Guest Blog Post: Using the Right Lighting Can Improve Your Staging

It’s well known that the right lighting can set the mood for any circumstance. This is also true when you’re setting the stage to sell your home. Lighting can be vastly important to specific areas and can accentuate aspects of the home you want to bring more attention to. By improving the lighting of the home, you can make it far more appealing to those who are looking to buy. What can you do to improve the illumination? 1. Brighter Bulbs – Many people prefer to use lower wattage bulbs as a softer light. However, you could lose some of the appeal of the room if it’s too dark to your prospective buyers. You may want brighter bulbs than the 40 or 60 watt bulbs that you’re currently using. Many professionals prefer the natural light of a 100 watt white compact fluorescent bulb. These units use less power and provide ample light to brighten virtually any room. 2. Enough Light Per Room – You want to make sure you’re providing enough light for the room that is being staged. Even a 100 watt bulb may have a difficult time illuminating a room that is 300 square feet. Some will go so far as to provide one 100 watt bulb for every 50 square feet of space within the area. This provides enough light to detail the entire staging. For instance, you would need six bulbs if you are lighting a 15-foot by 20-foot basement living space. 3. Accent Lighting – For areas that are intended to be darker such as a personal study or library, many people will have accent lighting installed in order to display works of art hanging on the wall or displayed on pedestals. In a room that is intended to be of less luminosity, you don’t want to use the method of lighting mentioned above. However, you want to make sure that the track lighting is shining on objects worth looking at. Otherwise, the entire motif of the room could be lost to the potential buyer. There is nothing wrong with a dimly lit room as long as it’s on purpose. However, do have enough lighting available at the switch in order to illuminate the entire area should the individual want to see what it would look like with optimal lighting. 4. Lamps – Lamps are relatively cheap and are easy to set up if you need additional lighting in a room where a socket does not exist. Many people will place floor lamps, but there is nothing wrong with a nice coffee table supporting a lamp using a 100 watt CFL bulb. Depending on the size of the room, you could need two or three lamps in order to illuminate the area. This should provide ample light for your staging as you want to appease your potential buyer. There are many things to consider when staging your home. Everything from the decor to the lighting can affect how long the house stays on the market. Even the asking price could increase just from having a pleasant look and feel when a buyer examines the home for the first time. Make sure you have enough lighting in order to make your home seem more “alive” than it would if it were empty. Author Bio: This post is contributed by Christine Maddox. Currently she is pursuing her Master’s degree from University of Texas as well as blogging for www.4nannies.com. She loves to write anything related to parenting, kids, nanny care etc.