Tips to Style the Perfect Guest Room

Unless you have a continuous flow of visitors through your home, your guest room is, no doubt, a dumping ground, a laundry, and a storage area for the rest of your house. But when you are selling your home, you want potential buyers to see it as a home-away-from-home for their guests.

First, you’ll need to declutter, pack away all but the most useful personal items so that you have a blank canvas from which to work. You can store items in lidded baskets or clear plastic storage containers that you can put away in the cupboards. Remember, less is more when staging your home because this makes your space more welcoming and allows the buyer to visualise themselves in it.

Most buyers find it easier to imagine themselves in a room painted in neutral colours. If the walls in your guest room are in bold colours that are not necessarily to everyone’s taste, it is worth repainting them in a neutral colour. Repainting a bedroom is one of the most inexpensive and effective ways of creating a backdrop to a room that showcases its other saleable features.

The focal point of any guest room is, of course, the bed, which means you need to give it pride of place. Positioning the bed to take advantage of any views there may be or features within the room is essential. For instance, placing your bed opposite a window that has an outlook onto the garden will draw the buyer’s attention to the picturesque view and enhance the room’s feeling of spaciousness. Ideally, you should be able to walk around the bed comfortably too.

Then it is worth dressing the bed in fresh bed linen that is neutral in colour. While your taste may be more decorative, crisp white bedding is universally associated with high-end hotels. Most buyers can imagine enjoying the space. If you don’t have neutral bedding, investing in a new set of bedding doesn’t need to be expensive – and you can take it with you when you move to your next house.

Using neutral coloured bedding has the added advantage of allowing you to build up a multi-textured luxurious feeling for the bed by layering it with different items. You can do this by adding scatter cushions of various sizes, textures, and patterns to introduce colour and some charm to the room. A textured throw in a neutral colour, for instance, in wool or faux fur, provides a tactile accent, and gives the bed a finishing touch.

The next step is to make sure you have all the practicalities needed in a guest room. Bedside tables and lamps are a must. A chair is a nice-to-have, optional extra that introduces another element of comfort and relaxation to the room if you have space for one. Keep it simple and stylish, with the bedside tables, bed, and chair all in the same colour range and furniture style.

Once you have the basics set up, it’s time to add the accessories that complete the buyer’s experience of a sumptuous guest room. A fresh vase of flowers or an indoor plant adds freshness to the room. A few well-placed paintings draw attention to different aspects of the room. You can also place books on the side tables, which encourages the buyer to imagine lying back and enjoying the space.

Often the guest room is seen as the least important room in the house. However, spending time and effort, creating a cozy and welcoming space for buyers adds considerably to the saleability of your home.