What is Home Staging?

Most homeowners are only given one opportunity to make a great first impression with potential buyers and with the development of technology, buyers are able to see every square meter of your home with just a click of a button. This leaves us asking, is your property up to the challenge of attracting and persuading those buyers to buy or does it need more?

One of the most effective ways of standing out from the competition is via professional home staging. The meaning of home staging refers to the process of preparing your home for sale through the strategic use of furniture and decorations to effectively appeal to buyers. The primary goal of home staging and styling your home is to best showcase your property’s existing features, floor plan and inevitably the lifestyle the buyers will enjoy in your home.

Now that you're aware of the definition of home staging, we’re sure you will notice the concept a lot more when looking at different properties for sale. We’ve taken the opportunity to put together a definitive home staging guide that will take you through the home staging basics, as well as a thorough guide to implementing home staging and styling practices into your own home for sale. So, without further ado, let’s get into it!

The Basics of Home Staging

At Perth Style Company, our approach to home staging and styling is always with a fresh, modern outlook in aid of appealing to the widest range of prospective buyers. As professionals in the home staging industry, we utilise our extensive property experience and industry knowledge to look at any home with an objective eye, comparing it to similar properties on the market in your suburb. What is your property competing against? How can we elevate it’s presentation to draw in a crowd?

We encourage our homeowners to start by looking at their property through the eyes of a buyer. What is standing out to you? Maybe it’s that teal coloured wall or your most recent family portrait hanging above the fireplace. Strip back personal touches and ensure your home is as clean and neutral as possible. This will help ensure the property is super attractive to visitors, making it look lighter and brighter which is something, as humans, we really respond to.

Our professional Perth staging team readily work with your appointed real estate agent to develop a thorough understanding of their strategy, before outlining the different styling objectives of the property and strategising to optimise your home’s charm.

Approaching installation, each of our projects is coordinated, delivered and styled by our experienced team of home stylists and logistics crew who begin physically packing for the property no later than 24-hours in advance. This ensures we can allocate the entire day to installing our furniture hire at the home, if required, and should there be any hiccups that occur throughout the day, we have plenty of time to resolve without impacting on the overarching sales timeline.

Upon completion, our finished product is of excellent standard – picture perfect and ready to be shot by the professional photographer for the marketing campaign. We encourage the homeowner to schedule their photoshoot for either the evening of installation day or the following day to minimise any wasted days of hire. Time is money after-all!

Home Staging Styles + Types

When it comes to home staging in Australia it can be a difficult task to match an interior design style to each property when there is such a vast array of property types on offer.

More often than not, each home staging supplier will have their own unique style and therefore a collection of furniture, artwork and decorative pieces that supports that theme. This helps home staging suppliers in differentiating their products from their competitors, whilst being able to put their own unique design spin on each property.

For example, at Perth Style Co. we have spent years developing our signature style and, as such, property sellers are often attracted to our collection of furniture and homewares. We have differentiated ourselves within the local Perth home staging market by utilising our furniture as a way of adding a luxurious and modern twist to each home we style. Whilst this gives a beautiful finish to the home, it also assists in adding value to the home through engaging buyer emotion.

Styles Types - Luxury

When it comes to luxury home staging, there are a number of different ways you can achieve a look of elegance, class and sophistication no matter the size and style of your home.

Some of our favourite techniques include;

Adding touches of high-end materials

Where possible, opt for high-end materials like leather, marble, gold, crystal and stone. These finishes help to give a luxe finish to furniture and decorative items which will provide an overall luxurious look.

Using large scale art

If you find an art piece that you love, our advice is go big or go home! Oversized artwork helps to make a big impact, giving a high end and important feeling to any space, whilst still feeling calm and streamlined.

Use lots of metallic finishes and glass

Metallic finishes are necessary when trying to nail a luxurious look and you’ll be surprised how a little glitz can make such a huge impact! Try a styled vignette of metallic decor pieces like a mirrored tray, brass vase and scented candle to bounce the light around and keep the space looking extra luxe.

Embrace fresh florals or greenery

Nothing says 5-star luxury like a fresh arrangement in a tall vase. Either opt for some cuttings from your flourishing backyard or, if you’re feeling extra special, order a professional bouquet from your local florist and support small business.

