If you want to make a swift sale of your home — and at the right price — it pays to show it off to its maximum potential. The goal is not only to prompt an offer, but also to ensure that house hunters don’t have any reason to haggle on the list price. Here are some tips for styling a property to make a great first impression.

Take a Step Back

A good place to start when beginning the process of selling your home is to imagine how potential buyers will see it.

When you’re selling, you need to step back, take a deep breath and start looking at it with fresh eyes — potential-buyers’ eyes.

Grab a pen and notepad and walk around each space, making a note of all the potential snagging points and areas that could be improved.

To help you see your home in a new light, take photos. Grab a camera and take a wide-angled landscape shot from each corner of every room. Look at the photos carefully and see what stands out. Do you need to replace pillows, buy new bed linens, add a few plants or declutter surfaces? Looking at your property through a picture will help you refine your spaces.

Repair and Retouch

Before you put your home on the market, it’s a good idea to do any maintenance or repairs that could put buyers off or prompt them to offer a lower price.

Remember, most new homeowners will want to move in right away, so the idea of having to replace, repair or redecorate can be off-putting.

Potential buyers can also accidentally make massively inflated valuations based on what they believe certain repair and replenishment works will cost. By getting these jobs done in advance, you’ll make the property more saleable and give buyers less wiggle room when it comes to making an offer.

Badly done work can also have a negative impact. Use reliable tradespeople and professionals as much as possible. 

Neutralize the Decor

To encourage buyers to imagine the potential of your home, avoid decor that can be distracting. Try to keep the wall colors neutral.

Instead of buying new furniture, make it work with the rest of the room. Bring in some modern pieces to help pull the scheme together in an eclectic style. It will have a great effect without a major price tag.

Declutter

Allow potential buyers to see the space available in your property by keeping the rooms as decluttered as possible. Potential buyers will find it hard to look beyond the clutter. They’ll want to see the space available and how their furniture will work in your house. A messy and chaotic home detracts from the property itself and causes some buyers to walk away, as they can’t see what’s behind the clutter.

A good way to declutter is to classify items as either ‘practical,’ ‘beautiful’ or ‘sentimental’ and assign to each a value from 1 to 10 to decide whether to keep it. Anything under 5 can be donated or recycled.

Don’t hang on to things you don’t need. Starting this process early will also give you an advantage when you move into your new home. Organization is also key for buyers. 

Make It Look Lived-In

While a light, neutral scheme allows viewers to see the bones of your home, an empty property won’t have quite the same effect.

If you’re planning to sell a vacant property, staging makes a huge difference. It allows buyers to visualize the space and, if done well, can transform an empty shell into a home.

Eliminate Odors

It’s not just the appearance of your home that will influence viewers — the scent is also important. An unpleasant smell will immediately put off potential buyers. So address any smells, such as dog, dampness or cigarette smoke.

Remove any evidence of pets, such as a smelly bed, and clean the carpet and upholstery to refresh the space.

If necessary, call in an expert to find out where water is seeping into the house and fix the problem of mildew and mold. It could be broken gutters or poor drainage outside the house. These should not be excessively costly to fix, but will certainly be harder to deal with as the problem gets worse.

Brighten It Up

Both natural and artificial light can be used to show your property at its best. Your house needs to be bright and well lit for viewings to demonstrate the true size of the space. Therefore, consider how your lighting looks in each room.

Pull back curtains and open blinds to make the most of the natural light, but also think about creating an ambiance by positioning additional lamps on side tables around the room. 

They say the key to organization is a place for everything and everything in its place. This is true for even your kitchen utensils. These include your everyday flatware as well as the many small but mighty cooking tools a serious cook requires. Here are some options for storing your utensils, in any space and on any budget.

Step One: Eliminating

Before you can organize any part of your home properly, you need to do some culling, and this is especially true in the kitchen. Drawers can quickly become filled with unused tools and gadgets, so take a hard look at the items you own and find as many as possible to give away or box up.

You may never get your collection of utensils down to the perfectly minimal arrangements, but the more items you can eliminate, the easier it will be to store and find the truly useful ones. Never use the little dessert spoons that came with your cutlery set? Only used that special spatula the one time? Stash these items away in less reachable spaces such as upper cabinets to free up more prime cabinet real estate.

If Renovating, Make a Plan for Success

If you’re renovating or building a kitchen, you shouldn’t put off the organizational considerations until all the construction is complete. Thinking in advance about how to hold your collection of tools will produce a much better result. Planning to include a few drawers specifically sized for utensils will save a lot of potentially wasted space.

