The master bedroom can be one of the more important rooms in a home you are about to sell. I recently did an article on staging a bathroom and I said think “spa“. When it comes time to stage your master bedroom think “retreat”!
Remember staging and presenting your home for resale can be very different than how you actually live in your home. Staging is about presenting possibilities and potential and not about decorating.
It is about giving a buyer a clean slate to envision how they see their life in that room. Not yours.
The master bedroom should be a retreat for the owner of the house. It should be peaceful and relaxing. So the definition of retreat is a place of safety or privacy; a refuge.
You want your master bedroom to be quiet and peaceful. A place where the new homeowner can have some solitude and relaxation.
A spotlessly clean home will always impress buyers and that also goes for the master bedroom. Lamp shades and behind the beds can be areas we overlook and dust builds up.
Clean every corner of your master bedroom. No one wants to take on your dirt.
Any room your are staging for a sale should start with a complete de-personalization and de-cluttering. This is true for staging your master bedroom as well.
Remove all personal items from view. This means clearing your nightstands of all personal belongings, trinkets, grooming items, books, magazines, etc…. You want the home buyer to visually take ownership of a room and when your “stuff” is visible it makes it difficult.
Your moving so now is a great time to start packing up your seasonal clothing and getting rid of clothing you no longer need.
When it comes to staging less is definitely more.
What defines a bedroom?
A bed, a nightstand or two with a lamp and a dresser. If it is a larger room a small sitting area can be nice with two chairs and a small table. Pair down everything but the absolute essentials to identify it as a bedroom when it comes to furniture.
That means if you have two dressers and they don’t really fit, get rid of one. The less you have for furniture the more it will open up the space. You want to create a good traffic flow and make the room feel spacious.
A small master bedroom can certainly be challenging especially if a couple is sharing the space. But as much as your cramped master bedroom is a frustration to you, you don’t want to pass that perception on to your potential home buyers.
The paint color you choose for the walls of your master bedroom and the decor accomplish two key selling points. Remember decor of a master bedroom can be highly personal and you may need to make some adjustments to give your master bedroom a broader appeal when selling your home.
First, your bedroom should be painted a color that promotes peace and rest. Calming colors are greys, taupes, blues and greens.
On the other hand, red is known to raise one’s blood pressure. Red is certainly not a color you will want to use in staging your master bedroom. Yellow can promote anger. Certainly not colors you associate with calm and peaceful
Secondly, your master bedroom should be of a neutral palette. A home buyer could be turned off by even a soft blue or green. But, most home buyers will be able to work with grey or taupe walls and they can add stronger colors with their own accent pieces.
If you are going to introduce a color into your wall paint make it very subtle. Take for example Pittsburgh Paint’s White Sage which would be considered a neutral green and or Pratt and Lambert January Frost which would be a neutral icy blue.
In each case the color is very subtle and more to the neutral side. Most any home buyer will feel they can work with these colors. This is a key point to remember. Home buyers do not want to spend countless hours painting their new home. If your home is a color they can work with they will find it more attractive.
Make sure your neutral color theme carries through to the bedding and window treatments as well as the wall colors. If need be buy a cheap bedding set from Target or Walmart to bring your bedding into your neutral color them.
It is the master bedroom, so go ahead and make your bed the focal point of the room. Give your bed that luxurious hotel look by layering the bedding.
You can achieve a luxurious layered look by using a bed skirt, fitted sheet, flat sheet, bed spread, comforter or duvet along with layered pillows.
The layered pillow are an absolute must when you don’t have a headboard as it creates an illusion of a headboard. Use a combination of sleeping pillows, euro pillows and decorative pillows to build the “headboard”.
Above the bed a large piece of artwork or several smaller pieces will finish off making the bed the focal point when staging your master bedroom.
Usually when staging any room, I say get rid of the window treatments altogether! But, it is the master bedroom and I know I like my bedroom dark. If you can, stick with simple, clean sheers with a very simple curtain rod. Most buyers will appreciate a bedroom flooded with natural light.
If you simply can’t survive with simple sheers choose a very simple drape that has clean lines. Keep it solid colored and tie your drapes in with the neutral decor of your staged master bedroom.
And, by all means open them up during the day so your home buyers can see the natural light.
Now is the time to start clearing out your closet. Pack up seasonal items you aren’t using and get rid of items you haven’t used in forever. You know we all have those items.
Once you have paired down the items in your closet it is time to organize your master closet. There’s little things you can do to impress home buyers.
Organize by style and color. Don’t put anything on the floor…. even shoes! Get a shoe rack instead. If you have shelves store clothing in bins and don’t leave them loose. Don’t use your master bedroom closet to store things like luggage or seasonal decorations. Find another spot.
And, certainly leave extra room. Never show a completely packed closet. It leaves the impression there is plenty of closet space.
Certainly living like this while showings are occurring can be a hassle.
Take each area, like your bureau or nightstand where you usually store personal items, out in the open. Find baskets your items will fit in. Baskets can be quickly hidden and pulled out quickly when you need it.
If you have a bed skirt on your bed sliding those baskets under your bed is a perfect spot. Accessible at a moment’s notice and out of a buyer’s view.
Now that you have it set and you have created a clean palette, you can go back and place a few items on the nightstand and bureau.
A nightstand certainly should have a table lamp. A small piece of art or mirror can hang on the wall opposite the lamp to build some height. Or a larger piece of artwork leaning against the wall will work.
You can bring in 2 or 3 small books to stack and maybe a small trinket dish. Just a few non-descript, non-personal items.
A bureau with a few small accent pieces to create balance or with some fresh-cut flowers can be perfect. Just enough so it looks lived in. If the bureau doesn’t have a mirror and it is waist high think about adding a large piece of artwork behind it on the wall.
For a final finishing touch maybe a large full-length mirror leaning against the wall. Mirrors are always a great way to make a room look bigger.
Your master bedroom is one of the rooms that can make or break you when it comes time to sell your home. It is definitely a room you want looking its best. It is also a room many homeowners neglect because it’s not a room where visitors typically go.
Show the buyer they can have their own peaceful retreat in their own home. Don’t make them try to look past the cluttered furniture, the overflowing closets and all of your personal items.
This is also time to pack and purge! And show your buyers this can now be their new retreat. Preparing and staging your home is a critical step in receiving top dollar for your home.
Other Resources:
Staging the Master Bedroom- Think Retreat! is written by Kevin Vitali of EXIT Group One Real Estate.
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2 comments
Dave Smith
April 9, 2018Very good points. And well done article Kevin,.
But, remember, people are not that stupid.
They can visualize their own bedroom set and ensemble fitting into that room.
What would be more important, is cleanliness, good paint and moldings, and
the overall condition is worth investing their hard-earned money into.
Massachusetts Realtor
April 10, 2018Dave thanks for stopping by. I probably should have reminded clean is a must, but hopefully that should go with out saying. But I do disagree slightly with buyers visualizing. I go into hundreds of homes a year with buyers. If a room is not staged well a majority of the buyer’s do have a hard time looking past that. An afternoon of staging a room can have big returns…. including a thorough cleaning.
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