When you’re selling your home, you want it to look its best when you hold an open-house viewing. If you can’t afford to hire a professional stager, you can do it yourself without a large budget. While there are a few things you can do throughout the home to make it shine, we also want to share how you can make each individual room impressive to potential homebuyers.
Remove Personal Touches Throughout the Home
Many homeowners will leave family photos or religious statues/paraphernalia around the house while doing open-house viewings, but this can actually make your home lose value. A new homeowner will want to envision themselves living there with their own family and not as your guest. Do your best to remove all personal belongings and remove dog or cat odors.
Make the listing feel ‘move-in ready’ by moving boxes or items you won’t use daily to storage. Don’t hide them in the closet, because buyers will check there.
Even though removing your items is a great idea, that doesn’t mean you can’t add to the space by putting artwork or flowers throughout the house. There are services out there like Bouqs.com flower arrangements, who can help by delivering fresh flowers consistently to your door during your open-house.
Styling by Room in the House
Entrance
The entryway will be the homebuyers first impression of the rest of the home. Be sure to mow your lawn, rake leaves, trim overgrown hedges, and power-wash the sidings and sidewalks, so your place looks its best. Remove old welcome mats while you’re at it and add some flowers or plants around the property. If you have a porch, add some furniture.
Living Room
The living room is one of the 3 most important places to stage (besides the kitchen and master bedroom), so put a lot of work in this room. Remove excess furniture to make the space look bigger and try to find pieces that either match or go well with each other. Decorative pillows in contrasting colors can make the room look inviting.
Try to remove any entertainment systems (like televisions, Blu-ray players, or game systems) because they may distract from the rest of the room. Add casual accents like pictures of scenery or books to make the space feel fresh. Add small plants to the coffee table for a splash of color.
Kitchen
While staging the kitchen, focus more on the function of the space rather than the look because your potential homebuyers will value what the room can do rather than what it looks like. It’s still essential to make the space look clean. Your kitchen can make or break a buyer’s decision, so take the time to remodel if the budget allows.
Keep items like blenders, microwaves, and toasters out of sight by placing them neatly in a cupboard. You’ll need these items daily, so it may be challenging to store them away from home. Finally, style countertops with fruit and decorative bowls.
Master Bedroom
Keep all of your bedrooms simple by adding a bed, dresser, side tables, and little else. Unless it’s your child’s room, you will rarely use your bedroom as a multi-purpose area, so design the space for one purpose only: to give yourself a restful sleep. With this in mind, add soft pillows, warm sheets, and furniture in cool colors.
You can create a look of luxury by adding decorative vases or clocks on the side table or placing rugs around the bed. Adding artwork on bedroom walls can give this space personality – just make sure the art is minimalist and matches the room’s color.
Closets
You’ll want to make your closets look as large as possible, so remove clutter and any clothing that may interfere with the space. Keep clothing similar lengths and monochromatic to add style. For a child’s closet, do the same thing but brighten up the colors. Add some lighting for all closets and space hangers evenly.
