Whether it's a dinner party, a vacation trip, or an outfit you've assembled for an evening out, it's often the small touches that put the finished product over the top and make it special. Home staging is no different.
Once your home is decluttered and cleaned, and you've arranged furniture, it's time to add those all-important details. It's not difficult to do when you concentrate on just these six finishing touches.
Pillows artfully arranged
Every bed needs them and most couches benefit from some kind of pillow arrangement.
One common pillow-aranging formula is simply to place matching pillows on the ends of a couch, and then work your way to the center with an additional matching pair, then one singular styled pillow in the center. You can follow the same formula for beds, starting from the headboard and working forward.
Pillows in pairs look more "decorator high end" than an assortment of pillow styles on either the staged bed or the couch. Unless you're after a grandmillenail style decor, which I can't recommend for staging a typical home on the market, limit the designs and color scheme of your pillow collection in any one room.
The above photo of couch pillows from Overstock strikes a happy medium. They don't all match exactly, but they certainly share a similar flair with a nearly identical color scheme and the embellishments they display.
Tabletop arrangements
Tablescapes, those little vignettes on horizontal surfaces in your home, add a good dose of personality to your home. They give people on tour something interesting to look at, and ideally tell something about your home, even if it's just creating a mood. Indeed, the definition of the word vignette means "a brief evocative description, account, or episode."
There's a standby technique for composing a good vignette. Start with a foundation like a tray, flat basket, large platter, book, or table runner. Collect an assortment of interesting objects, such as bowls, beads, candles, boxes, glass or ceramic ware, a small sculpture, a plant, or some flowers. Finally, narrow your selection to just the few that contribute a variety of textures, heights, colors, sizes, and shapes.
You can find examples of good home staging tablescapes on my Pinterest boards for Tablescapes and for Vignettes.
A kitchen counter that's been decluttered is a perfect place to add an arrangement that says, "You will love cooking in this kitchen!" |
Seasonal touches
When you add some seasonal touches to your decor, you are letting buyers know that your home is loved and tended. Some examples might be autumn place settings in the dining room, or summery annuals blooming on your front porch, or a wintery evergreen wreath on your kitchen wall. These touches all represent what the season feels like in your locale.
Make your seasonal touches arrangements that are easy to change when seasons change, so if your home selling season spans two seasons it never looks stale. You don't need a complete bedding changeover from autumn's warm tone duvets and fur pillows to springtime pastel bedspreads. Work outward from neutral basics and add small touches that are in tune with the season's vibe.
End tables
Whether we're talking about side tables for a living room, a bedside table, a table for toiletries and towels in a guest bath, or a garden stool next to an outdoor lounge chair, these small tables are what make a home look comfortably accommodating.
It can't be just me who thinks it's disconcerting to see a comfortable chair plunked solo in a living room arrangement, unanchored by a side table. That's where someone would place a drink, book, phone, or remote. Let's be guided by "form follows function."
Likewise, everyone needs some kind of table or comparable surface next to a bed. Small tables may not technically be considered little details, but they are small in comparison to what other furniture should be in a staged room.
A side table in the bedroom doesn't need to be expensive or large. Often a tray stand, cubicle, or repurposed table can as useful and charming as a conventional nightstand, Photo: Southern Living |
Flowers or foliage
Of course, you needn't use fresh flowers or even real plants. I'm a member of the booster club for silks ever since they stopped looking like your grandmother's ugly plastic and velvet roses. Today's fakes are indistinguishable from real blooms and stems.
There's a reason decorators add flowers and plants to rooms being staged for their portfolio, and why they add them to houses on a home tour.
I've blogged about how to make faux flowers look their best for staging, and how to make silk plants and flowers look more convincing
The greenery in the center of this seating group adds color, texture and the fresh feeling that only plants and flowers can add. Photo: Whitney Durham, Ballard Designs |
Bath towels
It's critical to have towels that look brand new in bathrooms. They should be extra fluffy, matching, and neatly grouped to look like what you would find in a resort hotel. The expense needn't be a big one, and let's face it -- won't it be nice to have brand new towels when you move into your next home?
White is the best color for bath towels when you stage. Even inexpensive towels look impressive if you fold or roll them right. Photo: Bedding Love To Know |
Get the look, get the book
I prefer the phrase "God is in the details" over the more negative, "The devil is in the details." A positive attitude about the staging and selling of your home makes the process a whole lot less stressful.
To further reduce the stress of selling your home, don't leave here without downloading one other important detail that will make your home staging a success -- my eBook DIY HomeStaging Tips to Make Your Home Sell Fast For Top Dollar. It's a 155--pdf that will take through all the steps of staging that gets results with the least amount of work. Let me share all my secrets with you to make your staging get the results you want.