| When you have a fireplace, make sure the furniture layout brings focus to it. In both of these examples, the furniture had been pushed to the far edges of the room. Pulling the furniture closer to the fireplace makes it feel more conversational and directs buyer’s attention to the focal point of the room. |
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| Paint can change everything! It’s hard to tell this is even the same room. The homeowners painted both the walls and fireplace for this stunning difference. Light colored staging furniture helped make the room feel bright and spacious, too. |
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| Here, the clutter in front of and around the fireplace was taking attention away from it. We removed quite a few things, did a simple furniture arrangement with 4 matching chairs and 2 end tables that the homeowner had, and adjusted the items on the bookshelves. Now buyers are drawn immediately to the fireplace. |
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| Fireplaces are a huge focal point of any room and attention should be given to them to make them look updated and attractive. This fireplace had the random bricks sticking out the front, which is any interior designer’s nightmare! To fix it, we decided to add a substantial mantle that would cover up these bricks by building up the left bricks with wood that would provide an even platform for a new mantle. Before adding the mantle, we decided to “German Schmear” the fireplace to give it a softer look. There are lots of blogs and YouTube videos on how to do this, so I won’t go into detail here, but we basically filled the grout lines with white mortar and then randomly spread it onto the bricks. We used a wet sponge to soften the edges and take off mortar where we wanted more of the brick to show through. Lastly, this fireplace was non-functioning because of an abandoned chimney liner, so we added a gas insert. A gorgeous mirror and some beautiful accessories finished off the look. |
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When you’re selling your home, make sure furniture is centered around a focal point that is an amenity of the home. Here, we wanted buyers to focus on the fireplace, not the TV, so we moved the furniture to bring attention to it.
Avoid putting rugs over carpets. Buyers may think you are hiding stains or worn carpet. This before and after was from a recent occupied staging. We also gave advice to remove the wallpaper and draperies, paint a neutral color and replace lighting.
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I don’t often advocate for painting brick because there is no going back if styles change. But here the fireplace was becoming a distraction to the room. It was heavy and dark and made the room feel small.
The investor that flipped this house painted the fireplace white and the brass screen black. Now the room is open and bright and the fireplace is a beautiful focal point!
