Staging a Living Room | Home Staging Tip

The Outdated Couch | Home Staging Tip

Many times as real estate agents we have listing that need a little help to enhance the marketability of a home.  Occasionally we run into a living room set that may be a little run down or outdated.  Next to the kitchen the living room or family room is one of the more critical rooms in a home and staging a living room correctly is important.  One thing I like to remind home sellers is home staging is not about decorating your home, it is about merchandising your home.

Very rarely will I or my home stager ask you to spend much money, if at all, on staging your home.  But sometimes your living room furniture can be so outdated or mismatched to the room it becomes a detraction to showing the living room or family room in its best light.  Money that is well  spent, when staging a living room is on inexpensive slipcovers for outdated or rundown furniture.

Its funny how quickly furniture fabric, patterns and colors can become so outdated.  It is easy to hide an outdated color or pattern or even stained furniture with a slip color.  The important thing to remember when buying a slip color is keep it neutral and then you can tie in some color with some throw pillows.

In the living room below we used slip covers to hide an outdated color and fabric of the furniture.  In this case, the color of the couch didn’t really math the color of the living room and drew attention to itself.  The solution was simple… buy matching slip covers for the couch and chair in a neutral color and then tie it in with throw pillows.

While a seller may be prepared to buy new furniture, a slip cover will allow them to purchase new furniture for their new space when they get to their new home.  This way they can buy the perfect furniture for their new space.

A good source for inexpensive slip covers is Sure Fit. Slip covers can start at as little as $60 for a sofa.  An easy way to deal with choosing a color for the slipcover is keep it a solid color either in white or another neutral color.   You can always tie in color with a throw pillows or a throw blanket.

To wrap up this post their are a few other things that we did to stage this living room that made some drastic differences:

1. Matching slip covers for the sofa and chair.
2. Replaced a busy oriental carpet with a very neutral carpet under the coffee table.
3. Removed some furniture to open up the space.
4. Rearranged the remaining furniture to enhance the traffic flow through the living room.

_________________________________________________________________

This post, Staging a Living Room |  Home Staging Tip,  was provided by Kevin Vitali.  Kevin has a marketing plan that will get your HOME SOLD!  Thinking of selling your home?  Hire Kevin and you will get a home staging consultation paid for by Kevin.

[form id=”1470″]