Staging Your Home for Sale :: Stepping Inside

Welcome to your weekly fill of staging hints, tricks and good ideas. Remodeling Guy and I are walking you through how to stage your home for sale or for your own benefit.

Photos: Do it Yourselfer

Remodeling Guy here: I sure have been motivated myself by the great ideas for staging! In fact, I find the ideas so useful for everyday life that I forget that we're talking about selling! I guess that's the point. Make people feel like this is a place where they want to live! So what should we focus on as we step from the pretty porch and into the hacienda?

Well, Remodeling Guy, as potential buyers walk through the threshold and enter into your house what is it that you want them to feel and think? I'll tell you. You want them to think, "This house is spacious, this house is attractive to me, this house is cared for and ready for me to move in, and I'll take it." Right?

Most likely they already know how many bedrooms and baths there are, what school district you are in and if there is a garage. You have managed to get them in the door and that means they were happy with what they saw on the outside--good for you! Now you have to sell them on the inside.


1. Making a home seem spacious:

All of the photos in this post are courtesy of my friend in real life and fellow blogger, The Do it Yourselfer from Pink and Polka Dot. Her house is for sale and she has done a fine job in maximizing her home's space. Let's deconstruct how she did it.

• sparse decorating
• white slipcovers
• solid rug on the floor
• defined focal point

A staged home is a little different than a home decorated for the owners. This home is beautifully decorated but not overly cluttered with too many things on the wall and on the surfaces. I've heard it said that you should remove anything in your home larger than a football when staging. I wouldn't say that it's a hard and fast rule but if you have a collection of 379 Hummels, you might want to pack them away and de-Hummel the house while you are showing it.

The white slipcovers are not a must have but sure do go a long way to add to the overall feeling of relaxation that you get when you look at the room. Am I the only one ready to slipcover my sofa in white? The Do it Yourselfer also has an easy slip cover tutorial--the best one I've found yet. Patterns do seem to fill a room so if your sofa is a pattern {like mine} you may want to go easy on the pillows and excess window coverings.


If you have wooden floors you might want to consider removing the rugs. This will put the focus on the pretty floors and make the room seem bigger. In this room, the use of a solid rug is ideal because it covers carpet and makes the room feel larger.

The focal point in this living room is clearly the fireplace. Yet because of the sensible pale color on the walls, the eye {or eyes if you have two} is drawn up to the vaulted ceiling. The columns are painted white and add lots of character in the room. Also, notice the windows--they are simply dressed and the blinds are pulled to the top to allow maximum lightage. This room gets an A++!



2. Making the home attractive

Neutral decorating is the goal when selling your house. This does not necessarily mean only using neutral colors but it means decorating in a way that is attractive to the masses. The pictured house still holds true to the style of romantic cottage but it's not overdone with rose wall paper and pink paint. It is fresh, it is current and it allows any prospective buyer to imagine the home with their furniture.

Dated furniture has a tendency to date a house. As much as you may love your dad's 1970's recliner, don't give the potential buyers too much credit and assume they can see right through it. While your house is on the market it will be best to pack away and HIDE anything that might cause your house to seem old and dated. Believe it or not buyers can't don't always give the house the benefit of the doubt. A sparsely decorated room is better than a room full of mismatched bachelor pad items.



3. The house is cared for:

Remodeling Guy, why don't you coach us a little on this point since I have hogged this entire post? I'll make your words be golden. You know, since they are worth their weight in gold and all.

I think you're completely right when you say that the house should seem well cared for. It makes great sense to take care of any little issues, not only right at the entry but throughout the house. I would suggest a coat of fresh paint, if not on everything, at least on the trim and doors.


Just going over the woodwork with a quick coat of fresh paint makes a huge difference to my eye. While working on that door, maybe switch out the hardware to new inexpensive hardware that has that fresh clean look. People will notice that it's new when they open the doors to peek around.


The more cared for the house looks, the less concerned buyers will be about bigger issues such as the roof and Heating and Air-Conditioning systems. Again the first impression is important! If a buyer sees a broken door knob at the coat closet, the little mental alarms will start and it might cost a whole lot more than the $25.00 for new hardware!


The home featured in this post is located in the Raleigh, NC area. Want to find out more? Please contact me and I'll forward your email to the owner!

Related Posts:
Staging: The Exterior