A Quick Guide to Prepping Your Home for Sale
So you have decided to sell your home and you are prepping for your home to go on the market. Here are some handy tips to help entice potential buyers.
So you have decided to sell your home and you are prepping for your home to go on the market. Here are some handy tips to help entice potential buyers.
When it comes to choosing colours, remember the function of each room. Bedrooms should be decked out in calming colours (pastels, neutrals, earthy tones, beachy tones) to help you relax after a long day. Social areas like kitchens and living rooms should be full of bold, energizing colours to inspire conversation and fun.
Clutter makes even the largest and most put- together room look cramped and disorganized. This doesn’t mean you need to be the next Martha Stewart, but find creative ways to incorporate storage space into every room. Children’s rooms can include a toy chest in fun colours, the ottoman in the living room can hide extra blankets, and the guest room window seat can hold your seasonal clothes. When it comes to decorating, less is more.
Congratulations on moving into your new home! As the proud new owner, I am sure you are more than ready to begin to make this place your own. To help you get started, here are some handy tips to keep in mind when you are decorating your new home.
1) Keep your wall colours light
Dark or bold colours tend to make a space look smaller than it actually is. In order to make your space seem as roomy as possible, stick to lighter colours such as cream or pastels. If you really aren’t a pastel person, try sticking to white or cream and use bold or dark colours as accent colours. A fresh coat of paint can bring new life to a tired or dated looking room, and is less expensive than redecorating the entire room.
2) Throw pillows and Slipcovers
To update dated or worn looking furniture consider slipcovers and throw pillows. Instead of buying a whole new chesterfield (especially if yours is still in good shape) see if you can buy or make a slipcover for it. This way it looks new, and you can make it fit with you new home perfectly. New throw pillows (or even covers for existing pillows) can help you tie your whole look together without breaking the bank.
3) Don’t be afraid of the thrift store
Provided you are up for the hunt a thrift store can be an unassuming looking treasure trove. Whether you are simply looking for some inspiration, or shopping for a specific vintage style piece, thrift stores and garage sales are a good place to visit. You also don’t have to use your newfound treasures for their intended purposes. Vintage plates can become interesting wall art, and old statues, toys or lamp bases make excellent bookends (especially paired with interesting vintage books!)
4) A little TLC goes a long way
Sometimes it isn’t that we need a whole new room, it is just that the room we love has gotten lost in the clutter. Moving is an excellent time to sift through your stuff and figure out what you really want to keep, and what can be donated or thrown away. Any room looks larger and roomier when clutter is kept to a minimum.
5) Go for a coherent style
Any room is going to look jumbled and cluttered when there are a bunch of different styles mashed together. Pick one, and do your best to stick with it. Whether it is a sleek modern look, vintage eclectic or a more traditional style of decorating coherence is essential to creating a harmonious space. Even if it is something as simple as sticking to a basic colour pallet, you want the objects in your space to work together, not against each other.
6) Wall art is important
Wall art helps to make a space feel cared for, and is an excellent budget friendly way to bring life into a tired looking space. Art doesn’t have to be expensive either. Frame some cheap prints (Ikea is a good place to start), make some simple artwork of your own, or frame something you already have (like the cover of or a page from your favourite novel). What matters most is that the space and its wall art reflect who you are.
7) Don’t forget curtains!
Aside from being practical, curtains can also be used to divide spaces or bring some much needed colour to a bare looking space. Particularly if you are renting (and therefore can’t paint the walls) curtains are a good way to add some personality and colour to your walls.
8) Keep your space clean and clutter free
No matter what your decorating style is your room will always look better if it is tidy than if it is messy, cluttered and dusty. Do your best to keep everything in its place. An excellent way to do this is to coordinate storage space into your decor. Instead of an end table, consider an end cupboard to provide you with extra, hidden, storage room. Add some drawers on rollers to the underside of your bed to store extra bedding, blankets and off season clothing. Drawers are inexpensive to buy or to build, and can be made to match the decor through you choice of knobs and paint colours.