7 Easy DIY Home Staging Tips

Hi there friends...TGIF!!
Anyone out there getting ready to sell their home or maybe you're already in the process?
 Well today I have a special contributor Sarah Kellner a writer for The Home Depot giving us great DIY home staging ideas.

7 Easy Home Staging Tips for Every Budget
By Sarah Kellner

If you're planning to sell your home, you're probably very familiar with the idea of home staging. The goal of this process is not only to make your home appealing to potential buyers, but to make it appear desirable to the highest number of buyers, therefore helping you sell your property faster and for more money.

The best part about home staging is that, when armed with a little knowledge and a motivated attitude, you can do everything yourself. DIY home staging means saving money as well as ensuring that the projects are completed to your standards and tastes.

Here are seven things that you can do right now to boost your home's appeal.

Lighting
Creating an appealing lighting scheme is first on the staging checklist. Who wants to walk through a house that is as dark and poorly lit as a cave, let alone buy it? Not many people. The answer here is to maximize natural light and create attractive and inviting schemes with artificial lighting. First, clean all of your windows, and then make sure your window coverings are light and gauzy enough to let in the sun but still provide privacy.

To create an attractive lighting scheme, we recommend splurging on a few elegant fixtures like chandeliers, pendants and sconces, and putting all major light sources on dimmers so you can completely customize the mood. It's also smart to highlight the unique aspects of your home with lighting. Emphasizing architectural features like archways with sconces, and artwork with track lighting are great examples. Finally, make sure you swap out any dated, grubby switch plates that may be hanging around.

Remove Personal Items
The key to proper home staging is helping potential home buyers to envision your home as their own. You want it to show like a model. One of the quickest ways to do this is to remove all personal items like photos, and children's artwork from the fridge.

Clear Away Clutter
Speaking of off-putting, nothing can turn off potential buyers faster than cluttered surfaces and junk everywhere. Make sure your kitchen and bathroom counters are clear and that all kids' toys are packed away and "stowed for the duration." Jennifer Radice, a veteran realtor with Coldwell Banker of Boca Raton, Fla., advises home sellers to, "Pack up 90 percent of your home." This might sound extreme, but you want buyers to focus on the bones of your home, not the titles in your DVD collection. She suggests putting everything in organized boxes and containers in a corner of your garage, and anything left over should go to a temporary storage unit.

Painting with Neutrals
Another thing to remember when staging your home is that everyone's tastes are different, and while you may be enamored with your cranberry-colored dining room or turquoise accent wall, others may not feel the same way. The easy solve for this is to give your interiors a facelift with soothing, neutral colors. We especially love grays because...You can read the rest of this article at: 7 Easy DIY Home Staging Tips was first published on Northern Nesting