Moving On? {Prepping A Home To Sell}

{Living Room BEFORE}

I spent one day this week helping out a lovely young family get their home ready to put on the market. We didn't want to spend a penny (who does in this economy?) to spruce up the place, so we used what they already had in the home. This isn't one of those super dramatic TV show make overs by any means, but the subtle changes make a huge impact to the overall "energy" of the home.

They have two gorgeous little girls, so the living room furniture was pushed up against the walls in order to make a play space for the children to scatter their toys about. However, that arrangement didn't showcase any of the rooms selling features.

{Living Room AFTER}

We rearranged the furniture to create a more cozy feel by pulling the pieces away the walls and floating them in front of the fireplace. The homeowners love color, but we decided to paint over the accent walls to match their current butter yellow walls to make the room more cohesive and less "taste specific".

{Living Room BEFORE}

Here you can see the sectional in it's previous position against the wall (and a little princess hiding from the camera, lol).

{Living Room AFTER}

Using the homeowners artwork on the mantle and repositioning the furniture, the fireplace is now the focal point.

{Fireplace BEFORE}

We simplified the mantle and the built-ins

{Fireplace AFTER}

{Shelving AFTER}

Using the homeowners camera collection and just a few books and magazines, we created a clean shelving display.

{Living Room BEFORE}

The homeowner had three different paint colors viewable in this one room which fit their young and artistic personalities, but to some the colors could be considered distracting.

{Living Room AFTER}

We chose to just paint over the blue and a small bit of the persimmon to just make the room more cohesive.

{Dining Room BEFORE}

The dining room was primarily used as a craft area for the two young artists in the family.

{AFTER}

The walls were painted to match the living room (which is open to the dining room) and all toys were moved to a playroom.

{Little Girl's Room BEFORE}

One of the girl's room which was really quite cute in person, but looked like most children's rooms, toys toys toys everywhere.

{Little Girl's Room AFTER}

Someone did a nice job cleaning her room!

{Master Bedroom BEFORE}

The homeowner is a sewer and did her sewing in their bedroom. While this worked nicely for her, it made the room look smaller.

{Master Bedroom AFTER}

She relocated her sewing machine to the basement for now and what a difference it made. We also painted over the mural (which unfortunately the homeowner hand painted herself and it was adorable). The mural gave the room a slight juvenile feel which was a little confusing...was this a nursery or a master bedroom?

{Kitchen BEFORE}

The kitchen didn't need much to begin with...just a little decluttering and paint touch up.

{Kitchen AFTER)

{Kitchen AFTER}

With nothing more than a can of paint, simplifying and furniture arranging, we made this family's home ready to list on market.

Just to recap what we did:

Paint: got rid of accent walls and bold colors, took most artwork down and filled holes, touched up all walls and trim to hide any scuffs or imperfections.

Declutter: removed all unnecessary items from all rooms and put in storage. Cleared shelves and just left decorative arrangements. Cleaned out all closets, cabinets and storage areas and organized.

Depersonalize: Left only a few personal photos and strategically placed artwork. Removed wall murals and other "taste specific" decor. Buyers want to picture their things in the home, not the sellers.

Rearrange: Strategically arranged furniture to showcase the selling points of each room (the sofa now faces the fireplace).

I hope these pointers can help anyone who may be getting ready to move on to bigger and better things!