Four Changes to Make Before You Sell Your Home

There is a shortage of homes on the market in Columbus, so properties are selling at record speed. Unfortunately though, there are still some houses that are not getting showings or selling because of their interior condition. Here are four changes to be sure to make before you list your home for sale.

1. Paint
 Dark colors and unusual designs (stencils, murals) will not work when selling your house--light and bright is better. With a neutral wall color, the buyer can move their furnishings into the home without the need to paint over your color choices. The updated chandelier and dining furniture help with staging here, as buyers will be able to envision themselves having family dinners in this sunny room.

2. Bedding
There is nothing wrong with quilts or traditional bedding while you live in the home, but a modern style is needed to sell it to someone else. The bedroom should look like a retreat where one can unwind after a busy day, so you may want to look through home decorating websites and magazines for ideas on how to make your bedrooms feel cozy, warm, and inviting. In this room, layers of fabric on the bed and side table add a luxurious feel to the space, while still making the room appear spacious and bright.

3. Light Fixtures
Shiny brass fixtures often found in older homes are out. This one has been replaced with a more modern fixture in a bronze tone, but other metallics also would have worked. Remember that lighting is the jewelry in a room, so it should sparkle and shine. Make sure your light bulbs are the brightest, highest wattage allowed in each fixture and turn all of them on during a showing. Dimmer switches are always a nice addition.

4. Window Treatments
Less is more when selling your home. The heavy window treatments of the past are not what a young buyer wants. Better to have blinds that can be opened to allow the natural light in and to see the view outside. In these pictures, the neutral paint color helps tremendously also--it barely looks like the same room!

This article and its photos were provided by accredited staging professional Stella Pseekos of Styled to Sell in Dublin, OH. Stella is a graduate of The Ohio State University and a long-time Columbus resident. She is affiliated with the Greater Dublin Realty Association, the Hilliard Area Realty Association, the Northwest Area Realty Association, the Southern Delaware Realty Association and served as the 2015 Secretary of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals, Columbus Chapter.

Decorating Don'ts

HGTV spoke with interior designers and came up with a list of 25 decorating errors, including...

• Improper lighting. Decorators recommend dimmers, which they like for their affordability, versatility, and easy installation process. 

• Matching rooms. Don't make everything in your room match--it doesn't have to be symmetrical as long as it's balanced and furniture is an appropriate size (tip: measure the space). Instead of making your room look like a showroom from a magazine, make it eclectic. On the other hand, you don't want to use too many color patterns, nor do you want an excessively themed room. Both can make a room look busy, crowded, and distracting. 

• Visible clutter. This makes the room look chaotic and disorganized. Store items in an armoire, storage basket set, or bookshelf. Similarly, avoid displaying too many pillows, knickknacks and photographs. Photo albums are great for storing photos, but homes look neater with just a few framed photos on display. 

• Floating rugs--that is, rugs with nothing on top of them or touching them. Place the front feet of all furniture on the rug, to ground the seating area. On that note, bring furniture away from the walls and toward the center of the room to create a focal point. 

• Ignoring color and windows. Painting windows and adding window treatments are the easiest and least expensive ways to change the look of a room. Consider painting one wall if you are unsure about the color (this is an accent wall). If you don't like it--paint over it! Hang window curtains two inches above the frame of the window, or all the way to the ceiling to make the room look larger. 

For the full list, click here.

The "Dos" and "Don'ts" of Furniture Arrangement

Brynn Mannino writes in Woman's Day magazine that trial and error is "the surest way to a flawless room." Still, there are some golden rules when it comes to arranging furniture. To start, measure rooms with a tape measurer so you know what space you have to work with.

DO Use large area rugs under furniture, exposing some flooring but covering most of the seating area. small rugs make small rooms look smaller and large rooms look choppy.

DON'T put couches right up against a wall. Leave a little space (a few inches) between walls and couches, side tables, and chairs to create breathing room and make the space look larger. While side tables should be as tall as the couch arm they are next to, remember it's okay to mix furnishings of different sizes. Chairs should be less than eight feet apart, to encourage conversation.

DO evenly light the whole room (cover all the corners!). Taller lamps emphasize, or give the impression of, a high ceiling.

DON'T hang short curtains, which can look like afterthoughts. Floor to ceiling drapes make a room look higher. Hanging curtains a few feet after the casement ends frames windows and makes them look wider.

DO orient your bed toward the focus point of your bedroom: perhaps opposite of french doors or big windows. Corner nooks are good for beds. When in doubt, place a side of the bed against a wall.

DON'T use small coffee tables. Larger coffee tables, like rugs, connect and expand a room. Ideally, coffee tables should be 12-24 inches from your couch, and will fit the shape of your room. A square room warrants a square table, while a long and narrow room would look best with a long, narrow table. Because humans feel more comfortable in square arrangements, you might consider breaking up a long room into two seating areas based on function (i.e., conversing and dining).

DO place dining room tables under overhead lights, preferably in the center of the room. If this classic arrangement is not an option, Angelo Surmelis (former HGTV host and celebrity designer) suggests doing "something fun, like placing [a dining room table] against a wall and creating bench seating."

DON'T put a dresser in a corner. This wastes space and looks bad. Place a dresser against the wall, balancing it with another piece of furniture (if off center) to create a balanced look.

DO hang wall decor in keeping with the rest of your furniture. As a rule of thumb, place wall art 24-36 inches above a piece of furniture. Hang mirrors opposite of what you want to see more of. For example, mirrors hung opposite of windows help bring in more light. Play around with wall decor placement before you hammer a nail into a wall, and avoid out of scale pieces. Similarly scaled pieces create a serene look.

DON'T make your TV the focal point of your home. Fireplaces and other architectural features are better to highlight. Grouping main items together is smart (you can hang your TV above your fireplace). If wall-hanging is not an option, choose where the TV goes based on the room's main attraction.

When all is said and done, your furniture placement should have an identified relationship: symmetric, which is restful, or asymmetric, which conveys motion and excitement.