An empty house or apartment can tend to look cold and uninviting. Having your home staged and styled, can make the property stand out from the crowd and assists in helping buyers picture what it’s like to live there. Staging your home involves bringing furniture and homewares into your property to create a space that appeals to the general public. Staging your home can make them look more appealing to buyers at inspections, and can also assist in the property photographing better.
Professional staging is probably the most effective way to increase the value of your home, as it can help the property stand out from the crowd, making it more recognisable, attractive, and memorable.
There are several ways to go about styling your home. Calling in a professional stylist to advise you on where to arrange your current belongings and furniture as well as what to throw out and what to keep, is probably the most cost and time effective method of staging your property.
Another approach is to still use a styling company, but to completely leave it up to the experts and invite new furniture into the property. This is a great method in increasing the value of your property as stylists are generally more aware of the latest trends in furniture and interior design, ensuring your property is up to date with the latest styles.
If you have a good eye for detail, and would rather keep things to a budget, doing the professional staging yourself can be as effective. However, it is important to keep the emotion out of the equation here and view your home as a prospective buyer would, by ensuring you go for a fresh, modern, clean and bright look. Some helpful tips in ensuring it is done properly include:
- Focus on the entry – Adding some fresh foliage to the hallway table, and a floor lamp to add some soft lighting, can create a warming feel to the space
- Declutter the emotion – Remove items that are more personal to create a more neutral tone
- Make sense of your floorplan – Ensure each room has been styled the way they are designed to be used
- Fill your home with light – Adding lamps, opening blinds, shutters and curtains, and ensuring all globes are in working order, can add more warmth to the property and will help it photograph really well
- Make your main bedroom magazine worthy – Use fresh white linen, stand euro pillows upright, a few (3 to 5) colourful cushions, and a throw rug can keep the space cosy and warm. Bedside tables and lamps are a must, and removing furniture like TVs and chest of drawers opens up the room and keeps it simple
For unfurnished properties, you can also look at adding virtual furniture when the property is professionally photographed. This is fairly cost effective and can help in the initial phases of attracting prospective buyers to your property. It is also helpful in making sense of the floorplan.