If you happen to be planning to upgrade your home prior to listing it for sale, you may have noticed how quickly the expenses mount up. Preparing a home for sale isn’t always cheap. We are convinced that the secret to making your home the best it can be for less is to employ a team of Sydney property stylists who are experienced in the home staging process. You might think your home needs a ton of work before it can be presented for sale, but only a real estate selling agent and/or a qualified real estate stylist really has the scoop on what it takes to please today’s buyers. When it comes to selling your home, our first and most important tip to you is to always hire the best professionals you can afford.
Initially, your home stylist’s bill may worry you. Unfortunately, there are still people who think that staging is something done only to mansions and display homes. This is far, far from the truth. Not only do most sellers consult with property stylists these days, they also find that the money spent on staging their home is almost always recouped. Far more often, however, professional staging brings the price of the home up by 17 to 20 percent over the asking price.
Of course, we recommend that you consult with your Sydney property stylist before you undertake any projects to upgrade or improve your home. This is because such improvements or changes may not be necessary or could serve to turn buyers off. That said, do discuss alternative options to the conventional solutions to wall and floor problems.
If you and your home stager agree that the dining room could use a more prominent feature wall or the plain white tile in the master bathroom needs a bigger punch, consider stencilling.
Purchase a stencilling kit from your local paint store, or online; read the directions, and then add your own artistic touch without breaking the bank. You can get the look of expensive wallpaper without the mess and the chaos a wall papering project can create by simply purchasing a stencil and applying it according to directions. Similarly, stencils can be used to create an attractive pattern on plain floors to provide colour and pattern. Either application can take the form of a border or a more all-encompassing application.
Wall stencilling gives an accent wall visible texture without creating the eventual problem of removal as wallpaper might. One can simply paint over the stencilled wall to make it disappear. Perhaps the best part of stencilling is that you have tremendous flexibility since you select your own colours. Your Sydney property stylists will have ideas about which colours you should use to increase the impact of the already chosen colour palette. There are also numerous options available to step-up your paint choices through the use of faux-effect painting mediums that can produce interesting finishes including metal, pearlescent, crackled, and others to enhance your stencil pattern choice. These can help to make your faux-papered wall something of an artistic addition to your room.
Of course, with the judicious use of painter’s tape and a ruler, you can easily produce stripes and geometric shapes in any room. This can be particularly effective in a child’s room or a home office. Simply paint the wall in your primary colour of choice, then tape off sections to paint in a contrasting colour. If you are feeling particularly adventurous try using different paint finishes to punch up the effect, creating your patterns in differing sheens for interest. Before you become too creative, however, have a chat with your home stager.
Stencilling is also a very effective way of calling attention away from other problems. A badly finished paint job that spotlights wall imperfections, for example, may call for hours upon hours of sanding to remove flaws somebody tried to paint over. In this case, you could call in a professional painter to correct the problem or simply use an all-over stencil pattern to make the problem vanish. In older homes where texturing of walls wasn’t done, you can keep the ambiance of the room intact by adding faux paper to disguise imperfections, without compromising the home’s historical integrity.
Creative painting techniques can be a very inexpensive way of adding interest, texture, and colour to walls, floors, and even ceilings. With a little help from your Sydney property stylists, you will be amazed at what can be done for a very little money.
