If you’re getting ready to sell your home–or even if you’re just considering putting your home on the market–it’s never to early to start thinking about real estate staging and how smart, stylish, and strategic staging can truly help your home sell faster. Primarily, staging is super-important because you want potential buyers to see themselves actually living in the space and you want it to feel aspirational so the buyer will feel as if they’ll be unquestionably getting an upgrade by moving in.
Putting your home on the market and not sure where to start with real estate staging or professional home stagers? The Kathy Kuo Home design team provides select services for staging–connect with our design team for more information and a free consultation.
We offer virtual staging or physical staging in the NY Tri-State area. With virtual staging services, you will work with an e-designer to virtually lay the space out, see various options for furniture arrangement, visualize the different design elements, and, ultimately, make professionally informed choices about staging a space so that it will pop to potential buyers.
We’ve also put together a handy cheat-sheet on staging and home improvement with five expert interior design tips for staging your home the smart way in order to make a sale.
Above: Kathy Kuo; click to shop!
Photo via Kathy Kuo Home; click to shop!
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Staging Tip #1: Make Your Room Look Larger
We have three tricks for making a room larger. First: Choose a large mirror and carefully consider where it should go. This will increase the depth of any room–be it the living room, dining room, or bedroom. Second: Add elements that emphasize the verticality of the room. This could be done through wallpaper or art or drapery. And finally: Create visual “landing spots” in the room so your eye scans for “moments” instead of the “whole space” all at once. This could be a cluster of plants, a well considered console/art moment.
You’ll also want to think about scale when making your space look larger–this is critical to get right. When most people look at a home in anticipation of buying it, they want to see how many people they can fit on a sofa or in a living room. When you look at the amount of bedrooms and home selling price, you understand approximately what type of buyer and their family size it will be. You’ll need to ensure that you account for this when staging the bar stools, the dining table, and the sofa and chairs. This way, when buyers come through, they can easily understand how their family will use the space.
Living rooms need to feel easy to entertain in (I always put in a bar cart), and have enough space to move around with furniture. Rugs and drapery easily soften up this room and shield any unsightly exterior views if there are any. I sometimes will even go as far as to place a faux TV (they sell these online!) so that users can easily understand how they will relax in the space.
For the bedrooms, try to fit the largest size bed you can into the room while still leaving ample space for nightstands and a bench if you can. Add a rug that is plush for an extra layer of luxury and to frame the space from the ground up.
Photo via Kathy Kuo Home; click to shop!
Photography Credits: Left: Pineapples Palms Too; Right: Apartment Therapy
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Staging Tip #2: Be Strategic with Paint
If you’re repainting in preparation for real estate staging and a sale, it’s important to ask yourself strategic questions, like: Is eggshell still the best choice? What about trim? Do you like contrasting colors or the same color as the walls? What about ceiling paint? Any real estate professional will tell you that wall color really makes an impact when prospective buyers tour a home.
Ultimately, the answers to these questions depend on the space and the overall aesthetic you’re aiming for. I personally love contrast molding, though if you can’t commit to color, I do like matching trim molding. My favorite white is Chantilly Lace (OC-65) by Benjamin Moore.
Depending on the space, it’s nice to guide the eye with perspective and to create “moody” landings. For example, if you have a long hallway with a room at the end, we like to paint that last room, or varying shades of the same paint so that the eye moves through the room. Just make sure you get the same base color right. Another way to create drama is paint or paper a powder room. This can be done inexpensively through removable wallpaper that we sell.
Photo via Kathy Kuo Home; click to shop!
Photo via Kathy Kuo Home; click to shop!
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Staging Tip #3: Maximize Light
In New York City, light is a huge factor for many potential buyers, so you’ll definitely want to maximize light sources and be strategic with light, and think about natural light and how you’re placing lamps and light fixtures throughout the space. Potential buyers love when lighting is already taken into consideration. You may also need to think about different types of lightbulbs during real estate staging.
It’s good to have high, mid and low lights in a room. Often times spaces look subpar because of the lack of low and high, but plenty of mid tone lights. Putting as many lights on dimmer switches is also important as it can completely change the mood of the room instantly. Lighting should be planned and considered at the same time as furniture and art selection since you will want to make sure you are properly lighting your reading areas, your dining and living areas and illuminating the walls that you want specific art work to be a focal point for.
The way to think about it, lighting serves a specific function of creating a mood–a warmer light as mood lighting and daylight bulbs for task lighting. Have dimmers when possible so you can adjust the intensity and keep separate switches for the warm and cool lights. Mix both when needed so you can use either one depending on the time of day or your needs. Do not use anything too cool unless it’s a utility room!
Buyers will appreciate it more when you provide them with options (dimmers, separate switches, etc) since it’s such a rarity in NYC and outfitting a home with lighting can be costly! LEDs are more popular now since they’re the most energy-efficient option with lower wattage than incandescent bulbs. Even maintenance with this, they emit the same amount of light as other bulbs.
Photography Credits: Left: Neptune; Right: Cartelle Design
Photo by Chris Lee Photo
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Staging Tip #4: Invest in Wall Decor
One of the biggest differences between a staged home vs a non-staged home is the placement of wall art and wall mirrors. In being strategic with wall decor, the goal is to maximize the scale and height of the walls and the height of the ceiling.
Modular mirrors stacked filling up entire walls make spaces feel instantly larger (an age old hack!), but getting cut mirror is really inexpensive (we call on auto body shops, or shower replacement shops believe it or not). For artwork, I would recommend generic, non-specific art–like abstracts. Usually, we choose them based on color requirements like if we have a grey or a blue in the mix for the overall design.
Finally: For staging, we use a lot of command strips so that these items can be removed quickly without having to patch or spackle the walls.
Photography via Kathy Kuo Home; click to shop!
Photography via Kathy Kuo Home; click to shop!
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Staging Tip #5: Be Smart About Storage
Especially if you have children, it can be hard to keep it show ready when you’re in the process of selling your home. This is why storage is so important during the home staging process! We highly recommend pieces that are dual-function with extra drawers, cabinets, or shelves.
We always tell our clients and relators we work with to have a place in mind for each item to prevent clutter. Baskets or storage bins are always great if you have the flexibility in the space–it’s better in a basket than directly on the floor of your living room or playroom!
Design by Emily McAden Interiors
Photography via Kathy Kuo Home; click to shop!
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