Styles Types > Modern

If you want a modern home staging look, it’s best to opt for clean, crisp lines and a simple colour palette where possible.

Some of our go-to tricks are;

Use materials with reflective surfaces.

In order to nail that modern look, it is all about those reflective surfaces! Opt for materials such as metal, steel and glass wherever possible and you’ll have a sleek, sophisticated space in no time.

Keep decor items to a complete minimum.

It might be hard to resist the temptation, but for a modern staged look it's important to keep a minimalist approach to styling. Ditch those decorative knick-knacks and instead, turn to artwork as the main decor pieces.

Resist the use of colour at all costs!

Fight the urge to use colour if you’re striving for a modern home staging look. Instead, choose an earthy or neutral colour palette that will keep the space looking understated and fresh.

Home Staging by Room

Bathroom

When it comes to home staging for bathrooms, our number one tip is to ensure the area is sparkling clean - and by that, we mean SPARKLING! No potential buyers want to envisage the kind of things that naturally happen in bathrooms, and that only occurs when they spy signs of life.

Start by decluttering and stripping absolutely all bathroom surfaces down to the bare minimum. Next, we suggest packing away all of your products when staging a bathroom, leaving behind just a stylish hand soap and towel set in sight. Lastly, consider adding a sweet scent or smell like a beautiful candle, diffuser or room spray when staging your bathroom. This will help transcend an aromatic scent throughout the home, helping it feel fresh and full of life.

Bedroom

When we talk about home staging for bedrooms, it’s also extremely important that all bedrooms are completely spotless. As a place of slumber, bedrooms need to give a relaxing, fresh and clean feeling to potential buyers or they simply won’t be interested!

When staging a bedroom, remove all personal items from sight so buyers can start to image themselves living within the room. Then dress your bed with a fresh set of linen, preferably in white, to give a clean, crips feeling. Add a couple of decorative cushions, a throw and some artwork for a touch of colour and style.

Kitchen

Home staging for kitchens is very similar to bathrooms and bedrooms in that the area needs to be extremely clean. Then, strip all surfaces back completely so potential buyers can really see the size of the kitchen, the bench-top space and storage options available. You can always complete the kitchen with a thoughtful vignette of home staging accessories like a chopping board, your go-to cookbook and a set of salt and pepper shakers.

Our Home Staging Tips and Tricks

After years in the industry, we have come up with our very best home staging tips and tricks which will be sure to assist you in presenting your home like a true professional!

To start, we encourage you to do your research! Your agent will have explained your property’s market value based on the credentials of the land size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, along with the other notable features. It is important you do some research yourself and have a look online to see the other houses for sale in your area. This is your direct competition, the same buyers will be looking at these homes also. How are these homes presented? How does yours measure up in comparison?

Our next tip for home staging is to play to your property’s strengths. Write a list outlining what is good about your home, what are the main stand out features? Once you can harness your market research and apply it to your home, highlighting the benefits of your saleable property, then you will be able to prepare your home effectively in showcasing it’s true value.

Next up on our list of top home staging tips and tricks is to declutter and depersonalise. Take a good look around your home to identify excess rubbish, mess or clutter. Remove the first layer of ‘stuff’ from your home. A lot of this ‘stuff’ is general domestic bits and pieces but clearing this away will help you with the next steps. May I prompt you to order a skip bin at this point if you need to. Don’t be embarrassed, if you have lived in the home for a long period this is totally normal to have accumulated a lot of ‘stuff’ over the years and it can be very therapeutic to sort through it all.

Finally, when presenting your home for sale, our last home staging tip is to take a minimalist approach. To us, a minimalist approach means decluttering the home to a point that it is not too sterile but a perfect balance of cozy. Right now, people tend to be taking a minimum approach to living which is reported to be exceptionally good for our mental health. The idea around a minimalistic approach in your home is mostly centered around bulky furniture and decor.

Our top rules for minimalism are:

Strip each room down to the core furniture and, typically, no more than three decorative items on a surface.
Use plain neutral linen and soft furnishings.
Keep Artwork on the larger scale. Limit one per room.

Prefer to leave it to the professionals? Get in touch with our team today.

Home Staging in Australia: A Definitive Guide by Us!