{"id":7797,"date":"2018-04-03T10:26:08","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T16:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virtuance.com\/?p=7797"},"modified":"2018-04-03T10:26:08","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T16:26:08","slug":"does-home-staging-look-sterile-warm-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/blog\/does-home-staging-look-sterile-warm-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Your Home Staging Look Too Sterile? How to Warm Things Up"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Adriana Velez<\/a><\/span>\u00a0| Source: Realtor.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Home staging\u2014the practice of arranging furnishings and decor in a house so buyers can envision living there\u2014is becoming an ever-more important tool for home sellers.\u00a0In fact, studies show that staged homes sell 88% faster and for 20% more money than those that aren’t staged.<\/p>\n

And yet: Home staging\u00a0can\u00a0be taken too far.<\/em>\u00a0Home sellers sometimes clear out every last family photo, pillow, and doo-dad until their house looks like a hotel for Scandinavian robots.\u00a0How do you stage your home with warmth, so it looks as though humans live there? And by humans, we mean very tidy people with excellent taste but who still do stuff like eat and entertain? Here’s how to strike that\u00a0warm yet aspirational balance, so that buyers feel that your\u00a0house is the perfect place for them.<\/p>\n

You still need to declutter<\/h2>\n

Even if you think you\u2019re a minimalist, the truth is, we all tend to collect a lot of stuff. And that stuff is going to distract people from seeing the best features of your home. So reduce, reduce, reduce. You will probably end up adding a few things back in, but it\u2019s easier to see what to keep if you\u2019re starting with a nearly empty slate, so to speak.<\/p>\n

Corcoran real estate agent\u00a0Dennis Margulies<\/strong>, who stages most of the homes he sells, has edited back the belongings of clutter-loving clients \u201cjust for the photograph.\u201d And when his clients see how amazing their decluttered home looks, they tend to want to do\u00a0even more<\/em>. So be merciless in your editing before you start adding the details that will warm up your space.<\/p>\n

Furniture: Keep only the right stuff<\/h2>\n

How do you know how much of your furniture to keep? When Margulies works with estate sales, he keeps this principle in mind: \u201cYou\u2019re trying to highlight the best attributes of the space.\u201d So he\u2019ll rearrange furniture (and remove some pieces) in order to make a room look and feel as spacious as possible. You want enough furniture to make the room comfortable, but not so much that people miss architectural details and the feel of the space itself.<\/p>\n

If you are renting furniture to stage your home, don\u2019t pick sets. That matchy-matchy look can create a sterile atmosphere, Margulies says. \u201cPersonality comes in when you mix things. There needs to be a sense of style.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Warm up your lighting<\/h2>\n

\u201cChanging the lighting makes a big difference,\u201d says Margulies, \u201cand it\u2019s one of the simplest things you can do.\u201d He says you should particularly consider this if you have directional lighting, such as spotlights or track lighting, which can create shadowy corners. What you want instead are rooms that are evenly lit throughout. This is especially important in the front entryway and in kitchens, Margulies says.<\/p>\n

You also want to make sure that the light casts a warm glow. Triplemint agent\u00a0Sam Lazar<\/strong>\u00a0likes dimmers to create what he calls \u201cgolden hour\u201d lighting, explaining, \u201cYou want to show that an apartment is bright, but doesn\u2019t look like a hospital, with superbright lights.\u201d So avoid those harsh, blueish LED light bulbs. Once you\u2019ve got your primary lighting set, you can add in a subtle glow. \u201cLiteral warmth, like candles, or if possible, the fireplace if it\u2019s winter, go a long way,\u201d says Lazar.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be afraid of color<\/h2>\n

All the walls should be white, right? Not necessarily. While you don\u2019t want to hit prospective buyers with a kaleidoscope of different colors in every room, one accent wall of color in the right place can be effective, says Margulies.<\/p>\n

Bring in the green<\/h2>\n

Another way to make a minimalist space feel warm and vibrant is to add plants. \u201cDefinitely add flowers,\u201d says Lazar. “Place flowers in several areas if you can, since they\u2019re a touch of freshness that brightens the space.\u201d So grab an arrangement, or opt for easy-to-care-for houseplants in attractive pots.<\/p>\n

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Now add\u00a0some personal details<\/h2>\n

Contrary to conventional wisdom, you don\u2019t have to banish every last personal object from your home before you show it. \u201cSome family pictures are fine,\u201d says Margulies. Just not all of them. Find the best ones, in the best frames (or have quality portraits reframed).<\/p>\n

Yes, you can have a few throw pillows out. \u201cThrow pillows and blankets project the fact that people live here and sit in those areas,\u201d says Lazar. Just make sure they\u2019re in good repair and in bright, harmonizing colors (this is another area that shouldn\u2019t be matchy-matchy). And, if you have a dining area, \u201cSet the table, and maybe add a centerpiece,\u201d Lazar says. This could be a candlestick,\u00a0or fresh flowers.<\/p>\n

In bedrooms, Lazar likes a few well-edited personal items, like a ring dish or a small stack of books. \u201cThis also works in the bathrooms, which should have towels on racks and soap next to sinks.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wall decoration<\/h2>\n

A fresh coat of paint throughout is almost always in order. But don\u2019t leave those walls blank. Margulies adds well-framed art and photos to blank walls that need some visual interest. It may help to take everything down, select your most attractive pieces, and then hang those in areas you want to highlight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Adriana Velez is a food, wellness, and home writer. Her work has been featured in Healthyish, Prevention.com, Lifehacker, She Knows, and CafeMom.<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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By\u00a0Adriana Velez\u00a0| Source: Realtor.com Home staging\u2014the practice of arranging furnishings and decor in a house so buyers can envision living there\u2014is becoming an ever-more important tool for home sellers.\u00a0In fact, studies show that staged homes sell 88% faster and for 20% more money than those that aren’t staged. And yet: Home staging\u00a0can\u00a0be taken too far.\u00a0Home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14503,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14503"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7798,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7797\/revisions\/7798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}