If you’ve gone through the process of selling your home, chances are it involved staging the interior when it came time for potential buyers to check out the place. The idea behind staging is to remove any traces of your personality, style, or identity to make it easier for the interested parties to picture themselves living there. So lots of whites, off-whites, and light grays.
There are some people who never really have to stage anything if they decide to sell, because they prefer an austere, minimalist style of decor. But for those of us who reside in what could easily be mistaken for the interior a Victorian curiosity shop—or simply enjoy colors and patterns (which may or may not intentionally clash)—staging is a pretty big shift.
But what if we told you that people in both categories (as well as those somewhere in the middle) could utilize some common staging techniques to do a quick home refresh, while still retaining their personal style? Well, that’s basically the gist of the article. Here are a few examples of how to do that, courtesy of Sarah Yang and Katie Holdefehr from an article they wrote for Real Simple.
Deep clean
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Before showing your home to potential buyers, you’d definitely want to deep clean it first (either by yourself, or by hiring someone else to do it, if you can afford it). You deserve to live in a clean home just for yourself, and not because you’re trying to sell it to someone else.
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Get new curtains
At some point, heavy drapery was all the rage, but it can make the place feel like a room at a Holiday Inn from the mid-1990s. If you were staging your home, you’d want to put in new, breezy (probably white) curtains to make a room feel brighter and seem bigger. Might as well do that for yourself, too.
Reorganize bookshelves
It can be tempting to use every last inch of a bookshelf to cram as many books in as possible. And while that works for storage purposes, it may not be the most aesthetically pleasing. So if that’s your goal, you may want to reorganize. Here’s what Christina Salaway of Eleven Two Eleven Design told Real Simple:
“Remove 25 percent of your books entirely, and then rearrange what’s left so that some books are vertical and some are stacked horizontally. Place a couple of trinkets within the bookcase to function as accents and bookends. This will add character and personality to the room while also lightening up your bookcases.”
Replace that rug
Throw rugs are great, but they can look a little worse for wear after a while. They’d be among the first things to go in a staging situation, so treat yourself by upgrading to a new rug.
Hang a mirror
When staging a room with little natural light, experts like Salaway suggest hanging a mirror to brighten it up a bit. Plus, if you’re not someone who appreciates wall decor but still wants something up, a mirror is a good generic option.