Kristie Lorette McCauley

7 Ways to Stage Your Home Like a Professional When the housing inventory is bursting at the seams, it is tougher than ever for a seller to entice someone to buy their home. When it’s tough to sell, it also doesn’t mean you should just give up either. Instead, take proactive steps to stage your home so that potential buyers envision themselves living there as soon as they walk through the door. Professional home stagers come set up furniture, décor and accessories to present your home in its best light. Using the tricks of professional home stagers, you too can stage your home to sell. Highlighting and Downplaying The key element to staging your home like a professional home stager is to learn the strengths and weaknesses of your home—highlighting the strengths and drawing attention away from the weaknesses. Melinda Massie, owner of Organizing with a Side of Fabulous, a professional organizing and home staging company in Fort Worth, TX shares, “Organize all of the cabinets. Messy cabinets make it look like you don't have enough storage. Storage sells.” If the weakness in the family room is the old brick fireplace, then decorate the room to detract attention away from the fireplace. Rather than decorate the fireplace and mantle to attract attention to it, decorate the two built-in bookcases that flank the fireplace. Float Your Furniture When arranging furniture, you want to make the rooms look spacious and control the flow of the room. While there is a tendency to push furniture up against walls to create space, floating the furniture adds space to the room. Create furniture groupings, such as a loveseat with a coffee table in the middle and two wingback chairs across from the sofa, all in the middle of the living room on a decorative rug. Dawn Ohnstad of Coldwell Banker Burnet says the rooms should almost be bare of furniture, but the furniture you use should be in good condition. Re-purpose Rooms Melissa Riche of GREAT PLACE also says to give each room a purpose. If you have a spare bedroom that you use as your storage room, start by de-cluttering the room. Instead of a junk room, turn the room into a:      Craft room Sewing room Reading room Office Game room When each room has a purpose, you are showing people how the space can be used, but without clutter. Lighting is Everything Lighting makes a home appear welcoming and inviting. Unfortunately, many homes do not have the proper lighting to create this ambiance. Fortunately, you can create ambiance by changing out low wattage light bulbs for higher wattages. Your goal should be to add 100 watts of light for every 50 square feet of the room. Each room should have three types of lighting: general (overhead); task, (pendant or reading lighting); and accent (lamps or wall sconces). If you are fortunate enough to have natural lighting, then use this to your advantage when showing your home during the daylight hours. Open all of the shades halfway, so the light streams in. According to Melissa Riche of GREAT PLACE, an interior styling and home staging company, “Remove heavy drapes - they block light and make rooms appear smaller.” Three is Not a Crowd According to HGTV.com, accessories can make or break a room. When it comes to using home accessories to your advantage, think in groups of three. Also, think in terms of creating a triangle with objects that are of varying sizes and heights. Place one accessory at each point on the triangle, where the smallest accessory is in the front and the largest is at the back. Add Blooms to the Rooms Fresh flowers, natural plants and fresh arrangements are a must for staging your home. According to Chantay Bridges, a Senior Real Estate Specialist with Clear Choice Realty & Associates, you can even “Set out a bowl of fresh fruit.” Each room should have a fresh flower arrangement, green plants or even fern and other foliage that you may even be able to pull together from your own yard. Prime locations for flowers include the living room and kitchen, but are also perfect additions to bathrooms, bedrooms and other rooms in the home. Give Bathrooms the Spa Treatment Add accessories to your bathroom that transform it from a regular bathroom into a spa. When you visit the spa, you often find towels and hand towels rolled up and displayed inside of a basket or arranged on a decorative tray. Adding candles (lit or unlit), according to Chantay Bridges, is another way to create a spa-like atmosphere to your bathrooms. It’s all about the relaxing and welcoming atmosphere that you create. No matter what the situation is in the housing market, you want to make your home as appealing as possible to potential buyers. A professional home stager can help, but it is also going to cost you. Instead, learn how to present your home to potential buyers just like the professionals, so you don’t have to break the bank. Presentation is everything and can mean the difference between bringing in offers and having your house simply sit on the market.