Creating a Space Women Buyers Would Crave: Making the Most of Usable Living Space

By Charlene Storozuk, Dezigner Digz

Last year I wrote an article about giving purpose to every inch of usable space. Not only is that important, but it’s also key that these bonus areas help make your listing memorable.

Here is the before photo of an open area in the master bedroom of a small townhouse we recently staged.  As you’ll see, the home owners were using this area of the master bedroom as a mini-gym. There’s nothing wrong with that when you are living in the home. In fact, I thought it was a really good use of the space as it served their needs — they didn’t want to use the equipment downstairs in the basement.

However, now that the home owners were planning on selling, I needed to focus on this area to make the listing pop. Sure, this space already did serve a purpose, but it wasn’t what I felt would appeal to the majority of potential buyers.

Based on the demographics of the neighborhood and the size of the home and yard, I determined that the potential buyers would most likely be a young, professional couple – first-time buyers, without children. So I decided to appeal to the female audience and create a luxe space where she could pamper herself and take a bit of “me time” before they start a family.

Therefore, I went with the idea of designing a dressing room. (The female version of a man cave, I guess.)  Not everyone has a space in their home that they can forfeit to turn into a dressing room, so in my mind, I view a dressing room as somewhat of a guilty pleasure or luxury.

I ran with this idea and sourced a mirrored dressing table to give the space a Hollywood glam feel. The addition of a dress form, jewelry and lingerie shopping bags, chocolate splayed on the table and, if you look closely, a bottle of red wine sitting in a stiletto shoe wine stand for effect.

And not just any bottle I might add. I came across a California wine by the name of Mad Housewife that I thought would add some humor to the vignette.

It’s the little touches that help to make a home memorable and hopefully evoke emotion in potential buyers. I guarantee that most ladies viewing this home remembered this space.

So when putting your home on the market, be sure that you haven’t missed an opportunity to make your home stand out from the crowd.  If you’re stuck, a professional Home Stager will be able to help you.

Now that the townhouse has sold and been de-staged, here lies the challenge: Helping to sell this home was relatively easy — the real challenge now?  Making sure that the bottle of Mad Housewife doesn’t “disappear.”  It’s now part of my staging inventory after all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Charlene Storozuk is the owner of Dezigner Digz, a professional home staging and interior decorating company based in Burlington, Ontario. Her work is featured in the book FabJob Guide To Become A Home Stager, 2009 edition. Sheserves as regional vice-president, Canada for the Real Estate Staging Association and is a past recipient of the North American Leadership Award for her work as founder and president of the Halton & Hamilton-Wentworth RESA Chapter.