The Psychology of Staging
Tenants and buyers are looking for fresh, modern spaces. Even if their own decor isn’t that, it doesn’t matter. If you’re going to use your own furniture, make sure it’s new-ish. ie: don’t put your giant 4-poster oak bed in the bedroom with all of the matching furniture. Don’t grab all of the old musty stuff from your basement because you’re not doing yourself any favours.
Virtual staging has exploded as of late. It’s also an excellent option for rentals. You pay a flat rate per room for them to stage it and they can turn it around usually in 24 hours. Where prospective tenants might read in a listing “1 bedroom + den”, they might think, oh it’s a 2 bedroom. but if you decorate the den as a home office or walk-in closet or little TV room, that’s where the psychology comes in. They can see that the room no room for a bed because you’ve furnished it a certain way.
DIY Staging Hacks
1. Instead of renting a bed or going to the effort of disassembling your own, DIY it! Beds are usually 25-28″ from the floor to the top of the mattress. Use cardboard boxes, milk crates or sturdy storage boxes as your base that are 10-12″ high. Throw a bed skirt over top. You won’t need a box spring if your airbed is 15-18″ deep. If you don’t have an airbed, borrow one from a friend! For a Queen Size bed, use a King Size fitted sheet and a King Size duvet to make the bed look great from all angles. Decorate with pillows and your done! You can “fake” a headboard with a piece of art. To get the right scale, make sure it’s at least 2/3 of the width of your bed ie: a Queen Size bed is 60″ wide, so find a piece of art that’s around 40″ wide.
2. Easy DIY art with removable hooks. Use items you already have to create one-of-a-kind art pieces. For unframed pieces, use inexpensive washi tape to attach art to the walls. Washi tape works well because it’s decorative and doesn’t damage walls. Get creative with the pattern like creating double edges, arrows, angles, etc.
– Use removable hooks [like 3M Command Hooks] so that when you undress the space, you aren’t having to touch up the walls too. Less work for you!
3. Touch up damaged floors & furniture with various wax pens & markers. Find anything a prospective buyer or renter could see as concerning and fix it. If they see something broken, damaged or in disrepair they will assume that other things are broken too and may walk away.