There are many different ways to stage a home or condo for sale. You can repaint the walls, set out a fruit bowl, bring in rental furniture, or hire an interior decorator. Of course, most people are looking for the best staging option at the lowest cost in the long run. One of the best ways to do this is to stage with your own furniture, especially if you’re selling a vacation house where you don’t miss the furniture in your day-to-day life.
However, not everyone’s current furniture is staging-ready. There are a few key principles to staging, like emphasizing space and making buyers feel welcome, that your normal decorating style probably didn’t take into account. Today, we’re here to share some key tips on how to use your own furniture to strategically stage a house while making it look like you brought in professional staging props.
Clear and Improve First
First things first, you do actually want to empty the house and prepare it as you would any home for sale. Steam-clean the carpets, repaint the walls, and repair any minor damages with your furniture safely stored out of harm’s way. Indeed, it’s best to work with empty rooms when you’re touching up a house for sale. It’s easier to inspect, enact repairs, and get the floors 100% clean.
Choose Your Smallest Furniture
Unlike daily life, staging isn’t about being comfy. It’s about making the home look good. One stager trick is to use undersized furniture. Spindly-legged chairs and small tables instead of a full-sized dining room set. A few comfy armchairs spread out in the living room instead of big fluffy couches.
Assess the furniture you plan to work with based on how small it is and how appealing it will look when set in a mostly empty room. Remember, the point is to emphasize how big the rooms are, how beautiful the floors and walls are, and how much lovely sunlight comes in through the windows. Let the buyers draw their own conclusions about how many people you can fit in the living room on Christmas morning.
Touch-Up and Repaint
Something most DIY-stagers don’t know is that you don’t have to use your furniture as-is. If you’ve been meaning to touch up an old scratched table, or don’t care what color your chairs are, now is the perfect time for an upgrade! Thus, use a combination of putty, wood filler, and very affordable little pots of paint to reinvent the furniture you choose. Pick a color scheme for your staging project and run with it. You can even use pieces of fabric pinned at the edges to temporarily and attractively re-upholster your old cushioned furniture.
Place Away From Walls
When placing your staging furniture, don’t push it to the walls. Instead, pull everything but bookcases and armoires away from the walls. Create a circular flow around staging elements that -once again- emphasizes how spacious and welcoming the rooms are. Try to create islands of furniture with comfortable foot-paths around everything.
Create a Lifestyle Snapshot
Finally, remember that your goal is to make buyers feel like they have just stepped into a dream home. Part of this is to create the impression of a lifestyle. On one hand, bunk beds, beach towels, and decorative flip-flops will make the home feel more like a vacation beach house. On the other hand, wine glasses, rose petals, and candles around the house will make it feel like a young couple’s love nest. Think carefully about who your best buyers are likely to be and create a lifestyle snapshot with the furniture.
Find More Tips for Staging With Your Own Furniture
Staging with your own furniture is easier than most people expect, particularly if you’re willing to do a little covering and painting to create a cohesive staging decoration theme. With these tips, you should already be on your way to a great staging plan.
Have questions or want to explore the right strategy for your home? Contact me via phone (1-720-297-0340) or email or check out the #denverdyllan hashtag on Instagram. I’ll be glad to hear from you and we can talk about how to perfect the look and feel of your Denver for a great market showing!