{"id":19305,"date":"2024-11-21T04:00:38","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=19305"},"modified":"2026-04-15T09:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:36:55","slug":"styling-tips-for-selling-your-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/styling-tips-for-selling-your-home\/","title":{"rendered":"17 Styling Tips for Selling Your Home With Just the Right Amount of Flair"},"content":{"rendered":"

The art of styling a home for sale is vastly different from styling a home for personal living. Your design must appeal to the tastes of hundreds of prospective buyers, photograph like a show home, and be totally absent of personal photographs. Sellers who get this challenge right win the ultimate prize: a faster, higher priced sale.<\/p>\n

In HomeLight\u2019s recent nationwide Top Agent Insights Report, agents said a staged home can sell for up to 13% more than an unstaged home<\/a>. Using a median home price of $400,000, top agents estimate that \u2014 if well staged \u2014 the home could sell for as much as $52,000 more, depending on its location and market conditions.<\/p>\n

We spoke with HomeLight Elite Agent Sarah Leonard<\/a>, an expert who sells homes 52% quicker than the average agent in Schaumburg, Illinois, and two professional stagers at the top of their game to create a list of the best tips and tricks to style every surface.<\/p>\n

Here are the styling tips you need to know for selling your home:<\/p>\n

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<\/a> Source: (Clarity Northwest Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Start with these guiding principles<\/h2>\n

Before you hit up HomeGoods, kick off the staging process by decluttering<\/a>, depersonalizing<\/a>, and deep cleaning<\/a> your whole house. Faced with a far cleaner canvas to style, commit to these four guiding principles:<\/p>\n

1. Style for your buyer, not for yourself<\/h3>\n

The style and accessories you choose to style your home with should reflect your target buyer, not your personal tastes. Lance recommends leaning into your agent for advice on what styles will resonate with your home\u2019s buyer pool:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want people to feel your home is relatable as they\u2019re coming into your house. It\u2019s not necessarily price point, but who’s our target demographic. So if it\u2019s a ranch home, a single story, maybe it’s someone downsizing . . . It’s just knowing the demographic of who your target buyer is and playing off of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Play up your architectural style, but don\u2019t be overly thematic<\/h3>\n

Show off your home\u2019s architecture with complementary furniture and decor pieces \u2014 just don\u2019t go overboard. Justin M. Riordan, founder of Spade & Archer Design Agency<\/a> who stages homes of all architectural styles in Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle advises:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your house is a mid-century modern, you’re not going to design the entire thing with only mid-century modern furniture because nobody lives like this. You\u2019re creating a museum if you do that. And so, you want to have an eclectic mix of furniture with a few nods that leans slightly towards mid-century modern<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Never fake it with artificial food and decor items<\/h3>\n

Fakery distracts buyers from your home\u2019s real features, fostering skepticism in their psyche. Riordan urges sellers to avoid fake props, artificial food, and flowers at all costs. No substituting real mattresses with blowup ones no matter how seemingly stealth they may appear. No stale biscotti and empty mug in the living room. And please, absolutely no champagne glasses by the bathtub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Find an Agent Who Can Help You Stage Your Home<\/h3>\n

An experienced agent will understand the value of staging, provide DIY tips, and refer you to the best staging experts in your market. HomeLight can connect you with a top-performing agent near you.<\/p>\n \n

\n Find an Agent<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Dial in your walls to achieve a ‘finished’ look<\/h2>\n

Draw your buyers\u2019 eyes up with these wall styling tips to enhance the appearance of room height.<\/p>\n

4. Skip the wall art to keep buyers\u2019 eyes on the prize<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe always tell people to leave everything off of the walls. In person, decor looks very nice and spruces up a place. However, online which is what everyone uses to start their search, it can really make the room look smaller,\u201d shares Knapp. The less wall decor, the less there is to distract buyers from your home\u2019s assets such as the high ceilings, fireplace, and custom moldings.<\/p>\n

