Staging your home is all about highlighting its strengths, drawing attention away from its flaws, and enhancing its overall appeal. If hiring a professional home stager isn’t within your budget, here are a few DIY tips for you to consider:
Declutter
One of the best things you can do to prepare your home for a potential sale is to make sure it’s completely free of clutter. Try to stick to this simple rule: whenever you bring in a new item for staging purposes, remove one of your old ones.
The biggest culprit in a cluttered home is having too much furniture. Professional stagers typically remove around half of a home’s existing furniture, making the interiors more spacious. You don’t have to remove that much, but just think carefully about how to select which items should stay.
Repaint to create more space visually
You can make rooms appear bigger by painting it in the exact same color as the adjoining room. For example, if your kitchen is right next to your dining room, you can combine both rooms and make it look like one big space simply by painting them in one color. You can use the same trick on other rooms without adjacent areas by painting the walls to match the drapery, which creates a seamless and sophisticated look.
Arrange and group furniture strategically
One of the most popular tips when arranging furniture is to place it close to walls to make more space. A better idea is to move your furniture away from the walls, grouping them into cozy clusters to improve the room’s flow. This increases space and makes the room more user-friendly.
Transform unused spaces
If you have extra rooms or space that don’t really have any purpose, change it into something that can increase your home’s value. For example, you can try adding a comfy chair or a small coffee table and a reading lamp by the staircase to turn it into a nice reading nook. Or if you have an empty room, install some affordable rubber padding, add some large pillows, a towel rack, some inexpensive fitness equipment and you have a yoga studio/exercise room.
Use neutral colors
Using neutral colors can help create a nice balance in case you have dated finishes. Don’t be afraid to add soft or warm hues – neutral doesn’t have to be beige or grey, it can be a cool blue-green or warm tan shades. Neutrals are best used in larger spaces, so try to avoid using bold colors in areas like living rooms or dining rooms.
Use lighting to your advantage
Any home can have a warm and welcoming atmosphere with great lighting. For every 50 square feet of space, try to aim for a total of 100 watts in your lighting fixtures. Don’t rely on one or two fixtures to illuminate each room, make sure there are three – it can be any combination of task (reading lamps, under-cabinet), ambient (overhead), or accent (table or wall lighting).
Looking to buy or sell a home in Chelan, Manson, Orondo, Brewster, Pateros, Twisp, or Winthrop, or other nearby communities? Get in touch with Coldwell Banker Lake Chelan Properties at 509-682-7777, or send an email to info(at)cbchelan(dotted)com.
Read more: Home Selling Tips