Home staging secrets to increase your home’s value and sell faster

When it comes to selling your home, it goes without saying that you want the whole process to be as stress-free and seamless as possible. After all, you want to move into your new home just as quickly as any prospective buyers want to move into theirs.

And with spring on the horizon, there’s never a better time of the year than now to start the selling process, assuming your home is ready for the camera. Because if your home currently doesn’t look appealing to buyers, then you may have trouble finding anyone willing to meet your asking price.

Which is exactly why you might want to invest in the services of a professional home-stager.

Experts in making your property look appealing to as many potential buyers as possible, a home stager can provide tips and tricks on how to arrange and prepare your home for sale. Not only that, but they can even take professional photographs for you that you can then use when advertising your property.

So, to kickstart your home staging journey, Tapi has teamed up with Jane Lee – a home stager, interior stylist, and organiser with years of expertise in the industry – to provide you with essential advice on how to stage your home, including guidance on what pitfalls to avoid, room-specific notes, and how to style your floor to really draw the eye.

First things first, Jane wanted to share her top tips on what not to do when staging your home, especially if you’re doing it for the first time; and this means doing far more than just forgetting to make your home look clean, tidy, and move-in ready.

Simply put, buyers want to be able to imagine themselves living in a property during the viewing process. So, if you want to create the right buzz and visual display to do this, you want to avoid doing any of the following:

1. Over-personalisation

While you might not think so, over-personalising a space with distracting items, such as souvenirs, family photos, trophies, visibly displayed collections, and other similar décor can really distract buyers from your home’s true potential.

Essentially, having all these on full display often makes it harder for those viewing your property to make a personal connection with your home, presenting a personal barrier that could prevent them from fully imagining themselves living in such a space.

2. Ignoring repair jobs

Next up, you simply cannot ignore any repair jobs that need doing in your home. Buyers will notice these, either in your pictures or during a viewing, and they are almost certainly going to be massive red flags.

Any form of home repair that looks neglected tends to indicate to buyers that your home has not been looked after, even if that’s not the case. And anyone looking to buy property certainly doesn’t want to spend additional funds on making home repairs after buying a property.

3. Poor kerb appeal

Even though most of any house viewing takes place inside the property, that doesn’t mean you should neglect the exterior of your home. In fact, a well-maintained garden or driveway is essential for presenting a good first impression to buyers.

So, take the time to tend to your garden, repaint any faded fencing, make driveway repairs, and generally rejuvenate your home’s exterior. Even if your home has no drive or garden, simply sprucing up the outside with a fresh coat of paint or cleaned brickwork can do wonders for putting buyer’s minds at ease.

4. Choosing the wrong colours

Although not an essential step when looking to sell your home, if you’re thinking about redecorating before you move out, then you need to carefully consider what colours to use.

For example, while a big and bold colour scheme might seem exciting to you, it may not be to everyone’s taste. Alongside this, colours tend to go in and out of fashion, so the last thing you want to do is restyle your rooms with a shade no longer in vogue.

Instead, it’s best to save your creativity for your new home and stick to redecorating with neutral shades. Or, alternatively, if don’t have time to repaint bold colours, you can tone them down with neutral and calming accessories.

5. Going too neutral

Now, given that we’ve just touched on how neutral colours are the better style choice when looking to sell, you also don’t want to lean too hard into them or you risk your home becoming too stark or bland. For example, you don’t want to paint every room in pure white.

To be honest, getting this right can be a bit of a balancing act, but by following colour charts and expert advice, you shouldn’t find the process too tricky. Remember, less tends to be more, and if you do want to add a flair of colour, then it’s best to use plants, flowers, furniture, and accessories instead of a full paint job.

6. Having too many things on display

Much like having an overly personalised space, having too many things on display or crowding a room can be a big turn-off for buyers – though not necessarily in the way you might think.

Rather than making your home feel messy (although excessive clutter will do this) having too many things on display may subconsciously indicate to a buyer that your home lacks storage. And seeing as storage is very important for almost all buyers, this is something you want to avoid at all costs.

So, make sure you clear away excess decorations and really highlight the storage potential of your room wherever possible.

7. Not giving each room a clear purpose

Last, but not least, you want to avoid leaving buyers with any ambiguity of what a room could be used for. Your bathroom is naturally going to be obvious, but if you have a spare room that’s empty or used only for storage, then buyers may be at a loss for its purpose.

Therefore, instead of presenting bland rooms of no real purpose, throw in a few core pieces of furniture that could highlight the potential use of a spare room, such as a desk in an office space or toy storage in a child’s room.

Now that you know what to avoid when staging your home for buyers, it’s time to look at what to do to spruce up the key rooms of your home that those viewing will be most interested in:

1. Hallways

It might not be the first area of the home you think of when looking to buy, but a well-maintained and presented hallway can do wonders for improving the feel of any property. After all, it’s usually the first space people see, so getting the staging right is essential.

With that in mind, Jane recommends tending to the following areas of your hallway before taking photos or doing any viewings:

• First, open any blinds, curtains, and windows in the hall to let in as much natural light as possible and enhance the size of the space, as well as opening the doors to any adjoining rooms for the same purpose.

• If you find your hallway is in need of a dash of colour, find an appropriate area to one side to place fresh plants or a vase of flowers.
• If your hallway is gloomy, you should look to add additional lighting sources from lamps to brighten it up with warm tones.
• Look to invest in a new stair runner or stair carpet if your old one is looking tired and haggard.
• Take the time to tighten up and polish your bannisters if they’ve become dulled, so they’re gleaming to look at.
• Try to minimise the number of coats, scarves, and hats on display, as well as shoes, so the space doesn’t feel cluttered.
• Finally, remove any clutter you do have out of the way and keep the hallway as clear as possible for easy movement.

