Staging Your Bonus Room
Having an extra room in your home for an unspecified purpose can present you with a challenge when it comes time to stage your home for sale. The entire purpose of staging your home is to give potential buyers solid ideas about how a room is meant to work. The real estate stylist you’ve chosen will advise you to leave no room vacant – it not only leaves the buyer wondering what to do with the space, it also makes the room look smaller. Instead, your home staging pro will suggest that you dress that bonus room as something useful: a guest bedroom, a home office, or a family room.
If you have not yet chosen a home stager or are planning to stage your home yourself, here are a few things to consider as you move forward.
Creating a Guest Bedroom
If your bonus room is currently doing ‘storage area’ duty, put the unused boxes and crates elsewhere. Clean it as you have the remaining rooms in the house and then put on your thinking cap.
If you are attempting to stage your own home, obtaining an extra bed, dresser, night stands and chairs may be difficult. Call your friends and family and ask to borrow the trappings necessary and hope the pieces can be made to appear as if they go together. You can also head to the local op shop to buy the necessary accoutrements, but that can cost you an arm and a leg – particularly if you want respectable pieces which, of course, you do.
If you have the help of a professional home stager, turn to them to supply the furniture necessary to transform your bonus room into a perfectly lovely guest retreat. Of all the things the real estate stylist can do for you, making furnishings appear out of nowhere may be among the very best from the standpoint of saving cash. A good home staging company will have an extensive array of furnishings they keep for just such situations. They also have all the art and other décor right down to rugs to finish the room in style. They will transform your bonus room in short order into a retreat you’ll be proud to offer your visiting friends and loved ones.
Produce a Home Office
A guest room is always a welcome addition to a house, but a home office in this age of work-at-home employment can be a true treasure.
Once again, your home stylist will be able to send in furniture reinforcements including office chairs, desks, electronic equipment, as well as other props to set your ‘home office’ stage. Generally speaking, the self-stager can find some of these items among their personal belongings ready to deploy, so the expense may be more manageable. Add a bulletin board, some motivational quotes in the form of art, and you’re good to go. Whatever else you do when you create a home office from a bonus room, be sure to make it look smart, efficient, and ready to move into. Your potential buyers will be grateful.
A Family Room
Making an unused space into a game rooms for the children or a separate television room for use when the more formal living room is occupied is another common way to repurpose an unused space. You can borrow gaming equipment from your children or other family members. Add a television – it is not necessary that it be functional – and some comfy furnishings. A card table or other table can be enlisted as a board-game station. Display other boxed games, books, and other hobby-related accents to give the buyer a solid idea about how the room could be used.
Be careful in this room not to display personal items like pictures of you and your family or items that will make buyers feel as if they are invading your space. It’s important that the overall feel of any room in your house feels generic.
Leaving a room vacant should never be an option in staging your home. The real estate stylist you’ve chosen will help you determine the best use for extra rooms and help you to furnish and appoint them with class and sophistication. If you’re tackling the monumental task alone, it’s almost never too late to call in a professional stager for ideas, furnishings, or just a stamp of approval for what you’ve already done. While the staging company may charge a consultation fee, the results will help you get top-dollar for your home in the end.