When it comes to selling your home there are so many things to consider and styling your property should sit high on your list. It only takes one inspection for a potential buyer to eliminate your property from their short-list. Despite your furniture serving you well whilst you have used it, you can add more value to your home by including furnishings that will make it more appealing to a wider buyer audience.
Why Switch up the Furniture?
You may wonder what is the point of changing the furniture in your property for an open home? Well, staging/styling your property can add more value to the price someone is willing to pay by helping them to see your home’s full potential.
For example, if you’re downsizing and have rooms that are looking a bit sparse or lacklustre because they have no use to you, adding furnishings to show the room’s full potential will make it easier for a potential buyer to envision themselves living there.
Start by identifying the purpose of each room in your home, this will help you to choose which furniture items are necessary and prevent you from cluttering the space.
Bedrooms
When furnishing a bedroom, keeping the bed linen neutral and tidy is the best way to go. Try to ensure that the space is well thought out, meaning, don’t cram in side-tables, dresser and a statement chair if it will impact the ability to move around the room. Always ensure a room remains functional. Secondly, if you want to make any space look larger, bedroom or otherwise, mirrors are great tools to do this. Finally, these days it may be considered a bit of a faux pas to have a TV in your bedroom so it may be a good idea to store this elsewhere or put it in a media/family room.
Loungeroom
Does your couch have a coffee stain on it, but you can’t yet replace it or hire one? Not to worry, a stylish throw is a perfect solution! Now, this isn’t the only tip we have to furnish your living/lounge room. Again, start by decluttering any shelving and re-style with books which will help add character, however, if you have too many knick-knacks or family photographs it may be best to put them into storage (a win-win to save you needing to pack them later!). Think of your target market when picking which furniture items, for families, ensure the lounge area has enough space for kids to sprawl out and the lounge arrangement should promote a good ‘flow’ throughout the space.
Dining and Kitchen
As we all know, the kitchen is the heart of a home, it’s where we have our early morning chats over breakfast and is where the hustle and bustle happens when making school lunches. Try to make this area feel relaxed by ensuring there is only a comfortable number of chairs at the dining table or breakfast bar and reduce the number of appliances you have on the kitchen bench, take an essentials only approach to this. The dining and kitchen area doesn’t need much embellishment, nice tea towels and a fruit bowl will suffice, but, one key artwork piece won’t go astray.
Final Touches
Give your property a good once over and see if there is anything that you feel could be taken away, or more importantly, see if there is something you can add that will help potential buyers see themselves living there. This could include placing your favourite magazine/publication on your bedside table, having fresh flowers, and lastly, remember to dust of those items or shelves you know have probably collected a few dust bunnies lately.
Donna Etchells - McGrath Estate Agents 