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Sell Faster for More: Home Staging With Feng Shui

With increasing interest rates and unpredictable housing markets, how you present your home to a future owner is everything! Feng Shui can play a large role when it comes to staging a home for sale. So how does one go about home staging using 5000-year-old Chinese techniques while still giving the home a modern look?

The top 10 tips for staging a home with Feng Shui are:

  1.  Understand feng shui’s elements and how they interact.
  2.  Create a clean and welcoming front entrance.
  3.  Create a balanced and inviting living room.
  4.  Keep the kitchen organized and free of clutter.
  5.  Create a bright and flowy bedroom.
  6.  Keep the bathroom well lit and earthy.
  7.  Minimize activators.
  8.  Minimize furniture in smaller rooms.
  9.  Forget coffee and cookies. Go for clean, crisp scents.
  10.  Make subtle use of Feng Shui luck boosters.

In the rest of this article, we will explore the different rules of feng shui and the latest tips for properly staging a home using this age-old technique.

1. Understand Feng Shui and Its Elements

One of the foundational ideas of Feng Shui is Yin and Yang – that everything in a home has two sides to the energy, good or bad, male or female, light or dark. Therefore, when staging a home with feng shui, it is essential to make sure the home’s energy flows in a way that will attract potential buyers.

So let’s take a look at the different elements that you can incorporate into your staging designs to create the best look for a home:

  • Wood: Wood is currently very trendy; it is especially popular in the cottage core home theme. Wood symbolizes growth and health and is associated with lush greenery and green-colored decorations.
  • Fire: Fire is an energetic element that can bring pops of color and excitement to a home if used sparingly. Fire symbolizes passion, romance, joy, and creativity.
  • Earth: The earth element is calmer and promotes comfort and relaxation. This element promotes protection, nourishment, and stability. Photos and artwork of nature or other landscapes fit well into this element’s category.
  • Metal: The metal element promotes efficiency, structure, and discipline. Some examples of the metal element are white rugs, gray or white throw pillows, metal frames, or bowls.
  • Water: The water element stands for comfort and harmony. Decor that would fall under this element would be mirrors, fountains, photos or paintings depicting water, blue colored furniture like rugs or throw pillows. The colors blue and black fall under this element.

Now that you understand the basics of feng shui elements in conjuction with interior design ideas and their various colors, it is time to dive in and learn how to implement these techniques in a modern way. You can read more about the Yin-Yang of the Heavenly Stem Elements here.

2. Create a Clean and Welcoming Front Entrance

When preparing a home for a potential buyer, one of the biggest things you can do to create good feng shui and open up a home is make sure the home’s front entrance is inviting. This is possible in even small areas like apartments but your scope may be limited.

Think of the front as the home’s face, will it bring a smile or a frown to visitors? This is why it is essential to try and keep the front entrance open and clear of clutter.

A few other ways to make your front entrance pop is to:

  • Place a large welcome mat outside of the door.
  • Set matching potted plants on either side of the front door.
  • Hang a seasonally appropriate wreath.

You want your potential buyer’s first impression of the home to lead them to want to see the rest of the home. As they approach the front door, it should feel like a nice hug. Watch my Sifu’s talk about the front of your home and more here.

3. Create a Balanced and Inviting Living Room

Let’s define what exactly it means to have a balanced living room. When your living room is balanced, it will not feel lopsided or weighty on any one side of the room due to mismatched furniture.

A few home staging ideas to balance a living room are:

  • Face your main couch or sofa toward the entryway.
  • Avoid harsh angles on bookshelves and tables when you can.
  • Use a wood coffee table instead of a glass one to give the room a more natural vibe and incorporate the wood element into your staging.
  • Use matching furniture pairs such as chairs, lamps, or end tables to create a feeling of balance.
  • Have a plant or two placed somewhere with good lighting.

These feng shui staging tips can help you stage a living room that is open and enticing to a potential buyer.

Smart use of color and furnishings can transform a room

Potential buyers like to see what they can do with a space themselves, having a nice balance, even in a smaller or combined space can help them visualize how their life could be in your home. The living room above has been made to look inviting and comfortable with furniture and objects the owner already had, as well as some reasonably priced curtains, covers and cushions.

4. Keep the Kitchen Organized and Free of Clutter

Clean kitchens sell houses

Keeping the whole home clean and clear of clutter is crucial for home staging, but is especially important in the kitchen. Your kitchen is considered the heart of the home. A kitchen is where families prepare meals and spend a lot of their time together.

