Chic living room with a plush L-shaped blue sofa filled with throw pillows, an off-white modern coffee table on a shaggy rug, and a large abstract painting on the wall. The space is well-lit with natural light from windowed doors and complemented by a stylish hanging lamp, embodying a luxurious yet comfortable interior design.

There's a reason that so many homeowners hire someone to stage their living spaces before they put their house up for sale. Curating your home in a way that highlights its best features and creates an inviting ambiance is what makes home staging so appealing to potential buyers. Fortunately, you don't have to be a professional or put your house on the market to "stage" your home in a way that maximizes its visual appeal, coziness, and functionality. Check out these lesser-known staging tricks from the Star Furniture experts that can easily be incorporated to elevate your home's design.

The Magic of First Impressions

A common understanding amongst home stagers is that first impressions are everything. You want a room to draw you in with its beauty and warmth the moment you lay eyes on it. With this in mind, it's worth incorporating features that will immediately entice the senses and make you look forward to spending time in the space. While there are countless ways to make a great first impression in a room, here are some examples that can easily be incorporated into virtually any space.

  • Use Color Strategically: Accent colors are your friend when you're trying to make a room feel stylish and inviting. Add pops of color to your home with accessories such as decorative pillows, eye-catching wall art, or even a bold accent wall.
  • Highlight a Focal Point: Every fabulous room has a focal point upon which everything else is built upon. Whether this is a painting, a fireplace, or a furnishing (such as your bed), identifying which feature to use as inspiration or emphasize will help you create a space that is cohesive.

Less is More: The Art of Decluttering

When it comes to arranging your home like a professional stager, remember that less is always more. Typically, a room with minimal decor and maximum open space looks bigger. This is why professional stagers insist on removing any unnecessary clutter from your home before you put it on the market. 

Taking the time to declutter your home is a simple step that can instantly help it look larger and feel better. Check out these tips from the Star Furniture team to help get your home organized and clutter-free in a snap:

  • Focus on decluttering one room at a time, so you don't feel overwhelmed by the process.
  • If you can't remember the last time you used an item or say with certainty when you'll use it again, consider donating it.
  • Only keep items that are serving a specific purpose aesthetically or functionally. Give yourself permission to let go of items you're keeping merely because they were gifted to you.

The Power of Neutral Colors

When browsing homes that have been staged by a professional, you're likely to notice a common color palette theme: neutral. Home stagers don't stick with neutral colors simply because they're a popular trend in home design. It's also because neutral colors appeal to a broader audience and create a sense of calm that would attract any homeowner. This effortless sense of style and peacefulness make neutral colors a great option to incorporate into your own living spaces. Even if you love playing with colors that are bright or bold, it's a good idea to use a neutral color scheme for the primary furnishings in your home, such as your sofa, bedding, or area rugs. Doing so can provide a lovely foundation that can be complemented and enhanced with seasonal accessories and decorations. 

Strategic Furniture Placement

Have you ever considered if there's a better way to arrange your furniture? If you haven't, a professional stager might encourage you to do just that. The way that furniture is arranged in a space can have a tremendous impact on its overall appearance and functionality. A room with furniture that's too big or poorly arranged may be difficult to navigate or appear to be cramped. On the other hand, a room with furniture that has been properly placed will look spacious and flow with ease.

With this in mind, be sure to be strategic when arranging the furniture in every room of your home, especially in the main living spaces. Remember, the furnishings should be arranged in a way that serves the primary purpose of the room itself. For instance, the sofas and chairs in your living room should be positioned in a way that encourages conversation. Likewise, your bedroom furniture should be arranged to support rest and relaxation. When in doubt, don't be afraid to try several different layouts in a room until you find the one that looks and feels the best.

Lighting: Setting the Right Mood

Professional home stagers know that the way you illuminate your living spaces is as important as the furniture and accessories you adorn them with. Because of this, stagers are very careful to utilize both natural and artificial light in a way that enhances specific features and the ambiance of the home. The good news is that you can adopt the same techniques to make your home more attractive and welcoming. Check out these tips from the trusted Star Furniture team to do just that:

  • Hang picture lights directly over the wall art in your living room to give the space a contemporary aesthetic.
  • Bring in customizable lighting solutions, such as overhead lights that can be dimmed, to customize the brightness of the room based on the mood or activity.
  • Let in as much natural light as possible to make every area of your home feel bright, fresh, and spacious.
Elegant room corner with a textured gold and cream credenza, an ornate mirror above it, a chic black table lamp, and a cream chair with nailhead trim.

