Selling your home: 6 style mistakes to avoid in the living room

When you’re selling a home, the living room is where potential buyers imagine themselves unwinding each night.

So if your space is more ‘get out’ than chill out, you have some serious work to do before your open home occurs. Here are six key mistakes to avoid.

1. None of the furniture matches

You’ve collected different pieces of furniture over the years, which I’m all for, but potential buyers want to be wowed by a living room with a cohesive style. Give them a coastal vibe; give them a Scandinavian feel. Make sure the overall look is on-trend with designs you’re seeing in magazines and on blogs right now. Go for larger pieces of furniture, like sofas and armchairs in neutral colours, and then bring in decor in softer tones like blues and greens to put on top.

2. The layout works for you, but not a potential buyer

It’s so common that, over the years, we lay out the furniture in our living room to suit ourselves. It makes perfect sense. But so often, it doesn’t create the illusion of space and size for a potential buyer. Consider removing the sectional sofa that seats 45 people and bring in a two-seater sofa and armchair. You really do want people to walk in and feel wowed by how large the room appears. If it’s a family home for four people, choose furniture that seats four.

3. The TV is the focal point in the room

A lot of property stylists will remove TVs from living rooms when they stage homes for sale. This is because that big black box can be an eyesore to a potential buyer. Sure, we all watch the tele, but a potential buyer might not enjoy seeing the 85-inch TV and subwoofer hanging from the wall as soon as they walk into your living room. Less is more when it comes to electronics.

4. Pet beds, scratch poles and fur are everywhere

We love our fur babies, don’t we? But guess who doesn’t love our fur babies? The person buying the house! Nothing scares people out of your living room and into their cars to burn rubber quite like a guinea pig cage, the smell of cat litter, or dog fur covering every piece of furniture in your living room. You simply have to remove all evidence that pets currently live in the space. It’s too risky when you’re selling.

5. You went cheap with all of your decorative touches

The idea when selling is to make your home feel aspirational. When it’s styled right, people want to out-bid each other and front up the big bucks because you’ve sold them on a fantasy. What ruins that fantasy is styling the home with cheap items that the potential buyer already has in their own home. This is one scenario where I’d definitely avoid going to budget chain stores for accessories.

6. Your family photos haven’t been pulled off the walls

You know what one universal truth binds all hoarders together? They don’t realise they’re hoarders! I’m not saying that you are one, but it’s so hard to be objective with your memories and keepsakes. This is a situation in which a property stylist can really help. They don’t know you or your memories, and can, with no bias, tell you which things have to be put in storage, and which things can stay.

SOURCE: www.realestate.com.au