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Home Staging Props for An Easy Update

Essential Home Staging Props for Every Room of the Home

A key part of home staging is modernizing and the most effective way to modernize a space is to add some key staging accessories that help to update each room. Usually the home stager after the walk-and-talk consultation will create this home staging props shopping list for the seller. Better yet, the home stager can simply shop on the seller's behalf to purchase items that will go a LONG WAY in updating the home and attracting that best offer possible.

My Expert E-Designer has curated a 20-page, shopping list of essential home staging props for each home that goes on the market inside the Expert E-Designer HSR Template Library, so if you're one of my Expert E-Design students, go ahead and add it to your account.

We've also added this curated client presentation with shopping links to the home staging course under the Successful Consultations section.

Let's take a look at the essential home staging props room-by-room...

Home Staging Props Every Seller Needs

Every home can benefit from a new door mat, more greenery, mirrors and what I call "staging trays".

The 62 inch circular mirror can work in any home and multiple spaces to add additional light, use over a fireplace, in an entryway or go over a bathroom vanity. At only $60 bucks at Target, this mirror which has over 1000 five star reviews is a steal!

The banana fiber pouf or stool is another extremely versatile item that can add much needed texture to any space for a mere $30 bucks at Ikea.

Essential Kitchen Home Staging Props

Most kitchens lack warmth and personality because they are filled with hard finishes. Never clear every counter and try and sell a bare kitchen! Since the kitchen is a huge selling opportunity for the home seller it becomes even more critical to carefully stage counter vignettes that add texture and warmth.

I personally love the look of layered cutting boards sitting upright on a kitchen counter, a bowl of fresh fruit and brand new woven dish towels. White accessories denote cleanliness, so using white home staging props will help to make the clean connection for buyers. These small, inexpensive additions go a long way in creating a clean, natural atmosphere.

Check out how these simple kitchen home staging props along with paint completely transform this kitchen my sister's staging company, Pacific Home Design in Santa Cruz designed:

BEFORE STAGING

Essential Bedroom Home Staging Props

Bedrooms are so personal, that it can be discomfiting walking into another person's boudoir for a buyer...especially if the bedding is old and tired looking.

Adding white bedding enlarges the space and gives it a fresh, clean feel in any bedroom.

Essential Bathroom Home Staging Props

Bathrooms are similar to bedrooms in that they are intensely personal, so using white and having it immaculate will never scare off buyers. Use a tray to anchor a vignette on the counter. Fresh white, fluffy towels stacked by the tub and greenery gives the space that spa feel.

This luxury white towel set for under $35 bucks is an essential for every bathroom in the home and with over 1300 positive reviews as an Amazon Prime Choice, it's a steal: https://amzn.to/2Af5yCA

Perfect Coffee Table Vignette Home Staging Props

Building beautiful vignettes or what I call "emotional connection points" in each room of the home takes an extreme eye for design.

In our Staging Essentials Client Presentation that we've just added to both the Expert E-Design Training and the Home Staging Certification course, we built a perfect coffee table vignette that is easy for clients to purchase and build on their own.

Home Staging Props for Living Spaces

What room can't benefit from a large jute rug, fresh new pillows, more lighting and fiddle leaf tree?

These simple, yet updated staging accessories are usually the missing piece in a living space. Make sure to go large on the floor rugs, so that every front leg of your furniture touches it. This rug on Overstock is priced right at $200 while the 5 foot fiddle leaf tree with great reviews on Amazon is under $100: https://amzn.to/2ZGZk9k

Etsy is my go-to place for awesome pillows, so have fun exploring various shops for that perfect, pillow combination. This Etsy shop had this luxury set of pillows for sale for only $115 which is a steal for this kind of quality and size.

Even if the home seller is on the tightest of budgets, these many items valued in total at around $2000 will make a $20000 difference in the value of the home.

Buyers are looking for stylish decor and statistically will pay more for homes that have updated decor, so spending a bit on these versatile accessories will be an investment in the sale of the home.

If you're an HSR Member, go ahead and download the full Client Presentation with Shopping Links and add that to your Consultation for your home sellers...cheers!

