Brighten Up Your Home with These 5 Budget-Friendly Tips

Want to bring some brightness to your home and not spend too much? Whether you’re staging your own home or you just want to live a happier life with better light quality, you can brighten up your home with these 5 budget-friendly tips.

Tip One

Remove the curtains and/or blinds This is our first go-to trick when staging a home that feels dark. In this case, the homeowner also painted the walls white for a major transformation with home staging. Here’s a before and after.

Looks like a completely different room, doesn’t it?

Tip Two

Bring in table and floor lamps Obviously, right? More lamps offer more light. You don’t need to spend a fortune on high-end chandeliers and and designer end-table lamps. You know all the affordable furniture & accessory websites: Wayfair, IKEA, Overstock, West Elm, and many more. We say shop local! Go check out the local second-hand and vintage stores. Here in the Berkshires, you can’t throw a lightbulb without hitting an antiques store. There’s also Goodwill.

TIP THREE

Lighten up your furniture If you can afford to go out and buy new sofas, chairs, ottomans, and rugs…terrific! If not, invest in a quality sofa cover that’s a lighter or brighter color. New bright pillow covers. A fresh white duvet cover. A lighter rug.

And when we say “lighten up your furniture” we also mean you can remove some of the clutter — curate your furniture. Create seating spaces that allow for easy movement and conversation areas. Use a light area rug to define the space and leave the surrounding space clear.

TIP FOUR

Work with what you’ve got Dark walls or paneling that you can’t or don’t want to transform? That’s okay. Look at the example below. The knotty-pines walls morphed from dark and heavy to a charming natural accent when we lightened up the furniture (and removed the curtains, of course).

TIP FIVE

Mirrors This is an age-old design technique. Glass mirrors are first documented in the 3rd century! Candle-holding mirrored sconces helped to brightened very dark rooms. (We stumbled on this history of the mirror…fascinating!) While we don’t use many mirrored candle sconces, we do place mirrors across from windows. We recently did this in a charming country house. We strategically placed 3 mirrors on different walls (the one below in a bookcase!). And we used a mirrored cocktail table.

BONUS TIP

Clean your windows 😂 You’re welcome.

Cover photo courtesy of Dan Alden Country Real Estate Services.

Should I Stage My Small, Moderately Priced Home?

We get asked some version of this question often, “Should I stage my small, moderately priced home?” Or “Do I need to stage my home? It’s not a luxury listing!” “Does home staging really matter for moderately priced homes?” Yes. Yes you should. It matters!

No matter a home's price point, staging makes a SIGNIFICANT difference because ALL homes need to appeal to a buyer.

First, the statistics

Here are some statistics from the most recent Profile of Home Staging by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). But keep reading for examples of stagings for homes listed around $400,000.

• 91% of buyers' agents say home staging had an affect on most or some buyers. Only 7% said it has no effect!

• 82% of buyers’ agents say that staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.

• 83% of agents say that [great] photos are more important than ever. Let’s face it, buyers are shopping online and the photos need to eye catching or they are swiped away. Home staging creates great photos!

Watch this as Dawn talks about a few of our stagings.

Now the specifics

Now on to specifics about why to stage a smaller and/or moderately priced home. Home buyers in moderate price ranges care just as much about where they live as those hunting for million dollar listings. Who doesn’t desire a place where we can see ourselves living our best lives?

Moderate Home 1! This home received an above asking price the first week on market. We staged; we un-staged; and were very happy, as were the realtor, sellers and buyers.

Staged Ryte staged two homes in 2022 priced at or below $400,000. And they were relatively small. In both cases, the realtor told the home owners that he could sell their homes for one price if they didn’t stage, and he could sell for a greater price when staged. Both owners agreed to staging (who doesn’t want more money?).

• Moderate Home 1 was a complete renovation. We came in and fully staged the home…and it received multiple offers over asking in the first week. This was one of those homes where we stage…and then come back in short order to un-stage. We love when this happens and don’t mind one little bit.

• Moderate Home 2 was an older lake cottage. We styled the home and it received an offer in the first week. The home owners ultimately decided to take the property off the market and keep the home.

• On another note, we staged a luxury property that had been removed from the market because it wasn’t getting much interest. We came in styled and staged it, and the realtor tells us showings have more than doubled.

Moderate Home 1: Empty to Homey.

