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13 Home-Staging Secrets

Whether you're designing to sell or designing to dwell, here's how the home-staging pros get that "I have to have it!" look — and how their tips and tricks can make your own home look like a million bucks.

By Leah Hennen
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12. Accessorize With Threes
« 11. Rearrange Your Art | 13. Bring the Outdoors In »
Mixing the right accessories, as designer Phyllis Harbinger does here, can make a room all the more inviting — for buyers or for guests. When it comes to eye-pleasing accessorizing, odd numbers are preferable, especially threes. Rather than setting your trio of accessories out in a row, imagine a triangle and place one object at each point. Scale is important, too, so in your group of three be sure to vary items by height and width, with the largest at the back and the smallest in front.

"On a side table, for instance, you might have a lamp, a plant or flower arrangement and a book or a small box," home stager Barb Schwarz explains. For maximum effect, group accessories by color, shape, texture or some other unifying element, stagers suggest. Another hint from Linda Russell, owner of HouseDressing in Montclair, N.J. and agent on HGTV's Bought & Sold: The eye naturally "reads" the room from left to right, so putting a striking object in the far right corner will automatically draw your gaze there and make the room seem bigger.



1. Make an Entrance

2. Conquer Clutter

3. Less Is More

4. Float Furniture

5. Mix It Up


6. Repurpose Unused Rooms

7. Let Light In

8. Light It Up

9. Use Color Creatively

10. Paint It Black


11. Rearrange Your Art

12. Accessorize With Threes

13. Bring the Outdoors In


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