So when preparing to stage a home’s kitchen, you should take a look at these home staging tips:

  • All countertops should be kept clear of appliances and only have minimal decorations, such as a bowl of fruit (fresh is best but fake will do).
  • Clean out all drawers and remove half of their contents to give them a more spacious appearance. Yes, people will open your drawers to look inside.
  • If the kitchen is dark, or there are usually shadows, you can hang mirror to reflect sunlight into the darker spaces.
  • Check the tile grouting and silicone around the sink for mould and dark spots that can make the space look dirty.
  • Simply swapping the drawer and cupboard handles to a modern style can breathe new life into the kitchen.
Keep modern kitchens clutter free for the best home sales results
Older kitchens can be easily updated with feng shui kitchen design

Keep your kitchen design clean, simple and open using plenty of light for the best home staging results!

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5. Create a Bright and Flowy Bedroom

One of the main things buyers consider when looking at a home is how the master bedroom makes them feel. Is it light and open, and can they see themselves sleeping comfortably there?

How to stage a bedroom that is bright and inviting:

  • Maximize natural lighting through sheer or earthy colored curtains.
  • Keep underneath the bed clean and clear of items to maximize a spacious feeling.
  • Place matching nightstands on either side of the bed to ground the room design and complement the bed.
  • Add a rug underneath the bed to create a feeling of warmth and balance.
  • Try to use warm colors in your decorations.
  • When using photos or art, keep it natural or nature-themed.

The goal for any bedroom should be to keep the Chi calm and flowing. Remember to keep your closets and wardrobes tidy because people will look inside.

6. Keep the Bathroom Well Lit and Earthy

Next, we move on to the bathroom. Bathrooms tend to be a bit stuffy, so it is especially important that you use feng shui and do your best to maximize any natural lighting in this space.

A few other tips for home staging your bathroom with Feng Shui are:

  • Use mirrors to bounce light and open up the space.
  • Use earthy tones when selecting decorations such as the shower curtain, rugs, and wall hangings.
  • Keep all toilet seats closed to make the room more inviting.
  • Keep counters clear except for simple decor such as soap dispensers, toothbrush holders, and a simple flower arrangement.
  • Replace light bulbs with a brighter daylight bulb if the old ones are too yellow.
  • Another tip for homes older than 10 years is to replace the toilet cistern with something more modern.

A lot of bathrooms tend to be dark and closed off. A great way to remedy this is by using colors such as white, skylights and mirrors to brighten up any shadows in the room.

7. Minimize activators

What is a Feng Shui Activator? An activation in Feng Shui terms is anything that stimulates, allows or emits Chi. This can be the objects that everyone thinks of like water features or fans, but can also be meter boxes, dripping taps, radios, refrigerators, lamps (not only salt lamps), open windows and doors, large pieces of furniture. Basically anything that runs in the background, allows Chi to enter, or feels like it dominates a room.

For example, we do like to have nice bright lighting for Feng Shui and for a real estate showing, but we don’t want to have a lot of lamps in the living room on at the same time. It is better to be more particular with what you activate, where you activate it and why you are doing it because each room can be divided into the Bagua (Lo Shu) and any lamps or other activators can be placed according to where they can bring the best luck.

8. Minimize furniture in smaller rooms

Continuing with the above theme of activators – any beds, drawers, shelves, closets or robes that take over a room should be removed or replaced to give a bigger feel to the space. In this example, the owner had moved the pine drawers next to the bedroom door so they could use it as an exercise room.

Even though the room was basically empty, most buyers would not feel like walking through because the Chi that the large drawers was emitting was dominating the entry. They moved the drawers to the other corner of the room and added a single bed borrowed from family to open the space up and show buyers what they could do themselves there.

Planning your home sale includes feng shui considerations such as doorways

9. Forget coffee and cookies, go for clean & crisp

Everyone enjoys going somewhere that is pleasant on the senses, including open homes and showings. Cooking food, baking cookies and brewing fresh coffee has become a cliché in the realty industry so what can we do? The number 1 and 2 areas of a home that most buyers are concerned with are the kitchen and bathroom, and cleanliness is one of the biggest priorities. All things being equal, a small clean bathroom will attract more offers than a large dirty bathroom.

a) Scents in the Kitchen

Instead of fresh baked goods or coffee, why not try just giving the kitchen benches a quick spray and wipe with a scented cleaner. If you do this just before a showing or open home, the clean smell will still be in the air and you will be surprised at the effect it will have on buyers attitude.

Make sure the sink is clean and dry and that you have mopped the floor in time for it to be completely dry as well. Even if the buyer has the dirtiest kitchen at their own home, they will believe that if they buy they will be able to keep the place as clean as you.

b) Scents in the Bathroom

Like the kitchen, buyers in general want a bathroom they can be proud of, no matter how big or small. If you make the extra effort to clean (and give time to dry) your bathroom it will leave a lasting impression. A good rule is that if it is made of porcelain, it should never have any stains.