Staged homes at any price show more and…

Our staged homes show more, receive offers more quickly, and sell above listing. You don’t need to have a luxury home to benefit from home staging. Any sized home can benefit! Most important rooms to stage? Living room, primary bedroom, and kitchen.

How is your home going to stand out from the rest? Do you need a refresh for your home to show at its best in photos and when home buyers are visiting? We dove into our archive for this blog post, “The Biggest Home Staging Mistakes.” Some good tips for styling on your own.

Want to understand our process from walk-through to proposal to staging? Read this blog post “How Does Home Staging Work?”

2023 is different

2023 is going to be a tougher market than the past three years. Home sales have slowed; there’s more inventory than there was just after COVID, when so many people were moving to the Berkshires, Northwestern Connecticut, and Dutchess Couny, NY. Each home needs to stand out from the rest.

Bottom line, home staging matters for all homes at all price levels. Follow us on our socials especially Instagram @stagedryte to see our stagings and staging life. And contact us when you’re ready to stage!

Actor Jayne Atkinson Loved It and Didn't List It

Home Staging Turns Into a Fresh Interior Design for House of Cards Actors

Actor Jayne Atkinson and husband actor Michel Gill had decided to sell their home. Their son was launched and they were ready to move on to new adventures. Jayne’s realtor, Leslie Chesloff of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Real Estate, recommended that Staged Ryte come in to advise on changes and updates, such as painting. We immediately hit it off with Jayne. (Honestly, who wouldn’t…she’s so warm and charming.) Staged Ryte transformed the interiors so well that Jayne and Michel decided to love their home and not put it on the market. A first for us!

Dawn sat down with Jayne in her refreshed 1920s home in the Hill Section of Great Barrington and had a conversation about the home staging process and outcome. Watch the video! Jayne says, “I know you staged the house so that it would look good but somehow you captured my whimsy and brought in gorgeous color. It just helped me relax. Staging it gave it this crisp, clean new look.”

Jayne especially loves the orange-hued throw pillows. The living room colors tied in with an orange and blue rug in the primary bedroom that Jayne never knew quite what to do with.

Atkinson and Gill may be most recognizable from their roles as Secretary of State and President on the popular Netlix series, House of Cards. Both are seasoned performers on stage and in television and movies. Atkinson loves the Berkshires and supports theatre companies and cultural institutions. She most recently appeared in WAM Theatre’s “Miscast Cabaret” benefit at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in July.

Actor Jayne Atkinson played Secretary of State Catherine Durant; Michel Gill played President Garrett Walker.

“Jayne was ready to sell! We walked through the house together - room by room - and identified furniture and accessories that should be edited or removed," says Dawn. "Then we made recommendations on paint colors and trim, brought in furniture, bedding and accessories to supplement and to help prospective buyers understand what their lifestyle could be like in the home." The dining room was completely transformed - piano, dining table, rug, chairs and accessories removed and replaced.

This was the first time a Staged Ryte client decided to keep their home based on its staging. They even purchased many of the staging furnishing, artwork, and other accessories. Trachtenberg says that it’s not unusual for home buyers to see a staged home and ask to certain buy pieces.

Watch the lively conversation between Dawn and Jayne on Staged Ryte’s…and please subscribe to our new YouTube Channel.

And the work continues. There are still some pieces to be sourced and brought into the home. Then Jayne and Michel will be ready to move back in!

“How Does Home Staging Work?”

Most home owners haven’t embarked on home staging journeys before. It’s often their realtor who recommends home staging. So the question we get most often (before how much does home staging cost) is how does home staging work? Well, we’re here to tell you.

Let’s break down the home staging process. We’ve simplified it here, but you’ll get the overall idea.

It’s a Process!

From first home visit to measurements, pulling furniture and accessories to trying different artwork, home staging is a thoughtful process.

The List

1. Home staging always starts with a conversation - often with a realtor to help us understand the seller's needs and the optimal buyer.

2. The next conversation is with the home owner. As home stagers, we need to know if the home will be vacant or furnished. Does any work need to be done to the home before staging?

3. We tour the home and take copious photographs and notes.

4. We create a comprehensive home staging plan which informs the proposal we send to the home owner. With the home owner’s go ahead, we send our Staging Agreement and with that and a deposit, we are on our way to staging.

