How to Stage a Living Room Without Spending a Small Fortune
Most homeowners will certainly agree – the living room is the most important part of the home. Memories are made there. You spend quality time with your family, you invite guests to hang out, you see your closest open their Christmas presents, and you have probably seen a game or two with your best buds. While the bathroom and kitchen are the functional rooms of the home, the living room is for living, enjoying, and relaxing.
This importance is reflected on those who want to buy their next home. If you are thinking about selling your home, first you need to focus on how to stage a living room that the potential buyers would be excited to see. It is vital you stage the space in a way that you allow buyers to create an image of their family, their friends, and their future memories all “lived” in that very room.
If you are ready to sell your home, you need to plan the staging process.
Questions to Ask When Planning the Living Room Staging
- Should you stage all rooms?
- Should you show the entire home?
- Where should you start?
- Should you relocate everything you own in order to allow stagers to take over your space?
- Should you find other ways to do it and not disrupt your entire life for it?
To get straight to the point, consider showcasing the living room first. Then, you can move on to the bedroom and the kitchen. Luckily, there is a way for you to stage any room you want, without spending your entire savings and without changing your everyday life. Enter, virtual staging. Before jumping on the explanation of why and how to stage the living room, read a more detailed approach on what virtual staging is, the benefits it offers, and how it works.
Virtual Staging 101: Everything You Need to Know
Huge real estate companies may have the resources and time to do traditional staging. It takes a lot of effort to relocate the existing furniture and to replace it with “staging” pieces. Besides, it can be an expensive and long process altogether. Luckily, individual real estate agents and homeowners who want to sell without hiring a big company can opt for a more convenient alternative – virtual staging. It may sound new and unfamiliar, but we come prepared. Keep reading to find out whether virtual staging is the right approach for you.
The Basics of Virtual Staging
One way to define virtual staging is to see it as an umbrella term used for optimizing real estate photos. What does this entail exactly? Well, the individual real estate agent, or the homeowner who intends to sell should make a photo of the room they decided to stage and prepare for showing, and the rest is up to the team of virtual stagers.
Once they get the photo, virtual stagers add pieces of furniture and décor, and end up making the place more presentable. You as a customer can discuss how to stage a living room and have the opportunity to make suggestions as to the style of the room, or the décor pieces you think most fit the atmosphere. Besides furnishing, virtual stagers are also capable of improving the exterior of the home as well. They add blue day sky, or twilight to photos of the house that is up for sale. And lastly, they also edit and correct photos if they appear over- or, in some cases, underexposed.
What to Expect of Virtual Staging
The end result is amazing. You get a photorealistic design of the room. No false expectation. Just a properly furnished and decorated space that will show potential buyers how the room can (but doesn’t have to) look like. We are all aware that most buyers start their search online, so it is a smart idea to put your home on the online market. And what better way than to hire a virtual stager.
Once a virtual stager is done with his work, the potential buyer can see the full potential of the room. Where are the air vents, the power points, light switches, and so on, and have a complete perspective of what they can expect once they see the room in person.
Homeowners will keep their peace by keeping their everyday life intact. No stagers around to change your furniture arrangement, no people going in and out all the time. And once the buyers do come, you will know that they are really interested and not just wasting your time.
However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t prepare your home for the visit in person. Virtual stagers show the potential of the room, the buyers like it, and they decide to have a look. You still need to remove personal details, you still need to declutter and clean the entire home, and you need to make sure you present it in the best possible light.
Virtual Staging Software
Virtual stagers most often use 3D design software to prepare the photos. Plus, they also rely on VR technology so that the end result is appreciated by homeowners and real estate agents as realistic and responsive. You don’t want to place unrealistic photos on the internet, trust us. Customers won’t appreciate it, will see through the misconception, and it may drive them far away from the idea of ever contacting you.
Virtual stagers make sure that once a photo is complete the viewer can experience a first-person perspective of the room. This is extremely important because it provides a real measurement of a room’s size, space, and even how it looks during daylight conditions. The viewer can have a real, not oversold, overall impression of the room. So, the next time you think about how to stage a living room think of all the fantastic Virtual Staging benefits.
And remember, you can ask the virtual stager to add or remove a piece of furniture or décor which will help with the decluttering of the space. The design capabilities are almost limitless if you trust the right virtual staging company, that is.
How to Stage a Living Room – Design Possibilities
When it comes to staging a living room for sale you need to think about furniture placement, décor pieces, and, all in all, interior design. First and foremost comes decluttering. Never, ever show a room that looks messy. No one likes that, and no one wants to see overcrowded shelves. It is okay to include a few accessories here and there, but clutter is never a good idea. So, advise your virtual stager to keep things minimal.
Another thing that virtual staging makes possible is remodeling. If the current homeowners designed the living room in a contemporary style, but want to create a minimalistic or Scandinavian style room, they can. Virtual stagers can remodel the room any way the owners or real estate agents want. Any design idea can work, especially if it serves to show the benefits of the space and its biggest potential. There are bundles of living room design ideas that can get anyone inspired (read more below). And if you do it right, your home will be sold in no time.
4 Tips to Help You Properly Stage Your Living Room
We have already been through the reasons as to why stage living room first is an idea worth considering. There are more ideas to sell fast while saving money and time in the process – and virtually staging your living room for sale should come in the top three, at least.
Once the staged photo is out there, and you are contacted by potential buyers, the next thing you need to do is prepare your real living room for the visit. Buyers will still want to see the home in person, however much they liked the virtual version of it. It is not enough to make the final sale. Luckily, we have you covered here as well. Let’s dive in.
