My Life and Home Staging

My Dining Room - Staged

Design is never so close to the heart as it is when it affects your very livelihood.  My husband and I have owned our home for close to four years and now we have to sell it.  All the steps, I've taken to design my home and make it a place for my family to thrive will restart when we move to our new home.  More importantly right now, I have to transform our space into a neutral desirable home that will reach out to every potential buyer.  With a buyer's market, we have to do everything possible to make our home the one that speaks to the buyer and says "oh yeah, this is it!"

My entire life will be consumed with thoughts of home staging for the next four months.  We have an enormous list of to dos that would scare any normal person silly.  I'll walk you through a few of our thoughts when it comes to home staging our home.

The outside sets the tone for the home.  We are hiring a power washer to come spruce up our vinyl siding before any buyer comes to survey our house.  I am going to spend some time in the front flower bed pulling out weeds and finishing off the right flower bed with a trim.  Instead of hoping that our flowers from the fall keep blooming, we are going to buy some new flowers and spruce it up!  Our mailbox is filthy!  We are going to see if the power washer people can get it cleaned up, otherwise we are going to employ some Clorox to try to clean it up.  Finally, we are hiring a professional to edge our lawn and spruce up the rest.

The house must be pristine.  I plan to have this house sparkling.  We are hiring Stanley Steamer to come in and steam the carpets.  I am cleaning the ceilings, the air vents, the fans, the lighting, the walls, the frames, the woodwork, everything.  No stone will be left unturned.  Nobody likes to look at or buy a dirty house.

The house must appear spacious and inviting.  We are going to move our sofa so it is the first thing that is seen when entering the house.  This makes the first room of the house appear comfortable and inviting.  We are clearing out extra furniture and removing all clutter.  The less clutter in a room, the more spacious that room feels.

Each room must convey a purpose.  I am planning to leave all pivotal furniture in place.  Empty houses sell slower than staged homes.  The potential buyer must be able to envision each room's purpose.  A bedroom is much more of a bedroom with a bed, nightstand, and dresser.  A large empty room may still a bedroom, but the buyer may not be able to visualize his or her items in the empty room.  We intend to set up an extra bed in our third bedroom so that the buyers will be able to see the room as a bedroom and not just as a computer room, which is how we have used the room.

These are just some of the thoughts that have crossed our mind as we have ventured to begin the process of selling our home.  I am so glad that I have experience in interior design, because I can see this getting overwhelming fast!  Since finding out that we will be moving soon, I have studied up on home staging and feel confident that our home is going to do great on the market!

Feel free to leave any home staging tips and advice in a comment!  I love hearing new ideas!