Envision this staged bar without the
framed scarf behind it 
in a room designed
by Eric Gates, and you can see the impact 

art has, adding scale, detail, and color.
 

Today I’m kicking off my month-long series of daily posts that’s part of Nester’s annual 31 Day Challenge – a kind of marathon in creativity for bloggers from all fields.

My chosen topic is wall art for staging your home. 

Let’s get started. Here’s my list of five roles art can play in your staged home.  Some of these roles overlap, and when that happens, you’re golden.

1. Art balances spaces 

Art finishes a room by balancing it. Even in a small bedroom where the bed, dresser, and side tables eat up floor space, there’s always space for something on the wall besides a mirror.  Framed pictures and paintings will give a room balance and keep the buyer’s eye from taking a roller coaster tour around the room.

2. Art casts a spell

Art creates a mood. It will add some personality to the room. Let’s be honest: home staging often strips a room down to sterile essentials.  Art -- along with other finishing touches like pillows, flowers, and books -- puts the spark back.  It can set the stage so a buyer can imagine himself living there. The mood of your home might be luxurious relaxation, or urban chic, or down home comfort, or historic accuracy, or family fun.  Know the mood of your home. And let your art choices reinforce that. 

Art can remind buyers that they are buying
more than a home. They are buying a 
new lifestyle
(sometimes in a new and different part of the country)
along with the traditions,
 people and pace of their
new hometown or neighborhood. Local art is good.
 

3. Art talks to buyers

Art telegraphs a message about the home’s location. No matter where you live, there is always local color and local amenities a buyer needs to be reminded of.  It might be the neighborhood’s walkability, the view, access to recreation, open spaces, or hip reputation.  Hung art gives you the opportunity to portray these features. Need examples? A photo of the view in springtime, a poster from the local coffee shop, or a colorful map of the nearby golf course.
The message this art and setting
gives, with its sensual

shapes, textures and colors, chosen
by Talbot Cooley Interiors, 

is that whoever lives here
has style and enjoys life.
 

4. Art represents you

Art reflects the taste of the people who live in the home. Yes, buyers buy location, but they also buy the lifestyle they envision they will have once they own your home. Art can help you project that enviable lifestyle. You don’t have to be an elite art connoisseur to stage your home with art that speaks well of you.

5. Art completes the room

Art fills empty wall space and adds color. If nothing else, art will fill spaces left bare when you decluttered. If you are staging a vacant property, wall art will be your go-to device for warming up a sparsely furnished room, giving it some personality and friendliness.

As you can guess, I love art. But I am not an art snob.  And I believe that anyone can intelligently choose and make art for her own home to stage it. That’s what my 31-day series is about.

My eBook, DIY HomeStaging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar gives tips on hanging art as well as all other aspects of home staging.  If you want to sell your home, it’s a must-read!