Friday, May 10, 2019

House Staging Tips Put To Use



Thank you to all those who commented on staging the mantle in the last post! I saw a trend towards the family painting for the mantle, so that's what we ended up with there.



The lanterns are staying for now, but I'm on the lookout for something smaller. 



Everyday I wish we had left the TV hanging over the mantle...it would make that area so much simpler! 



But the large TV cabinet and oversized TV are in the room now, and we have no desire to take them with us! We've offered them as a 'negotiable inclusion' in the terms of a future sale.


The entryway kept its bench and rug, but everything else (except an old watering can of florals) got removed.




I watched A LOT of "How To Stage Your House" videos on YouTube over the weekend. 



The best advice was (1) Know Who Is Your Target Market, and (2) Clear Everything 'Not Essential' Out Of Your House for a showing. 

I had just bought a real cute new bathmat that day, and the person making the video said, "Don't go out and buy a new bathmat because you should remove everything from the floor -- including your bathmat!"


The kitchen still has some chickens around, but gone are almost all appliances.

It was an exhausting weekend, but the house is cleared out and simplified, and the photographer came yesterday and took pictures of the house. 

The photos should be ready tomorrow, and then finally we are going up for sale! 



While we were moving "extras" out of the house to storage, we had to buy 2 chairs to turn the dining room back into a dining room. 

We've been using the dining room as a reading room recently with a couch in there. I went a lot of places - real quick - to find some reasonably priced chairs!


Finally I found something that would work (and that was in stock) at World Market. I bought two, round-back gray chairs that we can use in our future home too.





One thing I think we did right was to almost completely clear out the walk-in closet in our master bedroom. 


The photographer said she doesn't normally photograph closets, but did photos of ours since it was all cleared out. I'm so glad I emptied it out as I think a large closet is a good selling point, and I'd hate to have people walking into our "stuff".


When I determined who our target market was, it was more than likely a retired couple like ourselves. Over half our neighbors are retirees so that was a no-brainer!



Outside the master bedroom, there's an office nook. The office area is almost empty now too.




I've found it's easier to see problems when you take a picture and look at an area by photo instead of looking in person. The photo below makes me realize I need to clear out some of those books on the top shelf!


The powder room and laundry room are next to each other near the garage...




Thanks for taking this tour with me...I'm leaving you with the view of the powder room mirror. I just want to say here, the speckles on the mirror aren't dirt! 


It's a reproduction mirror that has an "effect" speckled on to make it look old. It looks better in person, honest! 




Thanks for dropping by!





17 comments:

  1. It all looks lovely. I am sure it will be a quick sale.

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  2. Oh, a lot of hard work but it's looking good :)
    Diana

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  3. What a lot of work. Very pretty, clean and tasteful. Should appeal to everyone. Good luck.

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  4. It looks great, hope it sells quickly.

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  5. If I was looking for a house I'd buy yours in a heartbeat!

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  6. Looks great and I learn somethings I need to remember when we sell our home in a couple of years.

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    1. Betty, just go to YouTube when you're ready to sell. So much info there. I should've painted according to the experts there, but would rather give the buyers a set aside amount to help them have it painted their colors.

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  7. Everything looks great! You will have no trouble selling your home! Happy Mother's Day! Love and hugs!

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  8. You did really well, it's like you have to remove a great deal of your personality to sell a house. I hope it sells really quickly!

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    1. Maybe if I had a better personality I wouldn't have had to remove all traces! Thanks for stopping by.

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  9. Looks like you did a great job of staging. Good luck!!

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  10. Everything looks so pretty and clean and just perfect for the buyers to come through. Keeping things light and simple is the name of the game with selling. For whatever reason some buyers cannot look past a person's decor tastes and just concentrate on the nice painted walls, nice floors, new roof etc. etc. Instead some of them get stuck on the seller's decor. You have staged your house just beautifully. It will sell. Good luck.
    Kris

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  11. You have such a beautiful home. All the rooms look so pretty. My daughter and son-in-law recently sold their home in Virginia and went through the same process. I had no idea there was so much involved in selling a home now.

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  12. You have a beautiful home! I can see you've had a lot of work, but you did good. I've noticed you can see things on photos you don't notice in person too.

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  13. It looks great. I think that it will sell quickly. Your idea to empty the closet was brilliant!

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  14. Well, I think with staging like that, your home will be sold in a heartbeat. I figure I'll wait till I die and let someone else deal with it. I hope!

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