An accent chair with personality is one of my favourite living room staging furniture pieces. If you’re listing a vacant property, it’s a no-brainer that staging furniture rental should include a great accent chair. But renting an accent chair for staging can also be a great way to create impact in a furnished listing.
 

This colourful photo on Pinterest inspired me to write about the power of accent chairs in staging a property to sell. After all, people can get a little hesitant about using bold furniture. Here are three ways to use accent chairs to your advantage in living room staging:

Pattern, Colour, Personality:

Keeping walls and larger furniture pieces fairly neutral and unobtrusive works well in staging. But you don’t want your staged listing to be void of any personality. The accent chair is a perfect way to add a pop of colour, pattern, and personality which can be further reinforced through staging accessories.
 

Traffic Flow:

Accent chairs can help to visually separate a larger, open concept space by creating a barrier which also serves to direct traffic flow (and show more seating area without making the room feel small). It’s a great way to create an experience for the potential buyer as they walk through the space.

Focal point:

It may be unconscious, but when you see a chair facing in a certain direction, you are drawn to look in that direction. Maybe it’s curiosity. Use an accent chair to encourage potential buyers to notice the focal point you are highlighting if they were to sit in that chair.
 

An accent chair can be a great tool in living room staging and is a perfect choice for your next staging furniture rental. Give one a try.
 

For more inspiration and home staging tips, take a look at Set Your Stage on Pinterest.
 

When my work as a professional home stager in Calgary is done and the real estate photos have been taken, my clients have to prepare for the next step; to be open house ready. I love keeping things simple, so this tip I found on Pinterest quickly got pinned to my board!
 

Let’s face it. Especially when you live in the house while it’s listed for sale, having the place open house ready can be stressful. Most of us have enough going on without the added last minute stress of remembering where everything is and what we need to do to prepare so potential buyers get the best first impression of the home.
 

Our daily lives can be busy, messy, stressful, unorganized, cluttered. Sometimes we don’t get laundry done when we planned. Stuff happens. Obviously that’s not the impression you want to leave of your property.
 

That’s why I love the idea of an open house box.
 

It helps you quickly get open house ready by having everything you need, organized in advance, in one handy box (with a lid). The box itself doesn’t have to be fancy. Keep it tucked in a closet and ready to go for when you need it.
 

Suggested items to include in your open house box:
 

• Staging checklist for private showings/open house day;
• Cleaners, natural air freshener, etc. for the last minute wipe downs;
• Clean, new looking white towels for the bathrooms;
• Clean, new looking bedding or throw blankets & pillows for the bedrooms;
• A plastic bag to keep damp items separate;
• Any staging accessories that your stager arranged for you but that you don’t leave displayed in your daily life;
• Any real estate documents that will be left out during the showing.

By thinking this out and organizing your box in advance, you can quickly be open house ready (or ready for short-notice showings) quickly and without much added stress. Simple.
 

For more staging inspiration, check out the various boards we have at Set Your Stage on Pinterest.
 

For such a small room (comparatively speaking), this one space raises a lot of questions when it’s time to sell. Here are my tips for how to stage a bathroom in a way that helps to sell your home.
 

Think about it. More than for its utilitarian purposes, a bathroom is one key space where you start and end your day. So when a potential buyer views your listing online or walks through for a personal showing, you want to stage for their desired experience.
 

How does your potential buyer want to use the space? How do they want to feel in the space?
 

The guest bathroom:
Stage this room to feel welcoming for guests by adding a few special touches for comfort in a vignette with a mini vase of flowers, a few individual sized natural soaps displayed in a glass bowl, and a small piece of art that feels nurturing. Add plush white towels, a new face cloth and a nubbly rug for added softness.
 

The family bathroom:
This room is about efficiency. Imagine how the potential buyer’s ideal getting-out-the-door-on-time in the morning and end of day bed-time routines can be presented for more ease. Highlight family-friendly features like storage, bathtubs, and counter space.
 

The Master bathroom:
This room is about retreat and re-balancing. Think spa. Ambiance. A touch of luxe in textiles and finishings. Highlights of sea tones are popular in an otherwise monotone space.
 

Stage a bathroom to help sell your home by keeping your potential buyer’s lifestyle needs and desires in mind. Don’t flush money down the toilet by avoiding these smaller, but important, spaces.
 

For more inspiration on how to stage a bathroom to sell, check out Set Your Stage’s “Bathrooms after Home Staging” board on Pinterest.
 

A lot of people love using essential oils for wellness. But have you considered using them as a tool for selling your house? Here are three tips for how you can strategically use essential oils for home staging.
 

Personally, my preference is for homes to smell clean and fresh versus scented. That includes using plants to clean your indoor air and other more natural solutions to address odours.
 

But if you are going to use scented products before your next open house, you might as well switch to essential oils. Keep in mind though, different people have different scent preferences, tolerances, and personal memories attached to certain scents. Proceed with that in mind and choose a “less is more” approach.
 

Inspired by this infographic on Pinterest, here’s how you can use essential oils for home staging:
 

For Cleaning:
Tea tree and eucalyptus oils might be great for disinfecting, but they’re not ideal scents to use when staging your home. Instead, use a few drops of lemon or orange essential oil on a wet cloth to clean solid surfaces or add a scented cotton ball to your vacuum bag before you do that last minute tidy for your next open house.
 

In the Bedroom:

Ideal for stress reduction and relaxation, try a chamomile and lavender blend. Add a few drops to a spray bottle with water. Shake and spray onto rugs and linens.
 

Inside Entrance:

Promote a positive feeling of happiness when potential buyers take their first step indoors. Stick with citrus and or something soothing like my favourite Young Living scents Peace & Calming or Stress Away? Just don’t overpower them!
 

Scent marketing is big business. Using essential oils for home staging is certainly something to consider.
 

For more staging inspiration, check out the various boards we have at Set Your Stage on Pinterest.