Every home can use a little help
Recently I had a very close friend make the “pandemic” decision to sell her home, buy a new dually truck, a fifth wheel trailer and take their lives on the road. I have always known them to be very outdoorsy and adventurous, but this was next level!
She had purchased her home several years ago and had, over time made some very nice improvements. She rehabbed her bathrooms, kitchen, added a wonderful pergola and patio in the backyard, as well as doing general improvements like repainting. Her home really looked great and she seemed a bit puzzled when we suggested some home staging improvements.
Home staging starts with decluttering
While decluttering in itself may not seem like it fits the definition of home staging, what it does is help us see where we can make the improvements. This is also applicable to artwork, chaquis and personal photographs on walls.
Areas that consitently seem to always need a little decluttering are kitchen counters, closets, kids rooms and bathrooms. Regarding kitchen counters, if you don’t use it at least 5 times a week, find another home for it, or pack it away. Closets? We will provide you with wardrobe boxes so that you can start packing all of those hanging clothes you have worn since last year. The more you can remove from the closets, the larger and more functional a closet will seem. Kids rooms, especially young children with toys, always seem to be a bit dishevled. Teenager’s room? They usually can benefit from being neutralized.
Once the decluttering is done, it opens up the space to being redesigned.
On the walls, one or two large piece of artwork easily replaces five or more personal photographs. Additionally, the artwork can help establish a “theme” or highlight a local activity or environment like a beach picture.
Kitchen counters, minus all the small appliances and knick knacks are easy to keep clean and become a focal point on the kitchen. This is especially important when you consider that the kitchen is always one of the three most important rooms of a house. A nice centerpiece of flowers or fresh fruit can be all they need.
The more spacious you can make a closet feel, all the better. This applies even to walk-in closets that you may feel are “big enough” already. We will provide you with wardrobe boxes to help you safely pack your clothes and coats. While this may sound silly, closets can be a big deal. I have had clients spend thousands of dollars on closet organizers which is no small investment.
Lastly, most homes have a room or two that could use a fresh coat of paint or even a change of color. A real estate business coach is known for saying that paint is “worth $40 in the can and $5000 on the wall”. In our friends house everything was freshly painted with the exception of the stairwell. It hadn’t been done due to its heighth. As part of our staging service I had a painter of ours come and paint the stairwell so that it matches the rest of the house.
Ultimately there were a couple other things we took care of with our home staging. One example was swapping out there larger older dining room table with a new smaller one we owned. It fit the shape of space better, matched the color theme of the house and easily doubled the size of the room by creating more open space. This also allowed us to use some very nice place settings we own.
For more tips and to learn more about how we can help makre sure your home looks spectacular check out our free resource:
If you are thinking about selling, please call Brian Long @ 760-415-3329