Keep the Room Tidy and Neat
This is probably the easiest thing you can do and the most important as well. We have mentioned above that clutter can drive people away. Keeping the room neat should be a priority, especially when thinking about how to stage a small living room; remove personal photos, memorabilia, and any item or décor piece that doesn’t add to the warmth of the room. Buyers want to be able to visualize themselves there. So, allow them by removing your things so that they can imagine their own memories on the shelves.
Pay Attention to the Windows
Natural light is a big bonus for most buyers. All windows you have in the living room area should be “dressed for success”. Simply put, you need to spotlessly clean them, and place adequate window treatments. Moreover, you can place mirrors across a window to create a visually bigger and lighter room.
Seating Arrangement Matters Too
Since the living room is a place for spending time with either only family members, or with friends too – you need to think about seating arrangement as well. When buyers come to see the place, you need to make sure it looks comfortable enough to spend a lot of time there. They need to see the possibility of the room for gathering of some sorts. They need to know that if they want to invite their close ones for a night in, they can comfortably do so.
Make Things as Neutral as Possible
You are not supposed to buy new stuff in order to achieve this. However, it is important you know that neutral is the right way to go since it is an acceptable color scheme for almost anyone. Do as much as you can, without having to disrupt your life. You should organize, and do your research on how to plan the budget you have on your disposal – and you will do great. You can go for neutral pillows and throws on the furniture, artwork that doesn’t “scream”, or plants that add coziness and make the space look more “homey”.
Top Interior Design Trends for 2021 to Get You Inspired
Our homes used to be a part of our everyday life. Most of our time was dedicated to our workplace, and we saw our home as a place to retreat, relax, rest, and get ready for the next day. Sometimes we made plans for after work, and the going home part was delayed even more. Simply put, people had busier lives, and we did not spend that much time home.
Things certainly changed in the last year, and people now spend more time home than ever before. We socialize, work, and even exercise from the comfort of our home. Since we had to adjust our way of life, it is not surprising that our homes would go through some changes too. Almost all interior design trends for 2021 have one word in common – “comfort”. So, let’s investigate a little more on that topic.
Textured Furniture Pieces
The ridged renaissance has had an impact on interior design for years. Glass panes, tactile-like tiles, 3D wallpapers… and now it is time to include furniture as well. Flat surfaced furniture pieces like cabinets and wardrobes are now replaced with more decorative patterns and textures. Picture the TV stand in your living room. Wouldn’t it look better with an unusual, yet stylish design over it. A design that adds to the beauty of the room?
Open-Floor Plans
This should not come as a surprise. In some homes families, extended members as well, and in some cases roommates are all on top of each other during quarantine. That is why the year 2021 will be a great comeback for open-floor living arrangements. As for dividers, bookcases can be a stylish wall replacement. Curtains, or other types of partitions work as well. Flexible shelves and small designer desks are in high demand because people need to have work areas too.
Japandi – a Stylish Spin of the Scandi Style
Japandi, just like the Scandinavian style, is known for its harmonious design. It is a style that longs for everlasting minimalism, and timeless aesthetic pieces. The past few months this design trend has seen a popularity like never before – and it keeps on growing by the minute.
Besides the calming neutral tones, and earthy furniture pieces, Japandi also strives to achieve a mood-boosting atmosphere by including a lot of greenery. And the space where we need some mood boosting during these uncertain times is definitely the living room. Here you can make your family time a fun and relaxing experience each time you get together.
Textured Walls – Big in 2020, Even Bigger in 2021
This trend has seen its spotlight in 2020, and all signs show that it will go even bigger in 2021. Walls are now seen as a canvas through which people can express their creativity. 3D carved wood coverings, 3D tiles, and even wallpapers now come with textured effects. If you don’t overdo it, it can be a grand finish for every room in your home, including the living room we have been discussing today.
Conclusion
This goes for all individual real estate agents and homeowners who want to sell – there is a cost and time-effective way to show off your home. Familiarize yourself with virtual staging, (there are surprising statistics you need to check out) and reap all the benefits it offers. Make sure you hire the best virtual stagers out there, so that the image you put on the market is realistic and shows the true potential of the room.
When deciding where to start, the living room is certainly a place to consider. You can’t go wrong here. Use the tips for home staging for the living room from this article. People see the living room as the place to create beautiful family moments, so who wouldn’t want to start there when buying, right? So make sure you are properly informed on how to stage a living room, and go for it. Your home will be off the market sooner rather than later, trust us.
FAQ
1. How do you stage furniture in a living room?
Furniture pieces need to be in scale with the size of the room. You don’t want to overcrowd the room with huge pieces that don’t fit, and you don’t want to make it seem empty either. It should include a focal point (an entertainment unit or a fireplace), and it should have a good traffic flow for buyers to easily move around.
2. How do you stage a small living room?
Start with furniture size – go for small-scale pieces that match the size of the room. One way to visually make the room seem bigger is mirrors and a lot of natural light. The perfect combination would be to place a mirror across from a window. This will make the room lighter, and with that – visually bigger.
3. How much does it cost to stage a living room?
Traditional staging may cost $300 to 600$ for the initial consultation about design, and additional $500 to $600 a month per room. Virtual staging, on the other hand, is cheaper. A virtual stager will cost you around $75 per image (or per room).
4. How do you stage a home for a living?
When you stage a home you need to be mindful of a few important things. Start with decluttering each room, then clean the space, and arrange the furniture appropriately. Next, you need to go for neutral color pallets for walls and furniture so that the home can be appealing for a larger number of customers.
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