Interior Design
Five expert home staging tips to wow your potential buyers
According to the HomeOwners Alliance, spring is the best time of year to sell your home, once the Christmas chaos is out of the way and before the approaching hustle and bustle of the summer holidays. So if you’re among the many homeowners currently thinking of putting their properties on the market, some tips on staging your home to sell quickly will be useful and timely.
As one of Bellway’s interior design partners, Blocc are experts in styling homes to impress potential buyers, right from the moment they step through the front door. We asked Blocc’s Creative Sales Director, Suzanne Thomas, to share five home staging tips that every seller can use to capture the right kind of attention, and go from on the market, to on the move even faster.
Make your entrance hallway inviting
As the very first area in the home that your potential buyers see, it’s crucial that the entryway is well-designed and inviting.
As tempting as bright colours might be for the hallway, Suzanne Thomas, Creative Sales Director for Blocc, suggests keeping colours as neutral as possible to enable buyers to envision their own style in the space. A few well-chosen accessories, such as a rug or runner in the hallway will add warmth and flow, and finally a beautiful arrangement of flowers makes a thoughtful finishing touch.
Fresh flowers will never fail to elevate a space, so place them in a key sight line to welcome visitors as they enter and promote the feeling of a flourishing home.
Put your home in the best light
Another advantage of selling your home in the springtime is that you have more natural light during the daytime, which always makes your interior look better and feel more spacious. But whatever time of year you’re choosing to sell, you should optimise the light in your home to create the ideal ambience and reduce use of artificial light wherever possible. Suzanne believes that this is particularly important now that more buyers are looking for energy-efficient homes.
In darker rooms, place a large mirror opposite the window to reflect natural light around the space, and in rooms that benefit from lots of light, add a window treatment such as a sheer curtain or blinds to enable you to control the lighting and privacy level throughout the day.
Create a harmonious home
Buyers want to see your home as a whole, cohesive space, with a sense of flow that makes them want to explore. So if any part of your property feels disjointed or out of place, it’s worth addressing before putting your home on the market.
According to Suzanne, when decorating your home, you should work with a consistent colour scheme or accent colour throughout; this will help to tie the space together and make it appear more polished and well-designed. When selling your home, you’re unlikely to want to spend precious time and money repainting, so introduce cohesive home accessories to unify your space instead.
Rugs and feature lighting can be used to zone particular areas of your home and give them purpose, such as a reading corner or dining space, which in turn will help your buyer to imagine themselves living within it. Rearranging the furniture itself can also make an enormous difference to the way a room feels and works in a practical sense.
Assess furniture layout to make sure you are maximising the flow of traffic through a room. When potential buyers can easily navigate their way through a space they feel more at home and can really see themselves living there.
Highlight your home’s best features
The goal of staging your home should always be to show off its best and most unique features, such as a fabulous fireplace, or a great view to the outside. It also has the added benefit of making your home appear to be in good condition and well looked-after, giving potential buyers confidence that it is worth the asking price (or more). So take the time to declutter and remove or hide away anything that may be distracting to visitors.
Accentuate a key aspect of your home with art and accessories, such as a painting or framed print above the fireplace, and a variety of houseplants, vases and trinkets along the mantelpiece to add interest. Windows with an interesting vantage point should be unobscured, and furniture arranged to face the view. Suzanne also recommends using floor-length curtains to frame the window and draw the eye to it when entering the room.
Make your home feel functional
Each room in your home should have a clear purpose and a practical layout, to help capture the imagination of potential buyers. Storage is an important feature, so tidy up understairs or built-in cupboards and shelving to demonstrate what is available and how it can be utilised.
If you have a room or area that is currently not being used, add some furniture to give it a function, such as an inviting armchair and lamp to create a reading corner, or a stylish desk and chair for a home office. With increasing numbers of people working from home more frequently, seeing the space to do so will be high priority for many buyers.
When a home has features and amenities that make it practical and efficient to live in, buyers are more likely to envision themselves living there and may be willing to pay more for the convenience.
Kitchens are also a big selling point, so if yours is looking dated, Suzanne advises changing the handles on drawers and cabinets for an easy and affordable refresh. Place a bowl of fresh fruit on the countertop for an inviting pop of colour.
In the master bedroom, buyers want to picture themselves relaxing and unwinding, so style your bed with crisp linens, sumptuous pillows and a cosy throw to make it the focal point. A lavender candle or diffuser is the perfect finishing touch.
Remember, the goal of home staging is to create an emotional connection between the potential buyer and the property. By highlighting the best features of your home and creating a welcoming atmosphere, you increase your chances of selling faster and for a better price. Don't underestimate the power of staging - it can make all the difference in a competitive market.
Make sure to read our tips on how to clean your home quickly in case of last-minute viewings, and when it’s time to move house, here’s how to make the packing process stress-free.
Images taken from the Cobbler and the Cutler showhomes, designed by Blocc, at Bellway's St Wilfrid's Place development of new homes in Litherland, Merseyside