5. We then dive into our home staging warehouse to pull sofas, cocktail tables, dining tables, bed frames, mattresses, carpets, accessories, etc. Sometimes we have to go on shopping excursions to fill in where needed (we don’t mind).

6. We now have space in our Ashley Falls facility to pre-stage - set up a room to see what else we need or if another color scheme, living room chair or pillow might work better. This has been a great benefit to our design process.

7. Once everything is finalized, we load up our truck and head out to stage the home. Small homes can take a day; large homes can take multiple days. Staging doesn’t happen in a matter of hours as it seems to on our favorite HGTV and Magnolia Network shows. We will often make multiple trips back to the warehouse if we need to swap items out, add more furniture or find just the right last accessory to complete a room.

8. Sometimes homes are staged for months, sometimes days! Then it's time to pack, wrap and bring it all back.

Measurements are our friends. Measuring saves us from lugging a too-large sofa to a home - only to then have to take it back to the warehouse.

Ahhhh. This is our favorite step: a beautifully staged home…right before it goes under contract and we need to move it all out.

Contact Dawn…

This is probably what she’ll be doing when you call. 917.543.4590. Or click here.

Our process works. We see it happen over and over and over again.

Staged homes sell faster and garner up to 6% more than unstaged homes. It’s so worth the home owner’s or developers investment. And it’s so worth our time and expertise.

Look through our Metro and Country galleries to see dozens of single-family homes, city apartments and condos where we’ve worked our process and our magic.

Blue Crush With Us

Blue is by far people’s favorite color. In fact, according to the popular real estate/design site Apartment Therapy , 42% of women and 30% of men prefer it over all other colors. We have seen this in our own experience as home stagers. Blue is the most common color we encounter in homes, on walls, bookshelves, carpets, cabinets, tiles, and sofas.

Here are some tried and true techniques that we employ when we work with lots of beautiful blue.

Add More Color

When we are staging a room with lots of blue walls, we treat blue as a background color and bring in a lot of whites, neutrals and pops of color to diminish the strength of the blue. We transform blue from the primary color into one of a number of important colors. Painting your walls blue? Here are 50+ Perfect Blue Paint Colors.

Use Blues and Complementary colors

Sometimes we feature a bold blue pattern on furniture or accessories to make a statements with blue - we want to intrigue visitors’ eyes. Try a large floral patterned sofa in different shades of orange, which is a natural complement of blue. We employed this technique with a home that was languishing on the market with no offers. After the owner followed our advice, the home sold within two weeks for $50,000 over the asking price. In this photo, we used navy blue and orange to create energy. Below we used dynamic contemporary art in blues and blacks to draw the eye up.

Blue and White Crush With Us

A blue and white color scheme is timeless. If you have a lot of blue in a room, try balancing it with large swaths of white--on baseboards, ceilings, window sills, bannisters--to create a sophisticated and soothing atmosphere that will be pleasing to many people. Guaranteed. (If you love blue and white together, follow the Instagram hashtag #blueandwhitecrush ← we use it sometimes.) Here are more tips from Homes and Gardens on how to decorate with blue.

Textures Create Interest

If you have a large space of flat blue color, like a wall, use accessories with shiny finishes and textures that catch and reflect light. If your blue surface is shiny, try the opposite--nubby textiles and textures. This holds true for any large area of one color. 

Are you planning to sell your home? Or are you a realtor selling a home? We can stage it to maximize your sale price. Call us today at 917.543.4590 for a consultation or click here to contact us. If you don’t already, follow us on Instagram and/or Facebook @stagedryte

Reasons to Stage a Home for Winter Sale

We’re stagers, not real estate agents…but we do have a front-row seat for home sales. We know what helps a home to sell faster and for a higher price…but when to put it on the market? Zillow says that the best time of year used to be May but that’s moved to March as of 2019 (everything went a little sideways in 2020…). Of course, the best time to list a home depends on location and region. Local realtors know best…chime in here with your expertise, realtors! We do have a few reasons to stage a home for winter sale. Here’s what we know…

Winter staging we did recently in Litchfield County.

A home that presents warm, cozy & move-in ready will sell faster in the winter than a home that's not prepared.

Why list and stage in the winter?

• People visit to ski. Maybe they fall in love with the area and on that blustery or rainy day, they'll go visit houses. You want to capture those visitors with your listing and in-home experience. Remember, we want to present a lifestyle to prospective buyers, not just an empty house.

