Gainesville FL Real Estate Blog

Thinking of staging your Gainesville FL home for resale or just weary of the same old décor? Adding splashes of color, varying textures, and including patterns are quick and relatively inexpensive ways to impress potential buyers or spruce up your surroundings for your own enjoyment

COLOR:

Selection: First decide what colors you really like and what you want the color to do. Consider, too, your lifestyle, the room’s structure, and your lighting. Using a color wheel and understanding the qualities of different colors can be a helpful tool here. In vogue this year are earth-toned colors combined with the global colors of bright green, purple, orange, and turquoise. Want a dramatic effect? Contrasting colors–also called complementary because they are opposite each other on the color wheel (e.g. green/brown or orange/blue)–definitely create a mood and enliven a room. Even monochromatic color schemes which feature various shades of the same color can be refreshed by using complementary colors for contrast and visual punch. Remember that warm colors (those based on yellow, red, and orange) tend to “advance,” while cool colors (based on blue, violet, green) recede.

Changing wall color: As an alternative to repainting, you might want to try color washing.  Choose a color that blends well with your existing wall color. Staying in the same family…select a lighter shade to soften the walls or a darker hue to make them more vibrant. You “wash” the walls by 1. mixing your paint 50-50 with latex glaze 2. dipping a cloth into the mixture and 3. applying a small amount to the walls using a “washing” motion.

Accessorize: Look around the room for an item comprised of multiple colors–a sofa, carpet, drapes, or a piece of art are excellent sources. From that item select three colors you can repeat throughout the room–and you can do that in so many ways! Think about pillows, pictures, flowers and plants, objects d’art, and throws in the living room; candles and towels in the baths; canisters, pottery, and hanging plates in the kitchen; placemats and napkins in the dining room; and area/scatter rugs in any room in your Gainesville FL home.

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You are selling your Gainesville FL home and the first Open House only a week away. The house is filled with clutter and things you don’t want to throw away. But the clutter is not appealing to potential Gainesville FL home buyers. What do you? Here are staging tips for an Open House.

Staging Tips For A Gainesville FL Open House

1. Remove the clutter.

Having a garage sale is out when removing clutter because the Open House is only a week away. You don’t want to stuff the garage or closets to the gills either. One solution is to rent an off-site storage facility or stack boxes neatly in a basement or crawlspace.

2. Stage each room.

The first thing to do is clean from top to bottom. Make sure windows and light fixtures shine and are in working order. If the room is crowded, put some furniture in the storage facility. Finally, pick a focal point that will attract buyers when they see the room. For example, the focal point of a bedroom is usually the bed, and for a music room, it’s the piano.

3. Use the rule of three.

First, remove everything from counters and table tops, including coffee tables and side tables. Then re-accessorize using the rule of three…using 3 items of varying heights. For example, on an end table you can place a lamp (high), a small plant (medium), and a book (low).

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