Great tips, Mary, and fairly inexpensive compared to other forms of formal staging. Thanks!

So true.. thanks for the post. I am constantly amazed, when cruising Realtor's website listings, that I find so many dark photographs where all the blinds or window coverings are closed. Let there be light!

I just added this in response to another blog, but I think it's worth mentioning again here. 

Anytime there are light covers or glass globes, etc., I usually try to get my sellers to remove them all and wash them out.  Some globes I've seen are so dusty, it dims the light coming out. 

I had kind of a slow open house two weeks ago.  I noticed the stairway in the home was always so dim, and I couldn't figure out why.  Upon closer inspection I realized the globes were so dusty, inside and out.  I took down all four glass globes and rinsed them out in the sink.  You would not believe what a difference it made.  The light was able to shine through again and truly made a visible difference. 

The next day when I called my sellers to follow up on the open house, the wife asked me if I had replaced the light bulbs in the stairway.  She was concerned I had installed higher watt bulbs in than the fixtures were designed for.  I felt bad telling her, but I said I simply took the globes down and washed them.  Nothing more.  Same lightbulbs. 

Brian Ortiz

Brian, thank you for sharing this!  I was just noticing in a home I just moved into that the globe needs washing.  Funny, the things we notice in our own homes that we would immediately correct in a listing!  Figure I'll get to it before grandma and grandpa show up for the holiday meal!  Mary

Lighting is so important!  So glad you brought this up.

 Jana

It's amazing what a little light can do.  In Sweden it is customary to put small lamps inside windowsills.  It brightens the look of the home immensly during the dark winter nights.

This is a good point that is actually hard for me to remember when I am taking pictures.

In some houses I run into the dilemma of needing curtains to soften outside views that are undesireable.  Even the sheerest curtains really cut down on the natural light into the house but when houses are very very close together and windows look directly at a neighbors peeling paint or right into their windows the curtains are a big improvement.  These would be excellent cases for adding lamps. 

Mary, thank you for the 'timely' advice which helps to 'shed light' on the importance of lighting when trying to create a mood or effect.  And as you pointed out, this is something that needs to be addressed even more now in the darker days of winter!

Thanks for all the responses!  Gina, I just thought of something and am not sure if it would work or not.  Have you ever heard of Wallpaper for windows?  I just picked some up for a my own home and for a client who has those windows that surround the front door.  She and I didn't want to put a sheer panel there - instead we found this wallpaper which is white with a leaf pattern.  The leaves are clear so that there is no light that is blocked out but there is a visual that is pleasant to look at.  Got it from Home Depot.  It may not at all be right for a window in a room that looks at a neighbors siding.  When you say soften outside views you remind me of how fabric framing windows can soften edgey rooms.  When furniture corners are edgy and window trim is rectangular, it is nice to soften the edges.  What about a ficas type tree thingy that could help mask the view?  When I am short on supplies for staging, I often take the same green plant around the house -- if one cared enough to view each picture they might find the "traveling plant" that finds its way into the bathroom, the kitchen, the coffee table or end table, for example.  For that matter, so does the lamp!