5. Dress the windows with light, floor length curtains<\/h3>\n

If you have the budget, add light, neutral curtains<\/a> to the living room, dining room, and primary bedroom. To elongate the room<\/a>, hang floor length curtains from the curtain rod placed high on the wall, closer to the ceiling than the top of the window frame. Color wise, Killy Scheer, principal interior designer and founder of Scheer & Co.<\/a>, recommends sticking to white: \u201cLighter tends to sell better. People feel like it opens the room up and allows more light in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> Source: (Scheer & Co.<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Style open shelving with rhythm and repetition<\/h2>\n

Stage shelves and built-ins like a pro with these fool-proof tricks:<\/p>\n

6. Organize books by size and color<\/h3>\n

Your personal library clutters your bookcases and open shelving units. Slim down your collection by taking out all paperbacks and removing dust jackets from your hardbacks. Group the remaining books by color, then organize each shelf by height (tallest to shortest or tallest in the middle to shortest on the outsides).<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have a shelving unit with say 15 shelves on it, instead of having 350 different, little, tiny blocks of color, we\u2019ll end up with 15 blocks of color in the photograph,\u201d shares Riordan. \u201cIt would drive any librarian crazy to know that we\u2019re organizing books by colors, but that\u2019s really our big push to calm those bookshelves down visually.\u201d<\/p>\n

7. Repeat the same object on every shelf<\/h3>\n

For a simple, harmonious display, choose one type of decor item to repeat across every shelf. Riordan shares that Spade and Archer\u2019s signature bookshelf display includes a set of unique typewriters or cameras. A repetitive design adds just enough interest in-person and looks amazing in listing photos. You can get the look by purchasing a selection of different shaped vases of the same color from World Market<\/a>, IKEA<\/a>, or second-hand shops.<\/p>\n

8. Accessorize to scale following the 2\/3 rule<\/h3>\n

Scale wise, decorate your shelving units with objects that fill two-thirds of the space. This goldilocks proportion creates a balanced design that\u2019s not too full or too empty.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> Source: (Scheer & Co.<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Decorate surfaces fit for a design book<\/h2>\n

Add life to empty tables with visually pleasing decor that photographs beautifully.<\/p>\n

9. Perfect a stack of books with a topper<\/h3>\n

When styling your home for selling, books are your friend<\/a>. Stack a short pile of hardback books or coffee table books<\/a> neatly on surfaces like your coffee table, entry table, nightstands, and side tables. Then, polish the look with a book topper as Riordan describes,<\/p>\n

\u201cSay we\u2019re styling the coffee table, we might have a stack of books and it will have a book topper which is a small accessory, like a carving of a lion or a gold spray painted dinosaur. It\u2019s something that sits on top of the books and sort of crowns it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curios like a magnifying glass<\/a>, an animal statuette<\/a>, or an abstract object<\/a> make for perfect book toppers.<\/p>\n

10. Style an accessory trifecta<\/h3>\n

When you need larger objects for prominent display areas such as the entry table or fireplace surround, employ a \u201ctrifecta\u201d of three similar objects in the same color shade range at varying heights. A trifecta helps fill empty spaces, without stealing buyers\u2019 attention away from the house. Customize your own set or purchase a pre-arranged group like this Aurora Rainbow 3 Piece Table Vase Set<\/a> from Wayfair or this Tasia Wood 3-piece ball set<\/a>\u00a0from Joss & Main.<\/p>\n

11. Set the dining table like you\u2019re setting the dining table<\/h3>\n

Instead of setting the dining room table for a special meal, style the table as if you\u2019re still setting it. Leave a stack of plates and a grouping of wine glasses in a cluster. This helps fill the table, without creating an overly formal scene. For the centerpiece, choose taller decor items to draw the eye up such as a trio of candle sticks<\/a> or a decorative vase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

12. Decorate with chic toys to entertain buyers\u2019 kids<\/h3>\n

One surprising styling tip from Riordan: Incorporate toys in your staging to entertain buyers\u2019 little ones during the showing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the parents are having this great time spending this 10, 15, 20 minutes inside the house looking around, the kids are bored out of their gourds and they are whining and crying and pulling on their parents\u2019 sleeves. And the parents cannot really give the emotional energy to the house that they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a few ways to stage toys to keep the whole family happy:<\/p>\n