Typical cutlery trays aren’t very wide. Your basic eating utensils get used every day, but they don’t need that much space. A drawer just 10 to 12 inches wide will provide the right amount of space for those items without the need to have them share space with whisks and ladles.

Give Depth Some Thought

Besides considering the width of the drawers, don’t forget to think about the depth. Drawers are often 6 to 8 inches deep because the cabinet has been split evenly into three to four drawers. However, a 4- to 5-inch-deep drawer  is all you need to store well-organized utensils. Using more and shallower drawers keeps items from getting piled on top of each other and lost in the mix.

Ideally, you should look at the collection of utensils you have or plan to have and map out exactly how much space they will need. This takes some extra effort upfront, but you will end up with a much better allocation of space than by simply choosing drawers in an arbitrary width. You can try laying out your utensils on a dining table to get a visual picture and some measurements of how much space they ideally would get.

Mix Drawers and Doors

Often people think of drawer cabinets and basic shelf cabinets as being two separate things, but they definitely can be mixed to meet your needs more efficiently.

Cabinets with a drawer at the top and doors and shelves below allow smaller, often-used items to be placed at a more reachable height, with the shelf storage left for more occasional items and oversized pieces. If you use lots of small chef’s tools when you cook, consider including many utensil drawers at the top level. It will save you a lot of bending down over time.

Consider Going Vertical

Want to tidy up your cutlery drawer without having to assign each piece an individual place? Try a drawer with vertical cutlery bins that let you simply drop in pieces with long handles such as spatulas and slotted spoons and pull them out easily. You’ll be able to see each piece, and you won’t have to remember exactly where you got it later.

This style of cabinet can make a great use of skinny spaces left over in your cabinet plans, such as the small spaces next to a range or sink.

You can store flatware vertically too. Cleverly retrofit a deeper drawer into a cutlery drawer by dividing it into small, deep compartments. Just be sure you don’t store sharp items this way, or you may dull the blades (and risk accidents as well).

Create Layers

Another way to make the best use of deep drawers is to break them up internally into layers. You can either use a built-in drawer divider system or find a layered drop-in unit.

A tiered organizer can create compartments smaller than an individual drawer to gain maximum space efficiency. Just keep in mind that the upper layer will partially cover the lower layer or will need to be slid individually, so you should put the most-used items on the most reachable tier.

Retrofitting: What Are the Options?

Built-in, custom-fitted trays may not always be an option, especially when working with existing cabinetry. However, there are many alternatives available.

Single Trays

A classic single cutlery tray is sometimes all you need, but keep in mind that these trays are not truly one-size-fits-all. Finding one that comes close to filling your drawer width will provide more structure versus a small tray that shifts around with use. Measure the interior of your drawer and look for a tray that fills it. Online shops will usually have more size options than a small local kitchen supply store.

Configurable Trays

A step above the prefabricated single trays is a divider system made up of single compartments that can be mixed and matched like Tetris pieces to create spaces for all your items. If you can’t perfectly fill the full width, use the open space for a sturdy item such as a rolling pin or box of foil that will keep the other pieces from shifting.

Resizable Dividers

Another step closer to a custom built-in is a resizable divider system that lets you snap together pieces to create any size compartments you like. An advantage of this sort of system is that you can change the configuration later to fit a different mix of items, or even fit a new drawer if you move or renovate.

Open Storage Vessels

For those who don’t mind having some of their utensils on display, simple open vessels or jars make a great place to hold your often-used items.

This can look especially great in a kitchen that makes use of open shelving already, with the utensil jars becoming part of the overall chef’s kitchen appeal.

Hanging Rails

Another form of open storage is a rail that can be used to either hang utensils and tools directly via a curved handle or a hook or hang containers and holders to keep your utensils within easy reach but off the counter.

A wall-mounted system can be great for stealing a little storage space behind the range or elsewhere on the backsplash, which can be a lifesaver in a compact kitchen where every inch of storage space counts.

Pegboards

Like a rail, a pegboard can give you lots of flexible storage space on the wall. Whether this look is charmingly relaxed or too busy is a matter of personal taste, but if you like this aesthetic, it offers lots of practical options for arranging and rearranging your tools.

Wondering where to end your backsplash? Never even thought about it? It can be a surprisingly complex question. These tips will help you find the right place to stop your backsplash to get a crisp look in any kitchen.

From a designer perspective, the best time to stop a backsplash is … never! After all, when you’ve chosen a beautiful material, why wouldn’t you want more of it? Taking a backsplash wall to wall and counter to ceiling makes for continuity of line and definitely a dramatic effect.

Of course, in reality it isn’t always an option to cover every inch of wall in a coveted stone. Someone has to decide: Where should the finish end on the range wall? Above the range hood? Below it? In your project, the decisions can be simple or quite complicated, depending on multiple factors.

