How to Stage Every Room like a Showplace for Your Listing Photoshoot In San Francisco
/If we could all have our wishes, we’d probably sell our homes in a state where they look a lot like a home in a magazine or a model home in a beautiful development. While many of us aren’t going to have professional staging done to our homes, listing your home in San Francisco is a big deal and well worth some preparation. Here are some guiding principles for staging your home to look like the showplace it is.
Kitchen: Evoke Luxury and Warmth
Kitchens that have been updated often are really beautiful with only a few staging touches: maybe a container of wooden spoons on the counter but very little else, maybe a couple of well-matched barstools by a bar or kitchen island. Otherwise, letting the kitchen speak for itself is often enough! If you have an older kitchen, you can still stage it to the best, making sure the light in the room is warm with as much natural window light as possible for the photographer.
Bedroom: Focus on Spaciousness and Light
People want to feel like their bedrooms are roomy, so if you currently have a lot of furniture in the bedroom, consider reducing: at most a dresser, a bed, and two nightstands if the room is at all crowded as-is. In larger rooms, adding a sitting chair by a window can be a nice touch, but otherwise, you want to emphasize natural light again, and make sure that the details are perfect: clean floors, pristinely smooth bedspread, and cleaned-off tops of nightstands and dresser. Even if bedrooms are more typically much more “lived in” than this, this tidy impersonal staging will help your potential buyers “see themselves” in your home.
Living Room: Make Clear Paths and a Design Focal Point
Living rooms are also a place where a lot of furniture can be squished in, so reduce if there’s any spots in the room where it’s hard to move through. Another styling move for many homes is to push furniture against the walls for the photos, even if you plan to have them set away from the walls for showings - this helps to really give the roomy look you’re going for. Finally, if you’re including design or art accents that are yours, make sure it doesn’t get busy: one art piece above the mantle, or one bold armchair, or whatever single design focal point, instead of many things to look at. More than one can detract from the space itself.
Dining Room: Emphasize Function Without Stuffiness
Dining rooms can end up a bit formal, so aim to have a little dressed-down look by removing candlesticks, busy doilies or other accents, and focusing on just the table and chairs. This leaves the rest of the space to look customizable but also open and minimalist, letting others think about the way they’ll accessorize the room as they consider buying your home.
Whether you’re looking to find an individual home buyer or want to sell your house for cash to an investor, staging will help you get the top value for your home.
