How to Stage the Attic When You’re Trying to Sell Your House

There’s a lot to think about when your house is on the market, including how to stage it. Maybe your home is already perfectly organized, decorated in neutrals, and devoid of any personal photos. But for everyone else, staging your home is work.

Between the kitchen, living room, hallways, bathrooms, and bedrooms, you probably have more than enough to do. But what about the attic? Will potential buyers just assume it’s an unfinished mess filled with dusty boxes? Or, will they expect something more? Ronda Kaysen at the New York Times has some answers. Here’s what to know.

How to stage your attic

First of all, Kaysen says to resist the urge to spend time and money on any major projects to stage your unfinished attic, and instead, focus on making the ground floor a place a stranger will want to live.

“The point of staging is to have a buyer walk in and absolutely fall in love with the space and feel like, ‘I’m trading what I have now for something better,’” Donna Dazzo, the owner of home staging and redesign company Designed to Appeal, tells the New York Times. “That’s where your dollars should go because you need to engender that feeling.”

But, in the event that you’re satisfied with the rest of the house and have money to spare, Kaysen has some ideas to help your unfinished attic look more polished. For example, if you have a large, open space, you can put down a few yoga mats, an exercise ball, and some weights. Or, put some sheets and a duvet on an air mattress and create a makeshift bedroom, or a desk and chair near a window for an office.

If you really want to get fancy, you can paint the walls, ceiling, and floors white, and then add a few pieces of furniture and decor. The idea, Dazzo says, is to give the buyer a sense of how they can use the space.