Home Staging Faux Pas

1) Faux Painting: Walls that are overly accessorized with decor or paint detract from the room itself. Instead of buyers focusing on the features of the house, they are distracted by the swirling colors of paint.

Specialized painting finishes are a personal preference that may turn off some buyers. Thus, these techniques should be reserved for your new home. When selling, your walls should have a fresh coat of paint with a single color.

2) Faux Foliage: There is a time and a place to use fake greenery when selling your home. When tastefully done, faux plants add a beautiful decorative element. However, fake foliage should never, EVER be used outside! Like a bad toupee, they don't fool anyone. Buyers may love the house, but will immediately give a teenage-girl-eyeroll at the first site of these plastic plants growing from the ground.

Instead, use REAL perennials in the warm months and tree top arrangements in the winter. Making the extra effort will keep your exterior looking fresh while reducing the "cheese factor" when showing your home.

3) Faux Windows: Also including in this category are faux landscapes, faux baseball stadiums, faux tree scenes, and faux any-room-sized-mural.

As with faux paint, these murals do not highlight the features of the home. Instead, buyers are left questioning how the faux scene will fit in with their decor. Properly staged homes should be neutral enough so many styles of home accents can fit with the room. Remember, we want to appeal to the most amount of buyers to get the fastest offer.

4) Faux Fireplaces: Fireplaces are a great selling feature... when they are real. Buyers, including those with poor eyesight, are not easily fooled by these faux creations.

Not every family room has a fireplace. Sure, they are a great focal point, but if your home lacks this natural feature, other areas of interests may be highlighted. For example, an entertainment can be centered on a wall for an immediate focal point, or a sofa with hanging artwork adds an interest point to any sized room.

Portable electric fireplaces have made vast improvements in the recent past; some are very convincing as (almost) real fireplaces. These items, though very similar to the real thing, are still NOT the real thing. It is better to remove the fake altogether rather than trying to convince buyers that something is there when it really isn't.

Although these examples may be extreme, they prove their points. When selling your home, "the faux has got to go." Homeowners have the right to decorate their homes in any style that suits their tastes, but when you are marketing your home, we need to appeal the general public's taste (and not our own) to get the best offers.

KFM Staging & Design is a Minnesota home staging company that has been creating “First Impressions That Sell” for homeowners and Realtors across the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. KFM specializes in home staging consultations and vacant stagings. For more information on home staging visit our website: www.kfmstaging.com.