• People may not think that listing a home in the winter is the right time, but you will be fresh on the market and capture looks because there aren't many listings. If your home is staged, it will be a superstar and garner a great price.

• Staging the home during the winter season prepares it for the spring and new lookers. If a home has been on the market but hasn’t moved, we always recommend to take it off the market, stage it, and relaunch for winter/spring. All eyes will be on your listing.

If your house needs a refresh and relaunch. talk to us. http://www.stagedryte.com/contact

Be fresh on the market and capture looks because there aren't as many listings as spring/summer.

We Launched Our 5,000 Square Foot Home-Staging Facility in the Berkshires

We did it! We welcomed realtors, developers, friends and family to our new storage space in the Berkshires on Friday, October 15. Our 5,000 square foot home-staging facility houses over 10,000 pieces of furniture and accessories and, we’re proud to say, visitors were pretty stunned by what they saw. (We’re still feeling pretty stunned ourselves…)

Our new facility is located at 21 Business Park Road in Ashley Falls. And it’s a very important piece for our continued growth! It’s now a warehouse, showroom space, and office perfect for our  woman-owned company serving the Berkshires, Western Massachusetts, Connecticut, Eastern New York State, New York City and New Jersey. 

“Because we have enough furniture and accessories in stock to stage 15+ homes at a time, we have a lot to manage,” Dawn Trachtenberg said at the grand opening. “I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had to remove eight sofas or multiple tables and chairs just to access the one particular piece we needed for a staging project. Now we can see everything at a glance. This storage facility is a game changer for us.”

We’ve always been thrilled with the outcome of our stagings, it’s just that the process was often challenging. The term “making the sausage” comes to mind here…the final product is amazing, but you didn’t want to watch it being made. This new space makes all items accessible.

The new storage facility houses:

• 10,000 pieces of furniture and accessories

• 1,000 books

• 500 pillows

• 90 dining room chairs

• 30 sofas

• 450 pieces of wall art, including over 200 original works.

Sofas, cocktail tables, chests of drawers, and other large items needed to be organized and tucked away (as well as you can tuck away a large piece of furniture and still have it visible for easy access). The shelving structures necessary to organize all of this stock were a vital component for this project’s success. The massive shelving units are out of the former C. A. Lindell Hardware and Lumber yard in Canaan, CT. We figured if the shelves could hold hundreds of pounds of lumber, they could hold our furniture and accessories.

Unlike some home-staging companies, we own all our stock: no additional furniture rental costs are passed on to clients. Our philosophy is to never stage in a “cookie cutter” style. Dawn says, “We believe that every home tells a story – and you need to tell that story to the right buyer. Our attention to detail and ability to understand what buyers want is unmatched.”

A special thanks goes out to the team that worked lots of hours to get everything in place. Lot’s of elbow grease, muscle, creativity, and endurance made this home staging dream come true.

Thanks to all who came to our open house. If you’d like a tour, contact Dawn Trachtenberg at 917.543.4590 or contact us (button below).

Read a Berkshire Eagle article about our business and the new space.

It takes a team to tackle a project like this. Thank you to our hard-working staff!

See Where the Story Begins! Staging Facility Open House!

For YEARS we have successfully staged homes for sale while storing our ever-growing collection of furniture and accessories in multiple storage spaces. We’ve staged dozens of houses, estates, cottages, apartments and condominiums and done it well; from NYC to the Berkshires and in between. We have dreamed of having one large facility where we could house our thousands of items, pick and pull for any property regardless of location, and see all of our inventory all under one roof. We have good news…

We look forward to telling you about our home staging process and how we manage over 10,000 pieces of furniture and accessories (much better now with a 5,000 square foot storage facility)!

We will launch our new home staging storage facility on Friday, October 15, 4pm and 6pm 21 Business Park Road, Ashley Falls, MA in the beautiful Berkshires.

And YOU are invited to our open house.

Stop in for a tour, enter our raffle for a stunning 24” x 36” custom commissioned abstract painting by Staged Ryte’s artist-in-residence Kari Kroll, and enjoy bites and beverages catered by Rubiner’s Cheesemongers.

You can Follow Kari Kroll on Instagram and see her amazing art.

Questions? RSVP below or call or text Dawn at 917.543.4590.

