Are you thinking of selling your home, but worried that it won’t show at its best? Fret no more. Like Cinderella transforming into a princess with the wave of a fairy godmother’s magic wand, your home can quickly go from dumpy to dazzling with the help of a skilled stager.
Stagers re-style and furnish (when necessary) rooms, with an eye to creating a beautiful but neutral space that will appeal to the widest range of buyers. With their design know-how, spaces will look bigger and allow potential homebuyers to imagine themselves enjoying life within their walls.
In fact, everyone should consider hiring a stager, even in Denver’s longtime sellers’ market.
“It helps homes go for top dollar, encouraging bidding wars and adding as much as 10% of the price,” Lauren Matthews of White Orchid Interiors’ design and staging company recently told 5280 magazine.
Even if you can’t afford a professional, you can arrange your home to command the best price. Matthews offers the following tips:
Choose the most important rooms to focus on: The living room, dining room, kitchen, and master bedroom are the key areas buyers look at, notes Matthews. But that doesn’t mean other rooms should go untouched. Be sure everything is clean and looks organized, including the garage, which can be important to male buyers.
Photos are key: “If a home doesn’t look good online, no one will want to see it in person,” warns the designer. Before taking photos or videos (Matthews suggests hiring a professional for this), arrange the furniture so it’s at its most photogenic, and make sure that the backs of sofas or chairs don’t block the shots.
De-clutter: Remove personal photos and knick-knacks and reduce a room’s accessories by two-thirds. Matthews urges homeowners to “hide anything smaller than a football.”
Remove loud design elements: Trade bold hues and patterns for more soothing neutrals. “Take out brightly colored or patterned sofas or chairs, or cover them with crisp, light-colored slipcovers,” writes 5280. Also, “give rooms fresh coats of paint and eliminate bright accent walls.” Matthews recommends two neutral Benjamin Moore colors: Muslin (a warm beige) or Revere Pewter (light gray).
Add color highlights: A pop of color will help make the space appealing to the eye. If the room is decorated in beige tones, use yellow, orange, cream and gold. If gray predominates, choose blue or green. Plants can also add pop. “Succulents have a contemporary vibe and tend to be good for smaller spaces,” notes 5280. “For bigger rooms, opt for easy-to-maintain philodendron or trendy fiddle-leaf figs.”
Restore the rooms to their original purpose: If you’ve turned a bedroom into a library, a dining room into a billiard room, it’s time to wave that magic wand in reverse. Re-create the home as it was initially intended so that buyers don’t have to see past your personal quirks and preferences to appreciate your home.
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