Accessorizing: The Final Touch

Accessories are what make a house feel like a home. That's why professional home stagers are sure to blend in accent pieces that complement the surrounding decor while simultaneously helping the space feel personal and unique. If an area of your home feels like it's missing something, bringing in some thoughtful accessories may be just the trick to achieve the look you have in mind. The secret to accessorizing like a professional stager is to be strategic. Check out these tips to put the perfect final touch on every room in your home with the right accessories:

  • Choose pieces that complement the space, such as throw pillows that use the same color scheme as your curtain panels or the picture on your wall.
  • Mix things up with a variety of materials and textures. If there's a lot of wood in the room, bring in some modern pieces, such as a metal lamp or side table.
  • When in doubt, accessorize with plants! Their natural color and texture can provide visual intrigue without overwhelming the space.

Creating a Lifestyle Appeal

Homeowners hire professional stagers because they're able to curate living spaces that enable potential buyers to envision their own families spending time in them. Each room is designed in a way that evokes emotion and makes the person looking at it feel like they belong there. This is a feature that every homeowner should aspire to emulate in their own living spaces. With this in mind, it's worth considering how you can make your own home feel stylish, warm, and enticing. Luckily, this can be as simple as:

  • Incorporating cozy elements, such as accent pillows, throw blankets, and plush area rugs.
  • Leave plenty of space to walk around furniture.
  • Bring in seating arrangements that draw you in, such as an armchair by the window in your bedroom.
  • Decorate with pieces that are personal, such as family photographs.

The Role of Scents and Sensory Experience

There's more to creating an enticing home than just arranging furniture in a particular way. The best living spaces are the ones that evoke all of the senses, which is why professional home stagers know the importance of bringing in inviting elements, such as candles. Along with smelling nice, adding fragrances to your home can help you achieve specific moods in different rooms.

For instance, utilizing candles or diffusers with calming scents, such as lavender, can help your bedroom feel more relaxed. Likewise, invigorating scents brought into your kitchen, such as citrus, can help you feel energized while you're cooking or cleaning. If you'd like to bring a subtle freshness to your home without overwhelming a space with a strong fragrance, you can't go wrong with incorporating a houseplant, such as a peace lily. Plants can bring in soft scents while naturally freshening the air in a space.

The Psychology Behind Staging

On the surface, home staging may seem simple enough. Sure, decorating and arranging furniture in a way that looks nice and enhances the functionality of a space is a great way to make any home feel more inviting. But at its heart, home staging is done to evoke emotion from potential buyers. After all, homes are staged with the intention of making people feel warm and excited when they see a space, then imagining themselves spending time there and ultimately buying the home. Professional home stagers are aware of this, of course, and strategically use certain techniques that have been proven to evoke positive emotions from people. These include:

  • Grouping similar items in groups of three, such as three seating options around a coffee table or three picture frames positioned together on an entryway table. Be sure that the three items are different sizes, shapes, and/or color to create visual intrigue.
  • Help rooms big and small feel balanced, elegant, and tranquil by thoughtfully using symmetry. Working around an architectural feature, such as a fireplace, or the focal point of a space, such as a wall hanging, furniture, mirrors, lamps, and more can use symmetry to help any room feel organized and chic.

Decorate Like a Home Staging Pro with Star Furniture

At the end of the day, professional stagers are striving to accomplish one simple task: enticing potential buyers to call a house their home. From arranging furniture in a thoughtful way and using calming color schemes to elevating the home decor you already have and setting the mood with light, you can curate living spaces that feel like they were professionally styled and staged.For everything you need to design a home that makes a great first impression, puts you at ease, and reflects your personal style, the experienced design team at Star Furniture is here for you. Visit us online or stop by one of the best furniture stores in Houston to check out our quality furnishings that can help you stage every area of your home like a professional.