How Do You Decorate With Yellow and Gray? Pantone Colors 2021

Why does everyone seem to be using the exact same color at the same time? You go into a home goods or furniture store and you see the same pops of color at each one…it’s not a coincidence. We use some trending color in home staging, judiciously. Our goal here is to help you understand if YOU should use it in your home décor.

Since 2000 the Pantone Color Institute has promoted a Pantone color of the year (sometimes, as in 2021, a pair of complementary colors) that they believe evokes the spirit of that year. (Learn more about Pantone in our previous blog post: What Is a Pantone Color?) The 2021 Pantone Colors are yellow and grey -- Illuminating 13-0647 and Ultimate Gray 17-5104. In an unmistakable nod to our pandemic reality, the company describes the colors as “A message of happiness supported by fortitude…We need to feel that everything is going to get brighter – this is essential to the human spirit.”

So when you see this yellow and grey color scheme everywhere you look--clothing, makeup, graphic design products, even some kinds of specialty foods, like cakes and cookies--it’s not a massive case of color ESP among manufacturers and designers. It’s the result of a carefully orchestrated marketing effort that is meant to saturate the market with the year’s color.

Why are we telling you this? Well, if you’re painting and decorating a home, you have to choose a color scheme. When you look around for color inspiration, you’re likely to see this profusion of Pantone color of the year everywhere and you might be tempted to go whole hog with one of these beautiful, trendy colors. If you’re like us and staging a home for sale, sure: you can invest in some on trend colors. But if you’re decorating your own home that you’ll be living in for some time, you need to remember that “color of the year” means that soon it will be “color of the last year.” It will seem trendy and on brand this year but by next year the color is bound to feel dated.

Yellow May Not be Mellow

Also, it’s better to be more cautious with these very vivid Pantone colors because they are, in our experience, attention-getting shades that work better as accents than as the major color in a scheme--unless of course you are a highly skilled professional. Good examples in this Ideal Home UK article.

Subtle yellows and grays. Love it (not our design). Image credit: Simon Scarboro.

Pantone’s yellow – illuminating – is a bright hue that, like most yellows, requires major knowhow to pull off. It’s a major commitment. As a friend once asked when another friend was considering a deep Venetian red dining room, “Hon, do you really have that much to say?” The same goes for yellow. Do you really have that much to say? Most people don’t. In fact, by pairing it with gray, Pantone pretty much admits the necessity of using yellow with a more neutral tone. 

Doesn’t matter that the walls and carpet are beige. Gray is also a neutral and paired with the vibrant yellow contemporary painting by Kari Kroll, the room comes to life.

Yellow is also problematic in the sense that it’s a fussy color that reads differently in rooms facing west than in rooms facing east; in morning light versus dusk. Although the idea of happiness, optimism and energy it conveys is very attractive, yellow can also signal danger (think of the blinking yellow traffic light). 

If you feel you must have yellow, or any other intense, dark, or unusual color, as your dominant color,  make sure to test it on walls facing in all directions and during different times of day. Go to your local hardware store and purchase small sample sizes of paint to create your own large paint chips. You can also buy 12-inch square chips from samplize.com. You’ll be amazed at how different the same color looks in early morning sun and at noon and dusk. 

What do you think? Do you now know how to decorate with yellow and gray? Let us know if you need help!

Do you need help staging a home for sale or need a new look in your home? Call us at 917.543.4590. Email us at dawn@stagedryte.com. Or fill out our contact form.

What Is A Pantone Color?

Unless you’re a design professional you may not know about Pantone colors. But you surely have seen and/or used a Pantone color in your life. 

You may have noticed that when you walk into a furniture store that many of the staged rooms display throw pillows and other accessories in a particular shade of pink or a deep blue. Then in the housewares store you notice the same shade of pink or blue on the pricey new enamel cookware they are featuring. Then you’re in Sephora buying lipstick and you see that all the new packaging for your cosmetics brand is that same pink or blue. How could that be? Are you imagining they are the same?

No, you’re not imaging it. What you are seeing is the Pantone color effect. Those manufacturers are most likely using the current Pantone color of the year. 2021 colors are yellow - called Illuminating - and Ultimate Gray. Have you seen these colors online and in shops?

Pantone is a company that has been known since the 1960s for its development of the Pantone Matching System, a standardized system of color formulas that enables any manufacturer or designer anywhere in the world, whether producing clothing, housewares, or graphics, to precisely choose and reproduce a given color. The Pantone Matching System comprises 1,867 colors created by combining 13 base pigments. 

