Dressing up a show home is not for the faint-hearted – but it’s still entirely doable even if it’s your first time to do so as long as you have a few ‘tricks’ up your sleeve. But there is a delicate balance – and a fine line – between dressing it up elegantly and appealingly and overdoing it entirely. You need to have a show home with enough pizzazz and personality to appeal to buyers and make them want to live in that home. And having an ineffective show home is not just about losing potential buyers – it may also cause you to lose money. In a poll by Barclays Mortgages, it was found that a whopping 44% of home buyers tried to lower the price of a home by as much as 10 to 20% just because the house lacked appeal. So if you don’t want the same thing happening to your show home, here’s a list of top points for designing the best one.
- Choose the right colours
It isn’t just about making sure your show home has color – it’s also about choosing the right colors. Whilst neutral colors are often advisable, adding an extra splash of colour to emphasise different spots or areas doesn’t hurt. In fact, it’s recommended by experts like the showhome interior design professionals from Blocc. And some colors do better than most! For instance, yellow is usually a great choice because it has a pleasing hue and tone, and it’s a popular color because it brings to mind cleanliness and images of summer.
You can, for example, place yellow-hued flowers or a bowl of lemons on the kitchen or dining table to show off the space, or you can put pale yellow cushions in a bedroom to level it up. Flowers have long proven to be an excellent way of giving a show home a pleasant smell, too – but think of subtle fragrances and not scents that are too overwhelming or overpowering. Scents like rose and lavender are better than the scent of lilies, for instance.
- Bring the light in – and don’t forget the mirrors
If your show home has dark alcoves or corners or doesn’t have enough natural light coming in, you can bring the light in by positioning mirrors and lamps strategically around the home. Mirrors, in particular, can reflect natural light, dispersing it around an area and making a room look bigger.
Did you know that most home buyers will decide to buy property as soon as they enter a show home? So even if they figure out in the end that a room is not the biggest or brightest room they thought it would be, by the time they realise it, they will already have seen the property as the right decision for their needs.
- Make it all spic and span
A brightly-lit kitchen with gleaming new appliances can do just the trick, but you’d also want to double-check other rooms and make sure everything is all spic and span. It’s worth hiring a professional cleaner for this purpose because they will pay attention to spots you may have missed. Remember that dirty bathrooms and kitchens are a big deal. They can be the most significant turnoff for any buyer, so pay particular attention to those areas to ensure a profitable viewing.
