Today, I’m excited to pick back up on a series I started over the summer, showing how we staged our previous house to sell. It was a major undertaking with three small children and having to live in it at the same time, but we did it on our own and for minimal cost.
Once we got the house listed, we had six showings the first day and were able to sell it for above list price in less than 24 hours. It really came down to decluttering and staging to make that possible, since we did not live in a particularly “hot” market area.
I started this series with our home office, and have several more rooms I can’t wait to share! Today, is all about our tiny master bedroom.
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We lived in this 1300 square foot, two bedroom home for seven years but outgrew it with the birth of our third child. It was built in the 1930’s and had many quirks to it. These things could have been major detractors for some buyers, so we worked hard to bring out the best in our little place. I wanted to accentuate its character and charm.
Before getting our house on the market, we secured a storage garage to keep a lot of our belongings in until it was time to move. This was key! Having a cluttered home would have only shown buyers what the house lacked instead of all of the potential it had.
Here is how this room looked when we first moved in during the fall of 2010:
The upstairs floors were one of our first projects when we moved in. They were covered in old, dingy carpet that we removed immediately. Then we discovered the pine floors underneath were in rough shape, so we painted them a pale gray.
Bedroom floors BEFORE:
When it was time to sell, I cleaned them with
Mop n’ Glow till they were as sparkling as possible. That also gave the whole house a fresh clean smell which buyers definitely love.
Here is how the room looked BEFORE decluttering and staging (see more in
this post):
We took out all of the items that were not major essentials, donated a lot of belongings and cleaned like crazy. Ever window, every door, the baseboards, the floors, the walls, everything was thoroughly cleaned.
Then I went back through and staged each space. For the bedroom I removed as much of our clothes as I could and replaced a large dresser for a smaller one that we had stored in the basement. It wasn’t in perfect shape, but it worked, and made the room feel less cramped.
I kept the decor simple with a batik table runner, vase of dried flowers, some baskets (that held more essentials and jewelry that I wore often). I knew from reading various articles about staging a house to sell, that things shouldn’t be personal. I removed those items, so buyers could picture their own belongings in the space.
Violet had outgrown
her rattan bassinet at that point, so I bought a
travel sized Pack n’ Play that worked out well. It was just the right size for the space. I kept with the baby theme near the bassinet with her baby book propped up and a mother and child statue.
The bedding was also kept simple with a white chenille bedspread and one kilim lumbar accent pillow. The matching lamps were the only items on the nightstands when the house was shown and all essentials were tucked inside the drawers.
Since one of the major problems with our home was the amount of closet space and storage, I combated that by cleaning out my closet of clothes that I no longer wore or no longer wanted. All of those items were donated or thrown away and then I packed up all out of season clothes and ones that I knew I was not likely to need while we had the house for sale. They were packed up and put away in our storage garage.
I reduced the amount of clothes in my closet by more than half and then organized them by color, with neutrals in the front. The closet definitely looked larger after wards and showed off the charm of the old wallpaper inside.
I didn’t buy anything new to stage this room other than the crib which we needed anyways. The majority of the staging for this space was done simply by removing as much as we possibly could to show off the room at its best. A few simple decorative touches, freshly laundered bedding and a thorough cleaning from top to bottom was all the space required to get it show ready!
I hope you enjoyed this post and will come back for more in this series. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a post!
Source List:
Breely Crystal Light Fixture // Lowe’s
Angelo Queen Headboard – Pearl // Raymour & Flanigan
Honeycomb Dreams Table Lamps // Raymour & Flanigan
Savannah White Chenille Bedspread – (king size on a queen size bed) // Amazon
Lumbar Kilim Pillow // Kilim Pillow Store
Threshold Sheet Set & Pillowcases – Pattern: Neutral // Target
Hampton Baby Bamboo Shades // Home Depot
Batik Indigo Table Runner // LuvTextiles | Etsy
Till next time…
~Alice W.
One Comment
NanaDiana
Good job, Alice. I have been staging homes for people for years and it makes all the difference in a quick sale or a house that languishes on the market. Everything you did looks great and worked to show your home off to its best advantage. xo Diana