BEST STAGING TIP:
“You want to create a space that breathes and has light so that when you leave the room, you feel energized. After a showing, I always ask buyers, ‘How do you feel?’ If they don’t have a feeling of energy, it’s not the house for them.”
SPENT:
$0. Williams used materials she already had.
PROBLEMS . . .
The office was cramped because of the position of the desk and the bookshelf behind it. The small room’s space didn’t flow, and floor space wasn’t maximized.
SOLUTIONS . . .
Williams opened up the room and emphasized the French doors leading to the patio, while keeping the room functional for the owner. Her techniques:
- Angle the desk toward the patio doors and place a bouquet of red roses at the corner of the desk to draw buyers’ eyes into the room and toward the patio. “These techniques engage them and point the way,” Williams says. “The angle of the desk creates openness and [entices the buyers] to want to see more of the room. Without an angled desk, all they see from the doorway is a wall,” she says.
- Create more floor space by backing up the sofa to the wall and removing the exercise bike.
- Move the bookshelf from behind the desk to a closet, where the home owner can continue to access her materials. “Always ask the home owner what you can’t touch,” she says.
- Add light by replacing the dark abstract wall print over the couch with a mirror.
- Complement red accents in the room and create balance with two identical red sofa pillows, replacing two mismatched ones.
- Brighten the black coffee table with a bouquet of white roses.
OTHER POSSIBILITIES . . .
“Had it been a different season, I would have added potted plants outside the French doors to draw buyers’ attention there,” Williams says. In addition, she might have hung a cluster of four red-matted art pieces in a row to make the room appear longer. Professional stagers Kala Callahan and Lori Matzke suggest Williams might have swapped the positions of the desk and couch to downplay the room’s utilitarian use. “You want buyers to see a relaxed living space from the doorway,” says Matzke, who says she would also have warmed up the paint in the room with an off-white.