HGTV Tips for Staging Your Home to Sell

HGTV has a great article pertaining to the the steps necessary to stage your home to look like a million bucks. The article contains the following 13 steps that will give your home that “have to have” look.

1. Make an Entrance. The outside of the home is the first thing people see and it says a lot about what the inside looks like. Most home buyers make up their mind about whether they like a home or not within the first 15 seconds so its critical to spruce up the front of the home. Some bold & cheerful paint for the front door, a new seagrass door mat, and new hardware are just some of the simple and inexpensive things that can be done to spruce things up outisde.
2. Conquer the Clutter. Most people have too much stuff and it can sound like a daunting task, but uncluttered rooms will appear more spacious and inviting.
3. Make Less is More Your Mantra. People not only tend to have too many little things, but they also tend to have too much furniture. There should be no more than 2 furniture pieces per wall and if you don’t use it then lose it.
4. Float Furniture. Professional  stagers say too many people have couches butted up against a wall. Try floating your couches awayfrom the walls and envision a figure 8 or the letter H in the middle of the room with clear pathways around it. Many times this technique will make the room seem larger and more inviting.
5. Mix it up. Just because you bought a chair for a particular room doesn’t mean it won’t look great somewhere else. Try moving things around. You can give your house a whole new look just by moving things around.
6. Rediscover Lost Spaces. A lot of what stagers do is creating fantasy spaces. A room for a mediation, an exercise space, a family game room, or a reading room can dramatically increase the value of your home to a buyer. So move your boxes in that room you use for storage and transform it into a room with purpose.
7. Let the Sun Shine In. A bright room that doesn’t seem closed in will look larger. Get rid of the old heavy drapery and put in something light. Just some simple sheers on a tension rods can do the trick. Bamboo or parchment shades with curtain panels made of light cotton twill or or translucent linen also work very well. I love the sheers because the light coming in will be soft and diffused and not harsh like the the lighting you get from direct sunlight coming through a window.
8. Light the Way. Staged homes look great because of the lighting design. Many homes are improperly lit with too few fixtures or just too harsh. To remedy this problem just increase the wattage on lamps and fixtures. The rule of thumb here is 100 watts per 50 square feet. Then install dimmers to control the lighting. Another trick with lighting is layering. A combination of a light from overhead, floor and table lighting, and accent lights create a great ambiance and the layers add interest to the room.
9. Make a Splash with Color. Painting is the cheapest and easiest way to change the look of a room. You can also accomplish this with colored accessories. Find an art piece in a room you really like to draw inspiration for the colors in that room.
10. Paint it Black. Painting old and tired furniture white has been a trick used for years but try painting it black. It instantly updates the look and enhances the other colors in the room. The key here is moderation. Use black on lampshades, accent tables, and picture frames and don’t use a huge black leather couch from the 80’s.
11. Make Your Art Sing. Art hung creatively makes them stand out and shows off the space so don’t just go hanging them high in a straight line.
12. Accessorize with Flair. Accessories with finish off the room. The magic number here is three, but one and five also work well. Don’t place them in a straight line but rather place them in a triangle. Make sure the three accessories vary in size, width, and height. The largest one goes in the back and the smallest goes up front. Another tip is that the eye naturally reads from left to right so placing a striking object in the far right corner of a room will draw attention.
13. Bring the Outdoors In. Stages homes are almost always filled with pricey flower arrangements but you can get the same effect by clipping branches and twigs from your yard and placing them in a tall vase. Its a great way to add a structural piece and add something seasonal to the home.