Staging is all about playing up your home’s strengths — and minimizing its weaknesses. When prospective buyers can’t see the beautiful oak floors, or walk into the walk-in closet because of clutter, there’s a problem. Editing down everything from clothes to furniture is the most important step in staging. It not only opens up sightlines for buyers, but also lightens the moving load.

When showing a home, there’s more to lighting than simply illuminating a hallway. It can be used to create a welcoming mood and tantalize the senses. Different types of lighting can be used to accentuate features of your home. Every room should incorporate three types of lighting: ambient (overhead), accent (table or wall scone), and task (under-cabinet or pendant).

Displaying eye-catching artwork is a big part of home staging, but where you hang your art is just as important. Placing them at eye-level around the room makes them virtually invisible — it’s so expected, homebuyers gloss right over the display. Shake it up and hang art at unexpected levels and in unusual groupings. This not only makes each piece stand out, but also showcases the space by drawing the eye to different areas.

If you’re trying to make a living room feel bigger, resist the urge to push couches and armchairs to the edges of the room — it does the opposite. To make a space functional and welcoming, move furniture away from walls and group them so there’s ample space to walk between each piece. Having cozy areas where conversations can happen and traffic flow is clear makes a room feel more spacious.

Speaking of groupings, how you arrange room accessories and <em>objets d’art</em> is also an important element of DIY home staging. Having objects in groups of three (or odd numbers) is pleasing to the eye. Gather pieces that share similar shape, colour, texture or another uniting characteristic, and display them in a triangular formation with the tallest at the back and shortest in front.

Look around your house and see if there’s a space that could be repurposed and upsold. Add a small table and lamp to the stairwell nook that previously kept stacks of outdated magazines and the broom, and voila! It’s now a reading nook. Turn a cold corner of the basement into a yoga studio with rubber-backed carpeting, draped fabric on the walls and a mat rolled out and ready for a downward dog or two.

Having attractive fresh-flower arrangements on open-house and photography days is part of Home Staging 101. But if pricey orchid displays and bustles of peonies aren’t part of your staging budget, supplement your need for green by going outside. Since it’s springtime, your backyard is bursting with budding cherry blossoms, maple-tree fronds and other fun foliage. Foraging (and supplementing with cheaper blooms) not only saves money but also shows buyers what your property can produce. <br><br>A DIY home staging project requires some elbow grease, but the payoff can be worth it. With these simple staging tricks, your home will be shipshape and ready to list in no time.