Are you giving buyers a sleepless night with these bedroom staging mistakes?

No-one has an Instagram-worthy bedroom every minute of every day. Our lives are busy, and there are inevitably times where your bedrooms are perfect and others where they are very much less than! We are all human, and often we keep things that we should have got rid of years ago, especially when it comes to our wardrobes. When it comes to preparing your home for sale, it is essential to think about home staging. Did you know that staging your property can often add between 5% and 8% to the sale price? The team at Miller Town & Country have come together to share the top bedroom staging mistakes we have witnessed in Tavistock and Okehampton so that you can address them and ensure that potential buyers only have sweet dreams about your home.

A chaos of clothes and shoes

Even after a good tidy up, over the coming days bedrooms quickly fill up with the inevitable clutter of clothes, shoes and bags. Rooms filled with trainer boxes, wardrobes bursting at the seams, drawers unable to close properly and dressing-up boxes overflowing with wonderful characters. If you have built-in wardrobes, we can guarantee a buyer will want to look inside to see what space they offer internally. What they don’t want to be met with is a disaster zone.

A visual lack of space will make buyers wonder whether there is a lack of storage in the property, when in reality, it could simply be that you need to work on saying goodbye to things that have fallen out of use and doing a better job organizing of the things you hold on to. There are segmented shelf or drawer organizers like this one readily available online for folded items, which are fantastic for not only controlling the clutter, but making finding your things a breeze when rushing to get ready.

For those things that you can’t bear to part with, slimming down your wardrobe and drawers by placing things you may not be wearing for the next couple of months in storage can make a big impact on how buyers perceive the storage of your home.

Forgetting about lighting

Lighting can transform any room, and you want your bedroom to be warm and welcoming, with a feeling of calm and serenity. You may need to enhance your rooms’ existing lighting with a couple of extra pieces just to ensure there aren’t any dark corners. A mixture of lighting is best: ambient lighting provides the main illumination for the room and should be accented with lights such as table, floor or wall lamps. If needed, you could also add some directional task lighting, as this is ideal for areas such as over a dressing table or a reading chair.

Ignoring artwork

We often find personal photography or artwork in bedrooms, and we know that you wish to be surrounded by those you love. But the more that bedrooms are personalised to you and your family, the less the buyers are able to see themselves relaxing there. This doesn’t mean that a bedroom should be artwork free; a large painting or print that complements the colours in your room will pull your bedroom together beautifully.

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t keep a couple of family photos around, just make sure that popping them in a drawer is on your pre-viewing prep checklist.

Not staging the bed

The bed is the focal point for any bedroom. It is where buyers’ eyes will first wander and is what will be initially judged. Beds should look luxurious yet simple – you don’t want anything too fussy or overbearing. Beds should feel cosy and invite the buyer to test drive – not that they will!

It may seem obvious, but the number one rule when staging the bedroom? Make the bed!! Which means no rumpled duvet, no mattress showing where the fitted sheet doesn’t quite fit, and no slightly faded bedspread. Those extra couple of minutes to shake out the covers and remove the wrinkles, or (for extra points) throwing a cheap and pristine bedspread which you save just for viewings over the existing bedding could really make a difference.

You’re aiming to create the feel of a luxury hotel – a polished, calm and relaxing space. Plain white bedding or another light neutral shade is an easy way to create an elegant look, accessorised with an accent colour that blends with your room’s colour palette. This accent colour could be used in a bed throw, pillow cases, or additional pillows on your bed. Have a wander around some interior home stores for ideas.

Sweet dreams

Give buyers a bedroom they will dreaming of when they leave your property, and you won’t have sleepless nights wondering when your home will sell. For more advice on how to prepare your home for sale, contact the Miller Town & Country sales specialists on 01822 617243 (Tavistock) or 01837 54080 (Okehampton).