Dressing up your home to sell
April 5, 2018
The property market can be tough – it’s competitive, fickle and can leave homeowners feeling completely clueless as to why their home is just not selling.

If you’re looking to attract more people to your show days, up the overall appeal of your home and sell your home faster, have you considered home staging? The ultimate goal of home staging is to ‘dress your home up’ to sell, essentially enhancing the perceived value of your home and its appeal of marketability.

Research has proven that home staging helps sell homes almost 50% faster, and at a value of 8-10% more than homes which are not staged for sale.

Keen to learn a few tricks on how to dress up your home for sale? We outline 6 simple steps below…
  1. Declutter living spaces: When someone views your home they are essentially viewing it as their own, envisioning their family and their valuables in the space you are showing. Decluttering your home is vital to presenting a space which allows them to do just that. Ensure you declutter the main living areas of your home, including main bedrooms, living rooms, the kitchen and entranceways.Try and remove personal items, such as family photographs, but remember to still keep things homely and inviting.
  2. Fix up the small things: Along with a deep spring clean, it’s absolutely vital that small problems are fixed before allowing potential buyers to view your home. Things like chipped paint on cupboards and railings, wall scuffs, holes in the wall, replacing light bulbs, mending or replacing tiles can go a long way to increasing your home’s appeal.
  3. Give your kitchen a little TLC: Your kitchen is one of the most important and valuable rooms in your home and can be an absolute deal breaker for a potential home buyer. Take some time to revamp your kitchen before putting it on the market. Where possible, replace cupboard doors, repaint, replace countertops and update the décor and kitchen fixtures. If this is not in your budget, declutter your kitchen, pack away bulky appliances and keep things clean, neat and fresh.
  4. Decorate your table tops: If your home has a large dining room or outdoor entertainment area, it’s important to create the idea that these rooms are functional and can be used. On show days, take some time to make these spaces inviting by decorating table tops with flowers and perhaps a ‘mock’ brunch spread. Remember to keep it natural and avoid being too staged.
  5. It’s all about lighting: Walking into a dark, dingy home is about as off-putting as cold coffee – make sure your home is bright, airy and allows for natural light to flow into each room. Brightening up your home with enough light is a fantastic way to boost its appeal. Also remember to ensure your windows are cleaned, light bulbs are replaced where necessary and make use of wall mirrors where possible to bounce light throughout the room.
  6. Tend to your garden: Finally, your garden or pool area is probably one of the greatest selling points of your home. Nine times out of 10, this is the reason many potential buyers are interested in your property. This is why making an extra effort to spruce up your outdoor area is so important. Prune bushes, cut back overhanging trees, mow the grass, repair broken or torn awnings and repaint outdoor walls if needed.
These simple steps could go a long way to moving a home that just won’t budge. If you’re looking for expert design and décor advice, or simply need to stage your home to sell, our Darkie Designs consultants are here to help! Get in touch.

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By Kyra Harper August 15, 2023
Back in March of 2020, Bianca and Jana were dusting off their Fez’s and grabbing the pashminas out of storage in preparation to Rock the Casbah! However, as we all know and vividly remember - with March, came the eventual Covid shutdown, and instead of frolicking down the Moroccan streets, we all shut ourselves inside and watched the days tick by… 3 Years later, and now we can finally say - with conviction - that they’re going to Morocco at the start of September! This blog, filled with excitement and curiosity about all the weird and wonderful curios they might find, and endless sourcing they’ll do, stays as a reminder that sometimes plans change, things go awry and there’s not much you can do about it other than persevere - and that we did! So, here’s Bianca and Jana’s innermost thoughts about the trip, 3 years before it came to fruition, enjoy :) We've got our passports out and Jana has already picked out what she's going to wear each day… Come March [September] we'll be heading north with Air France to the Kingdom of Morocco, bright eyed and bushy tailed as we make our base in the ancient city of Marrakesh (also known as Marrakech to the French, but we're not French, so we'll go with the English version until all that fuss about Brexit is sorted out) - This turned into a year long negotiations trade, and now us outsiders would pay nearly double what we used to if we visit the UK - thankfully our flight is direct!! We'll be looking for inspiration and will be investigating what's there that we could possibly bring back to The Hoed. We can't wait to experience the atmosphere and afro-arabic influences of this amazing place as we visit the celebrated souks and off-the-beaten track artists and craftsmen that make Marrakesh so special. We're desperate to see the beautifully hand-crafted furniture, textiles, fabrics, rugs, carpets, objets d'art, accessories, lighting… anything that catches our eye and could possibly be brought back south. Berber mats and rugs are definitely on our list, as are the kind of furnishings you might find in a gorgeous Bedouin tent. If you think about it, the Bedouin refined the art of "glamping" into an artform - fabulous carpets on the ground, soft, billowing fabrics hung here and there, plump cushions spread on the ground, intricate leatherwork and carved wood, patinated metal… Total Glamping vibes! We just love all of it and will be tracking as much of it down as we can. We'll also have an eye or three out for wonderful ceramics and glassware and wonderful lamps that give off soft, filtered light.  For us it's about workmanship, so we'll hopefully be finding the people who make furniture and ceramics using techniques that have been passed down over countless generations meaning that everything we look at will have its own, and its own special story. Our mission is to share those stories with you and, if it's feasible, bring some of that special workmanship home to the Rainbow Nation. We're most definitely inspired and are sure this is going to be a truly special trip! Counting the sleeps till then! Less than a month to go now - we will be keeping the updates going on our social channels as well as another few blog posts to explain in detail our wild adventures - Stay tuned!
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