What do I do with this space? A Naperville home makeover.

As professional home stagers we often are in homes where sellers tell us that they just never knew what to do with a space in their home. Often it is a space that should be prime real estate because it is near a great feature of the home like a fireplace or a great view. This particular Naperville home had an awkward space right by the fireplace that clearly left the seller scratching their heads.

What do you do with the area around a fireplace in Naperville?

Naperville certainly has it’s cold seasons where a fireplace is a great value in a home. We want to be able to use this space. It’s not just there for decoration. It should be a focal point for the room where it is located.

 This Naperville home clearly has the room blocked off into sections, as many homes do, where the fireplace is off alone in the corner, providing no real value to the room. It almost feels like an afterthought. The seating area, which probably is very effective for the family who lives in the home, is centered around the TV, which is in a large TV unit across from the sofa. Unfortunately this set up means that nearly 25% of the room’s square footage is useless and unforgotten.

For the purposes of home staging, our goal is to get the buyers focused on the features and benefits of the home and to give them a great floor plan that allows maximum use of the square footage. Some fresh, contemporary furniture and a new seating arrangement do this for us quite nicely.

 

The makeover of an awkward space with home staging

While all of the potential buyers will likely have a TV and use this space to watch it, it is important to showcase function, flow, and maximum use of the features present in the home.

In this particular house, the sellers had moved out prior to staging so we did not have use of any of their furnishings. Instead we brought in furniture from Chicagoland Home Staging’s inventory and did our magic. By re-positioning the furniture to create a seating arrangement around the fireplace, buyers can now see that it is a functional part of the home. We added more emphasis to this feature by adding a large pice of art and creating angles that drew your eye to it.

Fewer distractions means that you’ll see what’s for sale

Home stagers are often quoted as telling others to declutter. The truth is, and you can see it in these before and after photos, that the features of the room, like the tile floors, the french doors that lead outside, and the fireplace itself, are more obvious when there is less stuff taking up visual space in a room. While decluttering is the first most important change, but it is only the beginning.

The results? This home had 14 showings in 2 days, 2 offers with one at 100% of list.