How To Present Living Rooms When Selling Your Home

Every buyer will be keen to see the main living room of the home that they are viewing. Living rooms, lounges, sitting rooms, family rooms - We may call them something different but when staging your home to sell, what ever you call it, make sure that it's perfectly presented.

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The living room is most often the first actual room that potential buyers step into.

It's going to give home buyers the first real impression of the style and quality of the rest of the property.
Take this oprtunity to 'Wow' those viewers by creating a lovely inviting and desirable space that they will want to own themselves.

Here Are My Top Ten Home Staging Tips For Living Rooms:

1. Create an obvious 'Living/ entertaining' space.
Too often buyers walk into a confused space, one that doesn't clearly announce it's purpose.
In the living room there should be an obvious seating arrangement that would allow 2 or more people to chat comfortably.

Arrange chairs & sofas so that they are oriented to the centre of the room and make an obvious focus of the room.

2. Edit out excess furniture.
Side tables, coffee tables, book cases, sitting chairs, love seats, sofas, sideboards, tall boys, writing desks, hi-fi & electronic cabinets, all too often we try and squeeze far too many pieces into our rooms.

Remember, home buyers are buying space so make sure that they can see it.

Avoid lining all your furniture up around the walls of your living room. This will make a room feel small and claustrophobic.

Remove excess side tables, coffee tables, desks, bookcases, sofas and chairs and free up some floor space. resist the temptation to fill up every nook & cranny.

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3. Keep the paths through your room clear.
Can you step into the room and walk to the fireplace, the far windows or the book case? Or is the living room an obstacle course with furniture baring your way?

Ideally every buyer should be able to step into the room and walk to its' centre or beyond.
If the buyer can't get into the room they won't see its' full potential.

4. Clear the clutter and depersonalise the room.
When we live in a property for any time we begin to make it our own. Everyone will automatically personalise their space by adding pictures of their family, friends or even pets, special personal mementos and collections and even funny pictures, rhymes and collections that we treasure or find amusing.

When selling you are striving to attract the homes 'new' owner. Those new owners will have ideas of their own. Their own family, their own mementos and their own view of humor.
The last thing you want is to distract your potential buyers with your personality.

Worse you don't want to offend them or put them off your property because they think your taste in art is lacking.

Try to remove very personal statements like strong sexual images, overpowering collections, too many personal images like clusters of family photos.

Depersonalising a room does not mean striping it of its' character ... just removing 'your' character.

5. Bright & Light
Living rooms are very often multi purpose rooms used throughout the day. Make sure that you maximise the use of light in it.

Clean all the windows thoroughly. Pull back the curtains and fully raise the blinds to maximise the amount of natural daylight that gets in. If you have nets then consider removing them as they are dated and block out natural light.

Even on bright days I like to introduce some soft lighting into the darker corners of a living room. Use table or floor lamps to create a warm cosy spot near a reading chair.

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6. Focal points.
Every room should have a 'Focal Point'. In the living room this could be the fireplace and chimney breast, the bay window or perhaps the centrally arranged furniture.

What ever is the strongest, most attractive feature of the room, make it a focal point.

If it's the fireplace then in winter consider have a lighted fire burning during viewings, dress the mantelpiece with some attractive objects and use an attractive art piece on the chimney breast.

If the window or view from the window is your main focal point, make sure that it is perfectly framed with the curtains.

If it is the centrally arranged seating, make sure that it says 'come and sit down, and rest'.

7. As good as new.
I don't advocate completely remodeling your living rooms, you are trying to sell your home at a profit after all, however it is a false economy to ignore anything that has worn out.

Before tossing things out however could you:

Buy new slip covers to give a new lease of life to chairs and sofas?
Use throws to liven up tired old sofas?
Have a foam merchant replace the sofa seat filling if it's sagging?
Buy new cushion pads to give a fresh plump appearance to the cushions?
Wash and dye the curtains?
Buy a new rug to give the floor a new spin?
Steam clean the sofas & carpets?

Carpets, curtains and sofas are all expensive to replace but if they really have come to the end of their useful life and are letting the side down... consider buying new.

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8. Add dashes of colour.
Use some creativity and add colour using your accessories, cushions, art and throws.

I always recommend that you have a colour theme running through your property so make sure that you are using those colours to full effect in the living room.

I always advise that the background colours are neutral, walls, floors and large pieces of furniture, however add excitement in the use of vases, cushions, throws and art. These items can be moved about to alter the mood of any room and if you get a colour wrong, they aren't expensive to change.

9. TVs
This item of technology gets a special mention as it will appear in virtually every living room that I ever stage.

Of course these days TVs don't come alone, DVD players, play stations, joysticks, wires and remote controls are never far away. Although virtually essential pieces of equipment, they are not the most attractive.

However in many homes I visit they end up being the 'Focal Point' of the living room.
When staging your home to sell, try to reposition the technology so that it isn't the first thing that viewers see when they enter the room.

Avoid orienting the furniture towards the Tv etc, even if this means moving furniture for the viewing s then moving it back again when you are relaxing in the evening.

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10. Clean, Clean, Clean
Though you will never hear me not say this... make sure your living room looks and smells clean and fresh.

Air the room on a daily basis, leave the window slightly open if it's safe to.

Pets have their own personal smells so when selling I always recommend that pets baskets etc are relocated to another room in the home.

Remember that fabrics hold odors so it's well worth considering steam cleaning the carpets and upholstery and carefully vacuuming or even dry cleaning the curtains, blinds and drapes.
All your soft furnishings will look better for a quick valet and clean.

Of course you love your living room, but do everything you can to ensure that your potential buyers fall in love with it too.

Need some more help with your living rooms?

For more advice on how to tackle and stage every room in your home take a look at The Property Coach™ Home Staging Handbook