5 Home Staging Tips For Built-In Shelving The Experts Use

In today’s market home buyers are in search for more storage, and what better way to have your items both tucked away while on display then on sought after built-in shelving. 

If there’s one architectural feature that everyone loves, it’s built-in furniture. From classic bookcases to a cozy window seat, it’s important to highlight these features when selling a home.

Equally eye-catching and functional, it takes some creativity to fill the empty shelves load it with layers of books, flat and upright, as well as accessories that embrace the property’s lifestyle and theme.  

In a staged property, our team at Chicagoland Home Staging looks to keep these spaces clutter-free and tidy. Here are five home staging tips when it comes to accessorizing built-in shelving:

Home Staging Tip #1: Use Symmetry Sparingly

When staging a home, we always try to move the eye around the room: it makes the room feel bigger. It’s the same with bookshelves. When we move the eye across and around and down, it looks like “there is a ton of storage!” Add one pair, but not a lot of pairs. One pair gives order and calm, more than that can become intimidating to the buyer as they tour the room.

Home Staging Tip #2: Solid Verse Patterned Pieces

A milk-glass vase, or white ironwork can help here, as can objects with solid colors, particularly white. Patterned accessories clustered together can make the shelving look cluttered. It’s important to remember that less is more when styling shelving. Not all bookshelves are used to display books but collections, and passions. You can suggest that with a single prop and make the space look open yet nicely populated. You may even decide to leave some spaces empty.

Home Staging Tip #3: Boxes Help People Stay Organized

When living in a staged property there are items that are essential for daily use, but may not necessarily be attractive enough to leave out during showings. Utilizing boxes, baskets and bowls allow home sellers to group all the little stuff into one spot, and put that on their shelf, as both a book-end and a good place to find things. This offers a substantial impact when it comes to quickly getting your home ready for a showing for relatively little time and expense.

Home Staging Tip #4: The Power of Natural Pieces

If you’re looking for an easy accessory to fill an empty shelf that will have impact start with a few plants. Planters not only bring in a pop of color, but they add life, movement and depth to hard surfaced materials that fill the remaining areas of the space. Just look at the image above, where is your eye immediately attracted to?

Home Staging Tip #5: Play Up Contrast

If you have white shelves, then use darker elements to contrast and emphasize the woodwork in a crisp way. Similarly with dark shelves, you will want to add lighter elements, and glass covered framed prints where the glass reflects light the way a mirror would.

How do you display your accessories? We’d love for you to share a #shelfie on our Facebook page here.

Need help staging your next listing? Contact us today, we’d be more than happy to assist you with all your home staging needs, including making sure that positive features like built-in shelving are highlighted to attract more potential buyers.