7 Simple but effective home staging tips

Original content provided by The Home

Planning to put your house on the market this summer? Chances are you’re feeling a combination of excitement and anxiety. Excitement about your brand-new chapter, but nerves about how long your house could take to sell.

Well, fear not. We’ve rounded up some simple but effective home staging tips that will bring you closer to that all-important house sale. Thank us later (when you’re popping the champagne!).

Rearrange Your Furniture
Despite your own personal style, when it comes to selling your home you really need to put yourself in the shoes of potential buyers. Sure, you might love having that armchair facing the television because it’s where Dad likes to sit when he comes around on the weekend. But to create an appealing living space, try turning the seats towards each other to create an inviting conversation area. Also ensure your furniture isn’t pressed up against the wall, as this makes your house look smaller.

Give Spare Rooms Purpose
We’re all guilty of using a spare room in our house to hang the washing, do the ironing and pretty much store any random pieces of unused furniture. As mentioned previously when talking about clearing clutter, this will all have to go when looking for your house sale. Give your spare bedrooms purpose, whether that’s investing in a sofa bed or an office desk and chair. You need to create a lifestyle potential buyers can buy into.

Keep it Neutral
If you’re someone that likes to experiment with bold and bright colours in your home, now’s the time to tone it down. Neutral hues are sophisticated enough to appeal to the masses, as well as allowing prospective buyers to see the home as a blank canvas that they can then decide to decorate in their own way. But this is not to say your whole home has to be painted white. opt for greys, beige and other neutral hues that scream elegance.

Get Cleaning
It sounds obvious, but before you do anything else, make sure you get your house sparkling. We’re talking shiny surfaces and flooring, crystal-clear windows and carpets that have been shampooed. First impressions are what counts here, so walking into a home that’s dust and dirt free will make all the difference. If your house is on the larger side of the spectrum, it might be worth hiring a professional to do some of the more difficult jobs. It’ll pay off!

Make it Minimal
A clean house is great, but it means nothing without a home free of clutter. Making it minimal will create appeal for prospective buyers, mostly because they will be able to see the house they will potentially be living in. If you’ve got a lot of stuff, it might be worth renting storage for the time you’re staging your home. Or utilise a very generous relative’s garage space.

Leave it a Little Lived-in
Although it’s important to keep clutter to a minimum, you also don’t want to get rid of everything in your home, for fear of it looking too sterile. Find the perfect balance of minimal and lived-in by reintroducing a few elements that will inject personality. Fresh local produce on show and vases filled with in-season flowers will do the trick nicely.

Don’t Forget Outside
Last but definitely not least, you’ll want to make sure the outside of your house also gets the treatment it deserves. Whether it’s giving the yard a fresh cut and adding some colourful flowers and plants, or power-washing the walkways of your house and re-painting the porch floor if needed, you need to make sure the outside of your home is as appealing as the inside.