If the idea of shopping for all these great things to use to help sellers get the best price for their home interests you...then consider becoming a home stager by taking my free course below...

Could “ Home Staging" be a Career for You?

Don’t miss this..!!

7 Key Questions to Ask Yourself
What the Cost is to Starting this Business
Do You Have the Personality for This Industry?
How You Know If You Have the Design Talent?

Watch it Now »

Some More Recent Stories from Home Stagers...

Home Staging Props for An Easy Update

Essential Home Staging Props for Every Room of the HomeA key part of home staging is modernizing and the most effective way

Remote Design and Staging

This April 22nd Virtual Happy Hour video continuing our series on how to pivot your business and do remote design and staging

How Stagers are Staging Virtually

We are in Week 5 of our Virtual Happy Hours where every Wednesday at 3pm, we drink, laugh, learn, inspire and create

Secret to Marketing Your Remote Design Services

In our April 8th, Virtual Happy Hour I gave a detailed presentation PLUS resource links and "copy and paste" scripts on exactly how you

How Stagers Are Pivoting Their Business in a Crisis

In my last Virtual Happy Hour (free Wednesday, learning happy hours I've been doing since this crisis hit that you're welcome to

A-Z Guide on Going Remote with Your Staging Business

In the March 25th Virtual Happy Hour, I did something a bit different and that is I created a one-hour workshop on

Coronavirus Client Email Templates

As promised in my earlier letter providing staging business advice on how to handle Covid-19 (Coronavirus), we held our first "Virtual Happy

Staging Business Advice for Dealing with Covid-19

I've thought long and hard on how to approacheverything we are seeing on the news regarding Covid-19 in a positiveand productive email

Interior Design Mood Boards to Inspire You

I just finished a live webinar on "How to Make Money Doing E-Design for Clients" and the response was AMAZING! If you

Serious Photo Eye Candy and 5 Hot Staging Tips

Part of being a Total Design Freak (TDF) means you love, love, love to see gorgeously staged homes designed to sell...right?:-)In this

This post contains a couple Amazon affiliate links:-)

8 Reasons to Add Holiday Design to Your Staging Business

8 Reasons to Add Holiday Design to Your Business

Are you a holiday junkie like me? If so, then why not add holiday design services to your business?

You may be asking, “Audra, why should I add holiday design services to my business?” Well, here are 8 reasons why expanding your business into holiday design could be good for you along with Christmas trees from my 8 holiday styles so pick your favorite (they can all be found in my Houzz>Holiday Style Ideabook)…

It’s Fun!

If you are one of those people that LOVE the holiday and LOVE designing your home for the holidays, then this service is a no-brainer. Here’s a secret for you…not everyone loves or even likes to decorate their home for the holiday BUT they know they should, so they are your perfect client.

It Fulfills A Need

Is it just me or does it seem like the holiday season gets shorter and shorter every year and I never have enough time to fit it all in? I know I’m not alone and people would love a service that works with them to dial in their holiday home while saving them time. We are in the era of “outsourcing” and now more than ever people are paying others to do the work they don’t have the time for.

It Attracts A Higher-End Clientele and Easily Leads to Much Broader Design Projects

The very nature of holiday design is to save clients time by doing the design for them, so typically the folks who don’t have that kind of time but do have the money are in a higher-end, income bracket. What do this mean for the designer? It means you’ve just created a wonderful referral source for multiple design projects.

It Attracts a Regular Clientele

The beauty of a holiday design service is that those client’s whom you did an excellent job for the previous year, will invariably have you come back every year! You only need to cultivate a handful of client’s to have regular, steady business every year. In fact, a stager friend of mine says that she earns almost 15% of her business yearly on only a few, holiday design client’s that LOVE her.

A Holiday Design Service is a Great Hedge to the Busy, Spring, Staging Season

Sometimes I hear stager’s complain that their staging business really dips during the holidays, so having a steady, holiday design clientele that keeps you busy, year after year, makes perfect sense!

It’s Impossible for People to Be Objective About Their Holiday “Stuff”

Yep, they are emotionally attached to some Christmas decor that really should have gone by the wayside long ago. They wonder why their home doesn’t look very good during the holiday season and many times it’s because of these older, cheaper items they just don’t have the heart to let go of…sound familiar? An expert, fresh set of eyes is such a huge benefit to sorting through home decor and getting the look we really want for our holiday home!

