If you’re selling your home in Aspen, your REALTOR® probably already talked to you about staging – and maybe even suggested hiring a professional home stager. Every room is important when you’re staging your home to sell; that’s because prospective buyers need to see how each room works with the others to create a comfortable, happy home. The dining room is most likely one of the first rooms your prospective buyers will see, so you need to know how to stage it to impress them.
How to Stage Your Dining Room to Sell Your Aspen Home: A 5-Step Plan
Staging your dining room requires you to first clean it from top to bottom. Whether it’s a formal dining room that you don’t use often or your family’s main gathering hub, make sure you dust the corners, clean the windows, wash the baseboards and spot-clean the walls. After that’s done, you’ll want to:
- Remove unnecessary furniture for good traffic flow
- Check out your window treatments
- Evaluate your lighting scheme
- Find (or create) a focal point
- Set the table
The most important thing to remember is not to over-stage – but more on that later. For now, here’s a closer look at these five steps to staging a dining room. And remember, you can’t stage any room in your home until it’s completely spotless.
Related: Staging advice for Aspen homes
Dining Room Staging Tip #1: Remove unnecessary furniture for good traffic flow
Your dining room doesn’t have to be huge to help sell your home, but it does need good traffic flow. If things get in the way when you try to walk around the table – like if you have to squeeze past the buffet – it may be a good idea to remove (or just move) the buffet.
Pro tip: If your dining table seats eight, remove a leaf so it seats six. Place the extra two chairs on each side of your buffet or a large window (or, if there isn’t somewhere attractive to put them, they can go in storage). This will make the space appear larger.
Dining Room Staging Tip #2: Check out your window treatments
Dated window treatments don’t belong anywhere in your home when you’re trying to sell it. Neither do dark, heavy curtains that can make a room feel more closed-in. If your dining room window treatments are either of those things, take them down and replace them with something fresh and modern. Your real estate agent may have some ideas to help, but remember that the lighter and brighter your space is, the more buyers will enjoy spending time in it.
Related: 3 quick staging tips you can use when buyers are on their way
Dining Room Staging Tip #3: Evaluate your lighting scheme
Like window treatments, old and dated lighting doesn’t belong anywhere in a home – and the dining room is no exception. Make sure your fixtures aren’t old-fashioned (unless that’s the room’s theme). You may need to invest in a new chandelier and new light switch covers. Overhead lighting isn’t all, either – if there’s a buffet in your space, consider adding a lamp for dramatic effect.
Dining Room Staging Tip #4: Find (or create) a focal point
If your dining room doesn’t have a focal point, that’s okay – it may just be the dining table. However, if your dining room is extremely large, the focal point may be a painting hanging over a mantel, a beautiful window or something else. When you have enough space, you can create a focal point away from the dining table.
Dining Room Staging Tip #5: Set the table
Setting the table when you stage your dining room is important – but that doesn’t mean to stage it for full dinner service for a dozen people. The main idea is to keep it simple; you don’t even need to add any dishes. Experiment and talk to your agent about what looks best. Try a single vase of flowers or centerpiece with no place settings, minimal place settings at only two chairs, and a set of placemats with nothing but a centerpiece to see what makes your dining room look functional and comfortable.
Related: Declutter, depersonalize and stage
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