2. Kitchen and dining room

Possibly the two most important rooms in your home, much like your hallway, it’s very important that you get the feel of your kitchen and dining room right so that they’re present in the best light to prospective buyers:

• Start by widening the space available in either room as much as possible, hiding any bulky gadgets and appliances to one side or in cupboards, as well as clearing the tips of your cupboards to create additional room.
• Make sure that all chairs around your dining table or kitchen island are neatly arranged, and if your table can be extended, be sure to do so if you have the room.
• Clear away any evidence of pets and tidy away any cleaning products on display so that everything looks spotless and well-cared for.
• If you feel the space needs more colour, try adding a bowl of fruit or a few small potted plants to break up the space.
• Lastly, on the day of any viewings, remember to remove any strong-smelling foods from your fridge that could put buyers off.

3. Living room

The heart of any home, making your living room feel cosy and well-lit is the hallmark of good home staging, which is why Jane strongly recommends doing all the following before putting your home up for sale:

• To start with, if your sofas are old, you can jazz them up with a throw, and any faded cushions can be replaced with new ones to add new life to the space.
• If the weather is good, be sure to have any external doors open to freshen up the space and maximise natural light, both for photographs and during viewings.
• The same goes for any wood burner or open fire you might have present in the room, as having these lit can make the whole space feel extra cosy, though you should not have open fires lit during viewings if there are children present.
• Finally, if the weather is not so good for viewings, make sure the heating is turned on to warm the area, making it feel homely and lived in.

4. Bedrooms

As with your living room, you want to ensure that your bedroom also lends itself towards a sense of comfort and intimacy, which means taking the time to make it feel as clean and presentable as possible:

• First of all, for any photos or viewings, it is absolutely essential that you make your bed properly, using fresh linen and ironed bedding that is plain, while also adding plenty of pillows and cushions in a complementary colour for that snug appearance.
• After this, you should look to hide any personal items, medicines, and toiletries from bedside tables or stands, as well as clearing all items from under your bed.
• Symmetry is your best friend when it comes to bedrooms, so look to layout your bedside tables, lamps, and wardrobes in even spacing that appeals to the eye.
• Alongside this, you’ll also want to remove anything hanging off the back of your door and store them somewhere safe, and if you can, tidy up the interior of your wardrobe in case buyers want to look inside.
• Naturally, if you’re trying to present a spare room as an additional bedroom, and you lack an extra bed, it may be worth borrowing one from a friend or purchasing a spare. That way, such a room can look its absolute best for those viewing.

5. Bathrooms

If there’s one thing your bathroom needs to be when showing people around, it's clean. A dirty bathroom is a huge turn-off for most buyers, so get scrubbing as soon as you can while also paying attention to the following additional tips:

• Regardless of whether you're taking photographs or doing viewings, you should keep your toilet lids closed and present a fresh image.
• Always take a second to remove any toilet brushes, toothbrushes, and bins out of the way while having new soap and other matching toiletries in view to highlight the cleanliness of the room.
• Take the time to clean your mirrors properly so they look sparkling and if you want towels on display, stick to a white set. This is also the time to replace any patterned shower curtains or toilet covers as well for plain alternatives.
• Finally, be sure to clean your grout of any dirt and mould and replace any sections where it’s peeled away. Then declutter your space of any additional mess in an out-of-the-way location.
• As an aside, if your bathroom has no natural lighting, then you can still deliver a touch of bright colour by adding a few realistic, artificial plants.

While all of the points we’ve just made are essential steps to take if you truly want to master the art of home staging, all of them will be for nought if you neglect to take care of your floor as well.

No matter the décor and age of your home, fresh, clean, and good-quality flooring is absolutely key when looking to sell any home. Much like obvious repair jobs that have been missed, aged and marked floors are big red flags to buyers.

So, if your floors need a boost, then we recommend going with a warm and welcoming neutral shade that can easily match most home aesthetics. For example, a light vinyl floor or soft shade tiles are perfect for a bathroom, though wood-effect laminate can be just as good thanks to its water-resistant properties.

Alternatively, for more high-traffic areas like your hallway and kitchen, you simply can’t go wrong with luxury vinyl tiles, which have excellent durability against the wear and tear of daily life.

And if you’re interested in carpets specifically, then we suggest avoiding dark and heavily patterned shades as these can both dominate and shrink a room. Instead, something like a textured Berber style is an excellent option as it looks great while also being hard-wearing.

Finally, if you have boards under your carpet and want to leave them exposed, then the right rug can make even the most worn and tired planks look full of life!

As we’ve pointed out a few times now, a properly staged home can make it infinitely easier to sell your property quickly. But did you know it can also dramatically increase the sale price as well?

In fact, a 2023 study conducted by the Home Staging Association found that 25% of professional surveyors agreed that the right home staging could increase a property's value by as much as 11-15%.

Not only that but a further 50% believed it could increase value by 4-6%, while the remaining 25% stated that sellers could still expect to see a value increase of 1-3% at a bare minimum.

Either way, surveyors believe good home staging would increase the sale price of any property while reducing sale time dramatically – in some cases as much as two times as fast as the usual selling period.

Revitalise your floors with Tapi

And there you have it; you should now have a much better idea of what home staging is, and how to prepare your home properly should you want to sell, ensuring you can be in your new dream home as fast as possible while selling over the asking price. We also have plenty of tips for decorating your home on a budget.

But regardless of whether you need new floors installed before you sell a property, or you’re already thinking of laying down fresh carpets in your new home, Tapi is here to meet all your flooring needs.

Browse our entire collection online or visit your nearest store to see our floorologists in person, or book a free home visit and our team will bring a taste of the Tapi showroom to you.

DISCLAIMER - The flooring seen in the images on this page is not associated with or made by Tapi.