You Save Client’s Money by Re-purposing

Home Stagers and Designers have the uncanny ability to “see” interiors in creative ways and part of that skill-set goes toward Re-purposing items to their best showing. Why pack all of your current decor away before decorating for the holidays when you can easily to the gorgeous decor you already have and “holiday, bling it up!”

Not Hard to Market a Holiday Design Service If You Know How (That’s What My Training Teaches You!)

An hour-long training that walks you through the entire process, gives you the FAQ and Price Sheet for your website, a Pre-Appointment Form so you ask the right questions up front and trains you on how to market this valuable service is available!

Invest in your business this holiday season!

Click Here to Find Out More About the Holiday Design Training!

5 Reasons Why Interior Designers Should become Home Stagers

I love this video testimonial from Michelle Minch of Moving Mountain Designs who is also a RESA Stager of the Year and is killing it in the Los Angeles Area as a home stager! Michelle started out as an Interior Designer and took the HSR home staging certification training thinking she would add staging to her business...boy did she get more than she bargained for!

Here's 5 HUGE Reasons Why Every Interior Designer Should Be a Home Stager...

Easy "Target Market" to Find and Market to...

Who is an Interior Designer's business target market? New home owners and people considering a remodel or design project. Are these people easy to find? Not really.

The Home Stager on the other hand has a target market of Real Estate Agents who are very easy to find online (and off) and very easy to target.

A Target Market that Continually Feeds You New Business

Did I mention that having a handful of Real Estate Agents who use you on every listing they get means you are continually getting new business without having to lift a finger?

That's right, the HUGE business model benefit to working with agents is that this target market will actually do the marketing for you since they will need you multiple times. The interior designer's target markets do not continually feed them new business.

"First Crack" at the Designers Best Target Market

Every GREAT staging job should turn into a new move-in design job when positioned correctly! The home stager has the best opportunity at connecting with the home seller who very soon will be a new home owner and want help remodeling their new space.

This is one of the biggest reasons the HSR Certification Training program goes over BOTH the staging and design business models. This HUGE advantage is what makes us different from other training companies because we understand that beautiful staging leads to new design business and we want you to be able to handle all of it!

An "Economy Proof" Business

Remember when no one was spending on "luxury items and services" during the down turn? Guess what? They were still spending on home staging because if they didn't professionally stage their home, it simply would not sell.

As the longest running, online staging and design training provider who has been through every economy I can safely tell you that staging is an "economy proof" business when positioned correctly.

Less "Measuring" & More Fun!

Many of my HSR members have left the interior design industry and jumped in the home staging industry because they said it was just A LOT more fun! Design typically is a higher risk, higher capital, bigger stress profession that has a longer sales cycle whereas staging is an "in and out" profession where clients see huge results right away.

My X-Designer members tell me they like creatively working with what their client's have to make rooms beautiful rather than the tedium of completely redoing a client's space or measuring the exact cabinet size to fit a kitchen, etc....

There are many more benefits of adding staging to the Interior Design business model but those are just a few "biggies".

FREE Video on What it Takes to Be a Stager...

Could “ Home Staging" be a Career for You?

Don’t miss this..!!

7 Key Questions to Ask Yourself
What the Cost is to Starting this Business
Do You Have the Personality for This Industry?
How You Know If You Have the Design Talent?

Watch it Now »

Every Interior Designer should consider adding home staging to their list of services and here are 5 GREAT reasons why designers should become home stagers…

My Office Remodel – Before and After

My Office Remodel - 5 Design Lessons Learned

Have you ever known that you have to do something with a space but feel a bit stumped?

I shouldn't have shown you the "after photo" so soon because once you scroll and see the before photos, you will see why this room was the bane of my home's existence! I did NOT want this ugly room as my office but since my kids were sharing a bedroom and turning into teenagers...it was time to remodel. Keep in mind, these photos were taken with my camera and not a professional.

Here are five lessons I learned from my office remodel...

