Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Home Staging: Five (5) Steps In Turning Your Personal Photo Collection Into An Artwork

Anybody in the real estate industry knows the importance of prepping the home for a sell. It can easily seal the deal if prospective buyers see the property pleasant and homely enough or it can quickly break the transaction if they find something undesirable about it. Needless to say, it has become a requirement nowadays for future homesellers to stage their houses in the best ways imaginable.
Home Staging: How To Turn Your Personal Photo Collection Into An Artwork
One mistake to avoid during this phase is putting too much personality around the house. Keep in mind that each and every buyer must be able to visualize himself/herself as the owner and he/she will not be able to do that if he/she is surrounded with family photos as constant reminders that this is your residence. One trick then is to remove these traces and create a neutral vision similar to those applied in a luxury hotel that are both comforting and attractive yet depersonalized.

Learn how you can turn those photo collections into an artwork. Here are five (5) steps to follow through.

1.       Create a quick inventory of your personal mementos. Survey your surroundings and inspect which corners of your new house for sale have evidence of the current inhabitants – picture frames in the living room, photo albums in the entertainment section, picture collage in the library and so on. 

2.       Take them down and segregate. If there are wall pictures in the bedroom, put it down. Or set aside in one corner all framed photos of your kids in your home office. Bring them altogether and categorize according to usage and frames. For instance, those that go into the walls as decors, put them on one side. Those that can be found on top of side tables, place them on the other side. Separate based on the types of frames used – some may be made of metallic materials, others, of wood.

3.       Stick to one type of frame. Since the objective is to convert it into an artwork, consistency is the key then. Find one type that is neutral and consistent both in color and design and focus on using that to display all over your PH property for sale. Get their dimensions – is it 4 x 6, 5 x 7 or 8 x 10?

4.       Find pictures in the internet, resize and print them depending on the size of the frame. Stick to images that highlight landscape, nature, trees and flowers all in black and white. You may opt for colored ones if it works better with your interiors. Use software like Photoshop to edit them so it will fit the generic frame that you have on hand.

5.       Set these images on top of your personal portraits and position them strategically all over your residence. Do remember to keep them as balanced as possible. For example, your wall collection is all about beautiful settings in the country side – rivers, mountains and trees. Then out of nowhere, there’s a big-eyed baby included in the collage. Avoid inserting items that are out-of-theme and do not go well with the concept you are trying to depict.