2021 Pantone Colors

Stay tuned for our next blog post. We’ll go into detail on how to use yellow and gray when decorating your home.

According to the Pantone website, “More than 10 million designers and producers around the world rely on Pantone products and services to help define, communicate and control color from inspiration to realization – across various materials and finishes for graphics, fashion and product design.”

Stay tuned for Part 2 – we’ll delve into this year’s colors of the year and how (or if) you should use them.

Want to read more about color? Read this blog post – Fear Not a Pop of Orange.

Get to Know Our Client: Realtors Stacey and Pels Matthews

Every quarter we celebrate the realtors, developers, and flippers who are so often our home staging clients. They are the ones who understand the value of home staging to sell homes fast – and to the right buyers. So, in honor of Get to Know Your Customers Day, we highlight not one but two realtors: Stacey and Pels Matthews – The Matthews Group – of William Raveis Real Estate in beautiful Litchfield County. Business has been booming and they’re busy…so here are some quick questions and answers.

Q & A with Stacey and Pels

Stacey and Pels Matthews

Q. How long have you been in real estate?

A. Stacey has been in the business for 21 years and Pels joined her about 10 years ago when they decided to expand and create a large team. The Matthews Group now has 21 agents. 

Q. How has real estate changed over the years?

A. Connecticut was in a real estate slump for the last 12 years. Things are completely different now and properties are moving quickly. Prices are up about 20%, but are still below replacement cost. 

Recently staged and under contract: 424 Long Mountain Road, New Milford, CT. Photo by Michael Bowman.

“We’re amazed at how quickly they…have it looking perfect.”

Q. What do you find challenging about real estate?

A. 24/7 schedule and never having a day off.  

Q. What do you find rewarding about real estate?

A. Meeting interesting people and finding them their dream homes. Many of our best friends are former clients.  

Q. Why do you choose to work with Staged Ryte?

A. Staged Ryte is so quick. When we have had a job to do, I am amazed at how quickly they can get furniture and accessories into a house and have it look picture perfect. 

Former listing with Stacey: Litchfield, Connecticut primary bedroom before and after.

Q. How did 2020 go for you?

A. 2020 was a record year in real estate. We worked nonstop. 

Q. What do you think 2021 will bring...and what are you looking forward to? 

A. We are working on listing several spectacular properties in the next month and are looking forward to some quick sales!

Thanks, Stacey and Pels! Learn more about The Matthews Group here. Or call them at 860.868.0511.

Recent listing with Stacey Matthews - staged and sold.

Our Instagram Contest Winner's Front Porch Gets a Holiday Makeover

Have you ever asked yourself, “How can I decorate my front door for the Holidays?” Well, our Instagram Front Door Decor Contest winner Nicole Colantoni asked herself the same question. When she saw our posts about the contest she immediately entered but didn’t think she’d win, “I never win anything!” When we reached out to her after our random-name drawing, she was busy at work but was able to take the time to say, “Fabulous! This is so exciting. My night just got better!”

Have decor will travel!

Masked and armed with boughs and berries.

The Staged Ryte team masked up and showed up to Nicole’s charming farmhouse-style home in Housatonic, MA on the appointed day and time and unloaded our van filled with balsam wreaths and seasonal pillows, lanterns and snowmen, and got right to work.

Just like when we stage a home, we did some clean up and then got to the fun stuff. The porch railing was treated with fresh pine boughs, cheery berries, and white lights. The front door received a red-bowed wreath (of course).

We created seasonal sitting areas, perfect for hot chocolate (or toddies). We topped a table with a rustic wooden snowperson surrounded by pine. Then on the other side of the porch, we warmed up a two-person rocker with Christmas-treed pillows. We set a white lantern filled with pine cones and surrounded by balsam boughs on another occasional table.

Nicole told us, “I’m so excited! It’s super cute.” What do you think?

This has been a challenging year, so switching up what we do (beyond real estate home staging) has been refreshing. We designed a wedding and reception in the summer and designed the interiors for an independent living facility in Florham Park, New Jersey that opened in the fall (see more here). We topped the year off with unstaging a home that sold in one day and staging Nicole’s front porch. All good. We’re going to ignore that the van had a dead battery in the freezing cold that day. We’re looking forward to the new year. Happy Holidays, everyone!