1. You Cannot Make a Dark Space Lighter with Paint!

Office BEFORE

This room inside of my house was a constant, nagging irritation to me because I had no idea what to do with it! First off, it's SUPER dark and gets very little natural light. In fact, there is just the one little window that emits no light and the doorway in which I am standing to take the photo is the only light source...soon to become a door. In the past, we attempted to paint the room my favorite brightening color from the Benjamin Moore Affinity Deck called Jicama but it looked drab in this space...thus lesson #1.

Office AFTER

To combat the darkness, I added lots of artificial lighting in all of it's forms, lots of bling from the mirrored desk, mirrored frames, table and gold lamp in order to brighten it up. The key to dark spaces is to embrace them with paint and rely on artificial lighting to do the rest. Embraced the darkness I did with Benjamin Moore's Historical Collection, Newburyport Blue HC-155 which is the ignored color next to the very popular Hale Navy. It's a warmer navy than Hale Navy without looking too blueberryish like Van Deusen Blue.

2. You Have to Splurge When You LOVE Something Sometimes:)

BEFORE

The window seat was begging for something and since you already know that I am a HUGE pillow lover, I felt it was time for me to splurge on some of my favorite Schumacher fabrics even though I have kids and animals that have NO respect for my furnishings...alas!

Splurging is hard for me since I am very practical but splurge I did on each one of these pillow (even though I got them wholesale), knowing they would probably have a lifespan of a year in my house.

3. You Have to be Practical When It Comes to Your Comfort

My office chair is the ugliest thing ever and I'm sure you noticed it right away my stager/designer readers! But here's the thing, I have to sit there for many hours everyday and do my job, so I have to be comfortable. Have you ever looked at rooms in magazines and asked yourself whether you would FEEL comfortable there? We are staging and designing for real people in real situations, so comfort and practicality does matter.

The little brown, leather chair is a comfortable, recliner that I do use quite often at night to watch the TV in this room...who can ever agree with their husband on TV viewing preferences?

4. You Have to Get Personal

I'm one of the few staging trainers who believes your "lived in" home should NOT look staged. I have family photos everywhere in my home, as well as kids artwork and awards on display. Even in my new office you can see that I have a wall of my boys artwork and a mirror-framed, wall of my latest family photos taken on the beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

5. Adding ANY Kind of Architectural Element Will Boost the Space

I was on a limited budget but wanted shelves for my MANY books and cabinets to hide my ugly, office "stuff". Here's another tip, make sure you are crystal clear on exactly how you want those cabinets built! I was armed with photos of both the mill work and cabinet I wanted, so this was easy and boy does it make a difference!

6. Animals LOVE Animal Skin Rugs Even If They Are Fake

Staging Certification Video

I have spent the last four months going through every inch of our 21-Day Home Staging Certification Training and migrating it to a cutting edge, online training system. Every form, guide, page, link and resource or our staging certification program has been updated to reflect our changing staging, design and real estate industries. I'm so proud of this new training area which members are RAVING about.

If you are shopping for staging and design training, then watch this video and compare it to anything else you've seen...I promise you will LOVE it!

DOWNLOAD OUR NEW TRAINING CALENDAR!

This quick training calendar gives you an example of the resources available to you on each day of the training...you are covered and will be referring back to it often!

See it Now!

Last Week's Raves...

I love the training. I think it is exciting! I can't wait to get up in the morning and start my lessons. All this material we are covering is invaluable. When one thinks about all the money one can end up making in this business...this course is really inexpensive. Plus you get to have fun while making a good living.

Anna Marie Stone
Staging Pays Off

I started the training before you updated the member's area, and I have to say that I like the new layout very much. The way you've rearranged the lessons is making it easier for me to follow, and I like being able to keep track of what I've finished on the sidebar. All of the information in the training has helped me feel more confident, and as though I can actually make this happen!

Emily Funk
Emily Funk Design

The HSR training is excellent! I've learned so much already and am eager to learn more. All the questions I had before are being answered ten fold, I love this course so far!

Misha Taylor
Upstaged Home and Interiors

We have completely moved our staging certification training onto a brand new, online, cutting edge training system and it’s amazing! Check out our “Sneak Peek” Video that shows you what’s inside the training area…

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