Essential, But Overlooked, Lighting Tweaks for Effective Home Staging

The right lighting – and therefore the wrong lighting as well – can dramatically change the look of any space in a home. When following the advice that they make an attempt to do a little bit of home staging  for viewings many home sellers overlook this fact though. Bad, or inadequate lighting really can spoil all of your staging efforts though and it can even dull and hide the best aspects of it that you really wanted to highlight. With all of this in mind here are some best practice lighting tips and tricks that professional home stagers use all the time that you can easily take advantage of as well:

Layered Lighting Everywhere is a Must – You may have heard it before; a layered lighting scheme is a must if you want to create a truly balanced and effective lighting scheme. This even applies to fairly empty rooms that you may not have paid as much attention to. Even if a room has been cleared for the most part and throwing in a couple of floor lamps would look strange you can still create the right balance with a single overhead light and a few wall sconces.

Banish Boring Lampshades – You can add an instant shot of visual, eye catching interest – a must for great staging – simply by replacing old, worn or just plain boring lampshades with something new and fresh. Lampshades are readily available from big box stores like Walmart and for far less than you might imagine.

Highlight with Light – Every home has those little ‘extras’ and spaces that really make it special, whether you are talking about the great granite kitchen counters you only had installed a few years ago or that great built in shelving system in your bathroom. Don’t be afraid to use light to highlight these standouts spots and you can often do so very easily, simply by hiding a few of those dollar store stick on lights in strategic spots.

Don’t Forget About Outdoor Lighting – Even if your home is shown primarily during daytime hours it is still important to make sure that the exterior of your home is adequately and attractively lit. But in addition to the almost obligatory lighting around the front door consider adding extra visual interest with solar lighting placed elsewhere, along a path or driveway perhaps, or highlighting a particularly impressive tree or shrub in your yard.

I say solar lighting for several reasons; they tend to be easier to install outdoors than traditional wired lighting, they will cost less to run (because they cost nothing to run) and they will ‘turn’ themselves on at the right time, as dusk falls, or on a dark and gloomy days, to help ensure that the lighting is there when it’s needed even if you are not!

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