Articles and Advice

The Best Lighting For Staging a Home

Appliances and decor are important for staging your home, but those won't matter in bad lighting. Here's how you can choose the right light bulbs.

Whether you're staging your home yourself or hiring professionals to do it, you should know a bit about lighting. Most staging advice has to do with these three areas:

using furniture or furnishings to show off the house to good advantage;
fixing up all the dings and cracks and dents and scuffs so your home will look bright, shiny, and in good repair;
arranging things so the home looks big, roomy, and inviting

But what about using lighting to enhance the overall appearance of your home?

Lighting matters because potential buyers are turned off by a dark house. What's more, as real estate experts will tell you, you'll get better offers for your home when it's well lit.

How Lighting Can Enhances Staging

The right kind of lighting will help your home look better in subtle ways. For instance, a tall room will look smaller if the lighting is placed low and doesn't reach the ceiling. Lighting used the right way will make a too-small room look bigger: you can push a wall open by focusing light on it. If a room seems too narrow, you can illuminate the wide sides; conversely, you can train the light on the narrow ends for a wide room.

Lightbulbs: Which Type?

With the right bulb, you can do the following:

make a room look more spacious
focus on architectural details or points of interest
brighten up a space while minimizing dark areas

A few decades ago, there was only one kind of lightbulb, the incandescent, which might be 40 watt, 60 watt, or 100 watt, and clear or frosted. These days, the choice in lightbulbs can be confusing: in addition to the incandescent, there's the CFL fluorescent or the standard fluorescent (these have mercury so must be disposed of as hazardous waste); halogen (these burn very hot); and LED bulbs — the best choice, as they last a long time and are inexpensive.

Lightbulbs are sold by "colors," which are based on number of Kelvin units: lower Kelvins means more of the yellow light we associate with a cozy and warm ambience, while higher Kelvins create whiter or bluer light. You can choose from Soft White, Warm White, Bright White, and Daylight. Your choice will depend on what you want to accentuate and how.

Here's how the types of lights are most frequently used:

Incandescents, which are being phased out of the market due to their inefficiency, have a warm glow and are fine for living areas and bedrooms.
CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) may be used in living areas and bedrooms. Because they contain mercury and require special cleaning in a break, keep them in set fixtures instead of lamps. CFLs are not particularly popular with consumers and may disappear from the marketplace.
Standard fluorescents give off a cold, flat, bluish light, which can be harsh. They are often used in basements or attics to provide strong lighting.
LEDs are another good choice for general lighting but are much more energy-efficient than incandescent. They are often used to showcase art because they don't emit much heat, nor do they produce ultraviolet or infrared light.
Halogen, which is close to daylight, makes colors appear sharper. They are often used for recessed cans, under-cabinet lighting, or in pendant lights to make a space look brighter.

Mastering the fundamentals of staging with lighting is a relatively easy way to increase your chances of getting the price you want for your home. It's worthwhile to make a small investment in lightbulbs and practice your lighting staging skills.

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The Best Lighting For Staging a Home

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