The Biggest Home Staging Mistakes

If you go online or read home and lifestyle magazines, you will find multiple articles on home-staging dos and don’ts - about the biggest home staging mistakes. Everything you need to know can be summed up in one rule: 

It’s not about you!

What do we mean? It’s very simple. The purpose of home staging is not to showcase your home, your decor, or your lifestyle, but to create fertile ground for potential buyers to imagine their lives in the home. Good staging will give the buyer the germ of an idea for how they could live there. If you fill the space up with too much of your beloved stuff—overly personalized decor or shelves of your family photos—it distracts potential buyers and makes it more difficult for them to create their own vision for the home. 

Believe it or not, many people cannot picture the home looking different than it looks when they see it. If they find something objectionable, they often reject the home, instead of realizing they can easily change that element. Even something easy to switch like a paint color or a window treatment can be a turnoff to a potential buyer. You should try to anticipate design elements that might be too extreme and substitute something less likely to cause a negative reaction.

Staging often has to meld house style and furnishings with today’s clients. This primary bedroom is an example of an antique-filled home that has been morphed to appeal to a younger family. Staging is based on the demographic of the potential buyers, not the owner’s style. Click here.

It’s best to avoid any furniture or decor that’s very personal or specific to your taste. That’s why our advice is not to make your staging about you, your taste, your family, or your life. Make it about the buyer instead. Remember, good staging encourages the potential buyer to begin an emotional connection with the home, which allows him or her to see how her own life could unfold there. This is absolutely what Staged Ryte does every time we stage a home. Here are some specific situations where you might feel tempted to indulge your own taste but shouldn’t:

Don’t choose colors based on your preferences.

You may love deep violet bedroom walls, black curtains, or lots of acid green, but chances are buyers will be less enthused. Take the opportunity to switch out the black, violet, or green for a more neutral color before putting the home on the market. 

At the same time, when we say neutral, we don’t mean the sterile white-on-white interiors that are popular in design magazines. Sure, they look great on Instagram, but a home on the real estate market should look cozy and livable, not like a showroom. Remember the staging is telling the potential buyer a story, one that is a balance between fantasy and reality. And the reality is most people don’t live white-on-white.

The good news on color: painting is one of the best and least expensive fixes in our home-staging toolbox. Still, if a paint job simply isn’t in the budget, embrace the vivid color and try to balance it out with neutral linens, pillows, throws or other accessories.

Want to learn more about decorating with color? Click here.

Don’t assume potential buyers are going to love your pet.

It’s hard to imagine, we know, but many people are put off by evidence of an animal in the home. We understand you love your Fido or Fifi, but you can’t assume your furry friend will charm your potential buyers. Make sure any pet fur, bowls, or toys are out of sight during showings. Your kitty litter box should be clean and, even better, removed from the house. Even better if you can take your pet out of the home as well. If people see a cat, they may imagine they can smell it, even if you can’t. Want more pet tips? Read this Architectural Digest article.

There’s no such thing as too clean, too neat.

Your idea of charmingly lived in might be someone else’s idea of a hot mess. And when it comes to home staging, there is simply no such thing as charmingly lived in. Give up your own idea of what looks comfortable and make your home a neatnick’s dream. Be prepared to do a deep clean (or have a professional do one) and declutter before putting the home on the market. If you do have a pet, be prepared to maintain that level of deep-clean and neatness throughout the showing period. It may be arduous, but it’s necessary.

This kitchen was cleaned and cleared of all clutter with minimal decor added. Keep kitchens fresh.

Not every smell is a good smell.

The home should not only be fresh and clean but should smell that way. Sometimes people are so used to living with a particular odor, they actually cannot smell it. Recently we staged a home that had a lingering smell of damp and mold. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned but the offensive odor remained. At the end of our rope, we popped some apples and cinnamon in the oven. Soon the home smelled like a sparkling autumn day and we could imagine drinking some cider there. The whole scene changed immediately. We just had to make sure the real estate agent was willing to go in before each showing and bake those apples to keep the scent in the air.

Staging a home for a quick sale is a serious commitment – we know! Our entire goal is to do this FOR sellers – to take this burden off their shoulders. Our home staging services are is unique and eye catching. Let us know if you’d like to learn more about how we do this.