this space clear, viewers can see the kitchen more clearly, it’s less cluttered, and it looks like your ceilings are higher. So, get decluttering from the top down first.
When it comes to your worktops – do you have utensils there? A paper towel holder? A loaf of bread? A kettle and toaster? Most of this, unless it’s decorative and accentuates the look of your kitchen, will need to be tucked away. Viewers will be imagining themselves cooking in your kitchen, and that’s hard to do when they’re seeing almost no worktop space.
Homes need to look at their very best when they’re for sale, as opposed to when we simply live in them and this is what you have to keep in mind when staging the kitchen. Imagine yourself as a viewer or potential buyer, not as the homeowner who needs quick and easy access to cooking utensils and other items.
Finally, pop a bowl of fruit in your kitchen with lemons, oranges, or apples, to add a splash of colour, and of course the smell of baking cakes is always a winner – just don’t burn them while your viewers are walking around the house!
The bathroom is one of the easiest rooms to stage. It’s smaller, for one thing, and there’s less to do. And you can take your new ideas to your new home!
First up, remove any personal belongings on display. Remember, you want people to imagine themselves in this bathroom, and with your old mascara sitting on top of the sink, well…it’s not a great look, is it?
If you have shampoo and conditioner on the corners of the bathtub, make sure they match and have nice packaging. For example, when you go into a nice hotel restaurant and visit the toilets, what do you see? A worn old bar of soap that’s been used a dozen times, or a clear bottle of lemon-scented cleanser and matching hand lotion? Think of yourself as a temporary spa owner – and design accordingly.
Next, did you know that having only plain white towels in the bathroom creates a spa-like effect? And this is one of the CHEAPEST things you can do to enhance that room. You can order a set of fairly cheap white towels online for around £20. Fold them nicely into a tower effect.
Perhaps buy a plant for the bathroom, such as an orchid. Why? Because, again, it gives us that spa effect and adds calming vibes. If you’re not sure what type, check out this post for some inspiration.
Told you the bathroom was easy – just don’t forget to tidy and clean until it’s absolutely sparkling!
So, there you have it – five easy ways to spruce up your home, ready for buyers to submit the offer you’re hoping for.
Need some extra help staging your home?
Whether your house is already on the market or you’re just thinking about a potential move, we’ve got solutions for you.
Give us a call on 0141 374 0373 or head over to www.allaboutthemove.co.uk to see what we can do for your home 😊