Unused rooms can cause a bit of a dilemma when it comes to staging your home for sale.
While having an extra room in your house designated simply for storage or for use as a play area may be a good idea for your own living situation, a potential home buyer may find it difficult to see that room as usable.
That’s why any rooms that are currently being used as a catch-all for storage or toys (as well as those that you don’t use at all and are completely empty) should be decorated in such a way that gives the room a focus.
Any rooms that you don’t stage for the sale may ultimately affect how homebuyers rank your home in relation to the other homes they have viewed.
Here’s how to decorate empty rooms when staging your home so potential buyers will think more favorably about your home…
Repurposing Furniture From Other Rooms
To stage an empty room, your best bet is to bring in a few extra furniture pieces from the other rooms in your house and arrange them around a “theme.”
The theme you choose is largely dependent on the pieces of furniture you find.
Your best bet is to decorate your empty room as:
- A guest bedroom
- A TV room or family room
- A home office
Those are the types of rooms that most homebuyers could actually use themselves.
However, your room has to “make sense.” For example, it might be strange to find an upstairs bedroom decorated with leftover dining room furniture.
Following are tips for finding the furniture pieces that you need when staging the unused rooms in your home.
How To Stage An Empty Room As A Family Room Or TV Room
For this option, you need a few comfy chairs, a lamp, a TV, and something to put the TV on — like a table or shelf.
Chances are you probably have some of those extra furniture pieces already — either they’re not being used in one particular room, or if they are, they can be spared without significantly changing the look of the original room.
If you need one or more extra pieces to complete your newly staged room, check Freecycle. As long as you’re not too picky, you’ll definitely find plenty of home furniture options for FREE there!
A plant or two will also work wonders and making the room feel warmer and cozier.
How To Stage An Empty Room As A Guest Bedroom
It may make sense to turn an extra unused room into a fully functioning bedroom or guest room.
Even though, when empty, it may clearly look like a guest bedroom to you, many home buyers will not see it that way unless you stage it that way.
If you don’t have an extra bed on hand (and you don’t want to buy one), here are some ways to get a bed for free or cheap:
- Ask friends and relatives. If you hear that someone is getting a new bed, ask for their old one. Or borrow one temporarily until you sell your home.
- Do a quick search on Freecycle or Craigslist. Beds often go for FREE on those 2 sites.
- Make a fake bed using your own packed moving boxes covered with pads, blankets, and pillows. Or use an inflatable air mattress. Done right, it can look like a real bed. (Just put a small sign on the bed asking people not sit on the bed!)
How To Stage An Empty Room As A Home Office
One of the smartest things you can do with an unused room when selling your home is to stage it as a home office.
Most would agree that home offices are pretty much required in homes these days.
Many homebuyers today work from home part or full-time or want a space where they can organize their life and park a computer. Find an extra bedroom, walk-in closet or an unused corner and convert into a home office. Make sure there is a convenient electric, telephone and cable supply. Source
To create a home office, simply include a table (you may already have a spare one in your home) and add an office chair or two. Include a few accessories such as a file cabinet, a bulletin board, wall art, a desk pad, and pencil holder. Accessorizing the room in this way will help potential home buyers see themselves working in this room.
Whatever you do, don’t just leave an unused room empty. Empty rooms always look smaller than they really are — which is another turnoff to potential homebuyers.
More About Staging Your Home
- Don’t Overlook Your Basement!
- 20 Secrets Of A Home Stager
- Reasons To Stage A Home That’s Not Selling
- Do-It-Yourself Home Staging Tips
- 6 Ways To Stage Your Home For Less Than $1,000
- Curb Appeal Checklist When Selling Your Home
- Don’t Overlook The Garage Either!