To give the cleanest scent you can in the air, drop a fluid ounce of ordinary bleach into the toilet water, and another down the shower drain. Flush the toilet but leave the shower. Your bathroom will smell cleaner than a hospital.

c) Scents in the Living Room

This space is different to the kitchen and bathroom, and over-the-top clean smells might turn some buyers off because the living room is a place to relax and unwind. 

Essential oils are great in this space since they they pack a punch for a small amount, and they come in a great variety of scents. If you can combine a display of fresh flowers with a small spray of essential oil to help the scent carry, then buyers will feel more likely to sit and enjoy the space. Make sure to check that the ones you choose are low allergy, like roses, tulips and some varieties of lilies.

If you have sheer curtains, then a small spray of diluted essential oil (tested on an inconspicuous spot first) and an open window will keep a fresh breeze flowing through at all times.

Never use an oil burner for a showing simply for safety purposes, and oil diffusers may come on a little strong to some people. Keep the scents light and breezy, remind your potential buyers that life can be sweet and enjoyable.

d) Scents in the Bedroom

The bedroom should always be clean and tidy for a home sale viewing, but looking clean and smelling clean can be two different things as we all know.

It also really shouldn’t smell like bleach or strong cleaner either since that could raise questions like, “have you just cleaned up a murder scene?”

The easiest and most subtle way for a bedroom to smell clean is simply have fresh, clean linens on the bed. This is an extra effort, but can be well worth it. Some buyers may even be tempted to lie on the bed because nothing is as nice as laying on fresh bed sheets. If you want to go the extra mile, then hang your sheets and covers in the sun to dry to intensify that fresh, clean vibrancy. 

10. Make subtle use Feng Shui luck boosters

There are certain Feng Shui items that can help to activate your luck when selling. You can use a water feature, but to do this it would be really good to know at least the 8 Mansions and Flying Stars schools of Feng Shui.

To help a quick sale of a home, more Yang Chi is required than we would usually want for balance. One of the special tricks to help this is to place a Horse statue in either the Goat/Sheep direction, the Dog direction or the Tiger direction. Since we are in the Year of the Tiger, it is auspicious to place one or more statues of the Horse in the Northeast, or to be more accurate, the last 15° of the Northeast which is the Tiger direction. This will help to increase Yang energy, activate the Tiger’s wealth potential as well as not activating the Tai Sui with movement.

Sell faster for more with Feng Shui Home Staging

All of the above top ten Feng Shui for Home Staging tips will help your home sale move along smoothly and reduce the stress that sometimes comes with selling your home. They will also keep your hip pocket, your realtor and your buyers happy.

Sometimes though, there is a property that just sits on the market. It’s as if no matter how much styling, marketing or pricing you do, the buyers and offers are non-existent. This is when it is time to call in a professional to help. In these cases, there are usually one or two Feng Shui culprits from the advanced Feng Shui schools that are interfering in the sale that an experienced practitioner will be able to find and fix.

Feng Shui and Property Sales Resources

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Dean French

With over two decades of practical Feng Shui experience, Dean is known for his down-to-earth attitude and his direct and honest communication. A writer for Wellbeing Predictions and former writer for Wellbeing Astrology magazines, he has turned to a wider audience through this website. Visit deanfrench.com.au to book an Astrology reading or Feng Shui consultation.

11 thoughts on “Home Staging With Feng Shui

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  8. Good day

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    Kind Regards,

    Gladis

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11 thoughts on “Home Staging With Feng Shui

  1. Good day! deanfrenchfengshui.com Your method improves the probability that my home will be sold.

  2. Hi there to every body, it’s my first pay a visit of this blog; this weblog carries amazing and truly good data in favor of visitors.

  3. I just couldn’t leave your web site before suggesting that I really
    enjoyed the usual information a person supply in your visitors?
    Is going to be again continuously in order to check up on new posts

  4. Somebody necessarily assist to make severely articles I might
    state. That is the first time I frequented
    your website page and so far? I surprised with the analysis you made to
    create this particular post incredible. Magnificent task!

  5. I am regular reader, how are you everybody?
    This post posted at this website is truly pleasant.

  6. Generally I do not read article on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very pressured me to try and do it! Your writing style has been surprised me. Thank you, quite nice article.

  7. Spot on with this write-up, I truly believe that this web site needs
    a lot more attention. I’ll probably be returning to read
    more, thanks for the advice!

  8. Good day

    I wanted to reach out and let you know your website is stylish and informative. We’ve had a lot of success with it so far and I love it.

    Kind Regards,

    Gladis

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *