All About Greenville SC Real Estate

Last week, we talked about home staging and whether or not it’s worth spending the extra time, money and effort when selling your home. While home staging means different things to different people, it’s all about putting your home in the best possible light. If you’d like to do this without spending a fortune, follow the DIY home staging tips we’ve assembled below for each of the four most important living spaces in your home.

Staging Your Living Room

The living room is one of the first spaces potential home buyers are likely to see, so it’s imperative that you make it as welcoming and appealing as possible. Assuming you’ve already cleaned your house from top to bottom, ensure you’ve decluttered and depersonalized it as well. You’ve no doubt put a lot of time and effort in to making your house feel like a home, but home buyers need to envision themselves living in your house. If you’d like to add focal points or accents to the living room, use a plant or fresh flowers instead of those family photos.

A great DIY home staging trick is to pull furniture away from the walls and arrange pieces symmetrically. Contrary to what you might think, this actually makes the living room seem larger and more spacious. Neutrally colored-walls and furniture also help make spaces look bigger. If you have dark-colored furniture, there’s no need to replace it; simply add some light-colored throw blankets or pillows to lighten up the pieces. If repainting is out of the question, make sure to at least open all curtains and blinds and turn on lights to brighten up the space. Purchasing light bulbs with a higher wattage is an inexpensive way to accomplish this.

If your living room is carpeted, make sure to have the carpets cleaned. You can hire a professional or rent a carpet-cleaner and DIY. If you have hardwood floors that have seen better days, there’s no need to replace the entire floor; a sander and a fresh coat of hardwood stain can go a long way!

Staging Your Bedroom

The bedroom should exude relaxation and comfort, and the easiest way to accomplish this is through decluttering and organizing. As a general rule, the closet should only be about 2/3 full, which will make it seem larger and more spacious. Store extra items in boxes under the bed if you can.

Make the room as bright and spacious as possible by coordinating the walls, curtains and bedspread with neutral colors. This will also help to create a feeling of serenity and won’t break the bank. Use sheer curtains to let in as much natural light as possible and set the rods as high as you can to make windows look bigger and ceilings look taller. This principle can be applied in the living room as well. Again, using fresh flowers and some candles instead of personal items is an inexpensive way to create focal points throughout the room and keep things interesting.

How to Stage Your Kitchen

The three most important things to consider when staging your kitchen are cleanliness, cleanliness and cleanliness! When it comes to the kitchen, you really can’t be afraid to channel your inner Cinderella and clean everything and everywhere, probably places you’ve never even cleaned before. Pay special attention to appliances, and don’t forget about organizing the cupboards and drawers, because yes, people will look in them.

While painting or staining your cupboards provides a guaranteed face-lift for your kitchen, so can swapping out old fixtures and cabinet hardware for modern stainless steel or chrome. Stainless steel stick-on coverings or specialty paints are great DIY home staging tools. They can be used on appliances, like refrigerators and dishwashers, for a budget-friendly alternative to purchasing new ones.

How to Stage Your Bathroom

Like the kitchen, the bathroom should radiate cleanliness. By scrubbing walls, tiles and shower doors instead of replacing them, what you’ll spend in elbow grease, you’ll save in money. Stained caulking can easily, and inexpensively, be removed and replaced, as can any fixtures or cabinet hardware. Hanging white hand and bath towels and clearing countertops of everything except the essentials will give the bathroom a luxurious and spacious feel.

Remember: Home-staging doesn’t need to be overly complicated or expensive! By following the DIY home staging tips outlined above, not only will your home be in tip-top shape, but you’ll have a better chance of selling your home faster and getting the best possible price for it.