General Rule No. 1: 

Tile the Cabinet Walls

Opinions differ on this, but for a polished look tile just the main walls of the kitchen, those that back the cabinets, ending at the corners rather than wrapping around to finish the sides, if there are any. In the case of an odd corner, consider the whole corner part of the “back.”

In some cases, a “sidesplash” on a noncabinet wall can be functional and beautiful, but skipping it is the simplest way to avoid situations where elements don’t line up neatly. Typically, the counter, upper cabinets and wall all end at different places on the sides, leaving no definitive stopping point.

Small Kitchens 

Fully covering the wall usually is your best bet in a small kitchen or in a larger kitchen that has just a small area for the backsplash.

A layout, with just a single backsplash area between the fridge cabinet and the side wall, is common in galley kitchens in apartments and condominiums. Tiling the entire area in one material makes for the tidiest finish, which can help make the kitchen look its biggest.

Big Kitchens

In the case of a very large kitchen, or one with dramatically tall ceilings, taking tile to full height can bust the budget or completely overload the look. In a case like this, ending the tile vertically at the same line as the upper cabinets gives a better finish.

If you use a darker color for the tiles than the remaining upper wall, it can visually help bring down the apparent ceiling line and make the room feel a little more intimate.

In spaces with taller ceilings, a bulkhead often is used to fill in the void above the uppers. This also gives the tile a natural place to finish, so everything looks pleasingly framed in and there’s no empty space left to collect knickknacks and dust.

General Rule No. 2: 

Align Cabinets and Backsplash Edges

Knowing where to stop the tile horizontally is easy if your kitchen runs wall to wall, but what if it ends partway along a longer wall? In a case like this, where the kitchen cabinetry ends midroom, the best option is to end the upper cabinets, lower cabinets and backsplash all in one crisp line.

Of course, this requires the upper and lower cabinets to align crisply, which can take careful planning when laying out the kitchen. Using filler panels and adjusting the spacing around a window can help make cabinets end at the same place on the top and bottom, even if the widths of each cabinet don’t match perfectly above and below.

Other Tiling Considerations

Peninsulas

What about times when the upper and lower cabinets don’t align? A common place for this to occur is in U- or L-shaped kitchens where the uppers end over a peninsula. In this case, Experts suggest ending the backsplash in line with the uppers, so you still get a crisp vertical line.

Windows

Sometimes there will be very small areas of wall between windows and a counter or cabinet. It may be tempting to leave these areas empty and often easier on the tile installer, but the overall effect will be subtly tidier if you imagine the window does not exist when planning where to end the tile.

Modern Slab Backsplashes 

In a kitchen with modern styling and a cool slab backsplash, it’s extra important for the elements to align pleasingly, or the look can become sloppy. The cabinets and counter should be sized to line up perfectly. When installing a peninsula with an overhang, you can also add or subtract an inch or two of counter to make the math work out just right.

Traditional Slab Backsplashes 

Going for a more traditional or farmhouse-inspired look? A charming slab backsplash benefits from having some negative space left around it and doesn’t really need to line up with anything — in fact, it can be almost better if it doesn’t.

Edgy Tiles 

If you have an interesting tile shape, such as a hexagon, you can consider ending the tile with a messy edge to give a more relaxed appeal. This can apply to the horizontal ends and the verticals. 

Cabinet-Free Walls 

In L- or U-shaped kitchens that have large areas — or entire walls — with no upper cabinets, you can tile the empty wall full height or simply continue the upper line of the backsplash around the entire room.

Ending the backsplash with a shelf, even a shallow one, can give it a nice cap on walls where there are no other particular ending points such as a window or cabinet.

Differing Heights 

In a kitchen with many items at different heights, use the bottom of the cabinets as a main stopping point, with possibly a little exception at the range for a taller backsplash up to the hood. 

In more traditional kitchens, sometimes the tile will run even a little above the bottom of the cabinets, which gives a pleasing overlap that feels more relaxed and reduces the need to cut tiles into tiny slivers.

Another way to solve any backsplash height conundrums is to use an elegant short backsplash, just a few inches tall. This way, you can run it around the entire counter at one unbroken height and leave the rest of the wall a uniform color.

You can also pair a short backsplash with a second backsplash material, so you have one style, usually the more high-end material, such as a stone slab, run continuously and then a second material in pieces where needed to fill in.

One Last Cost-Saving Idea

Keep in mind, a full-height backsplash may not be as budget-busting or as visually overwhelming as you would think. A classic porcelain tile, with an optional contrast grout, can give a sophisticated, classic look for just a few dollars per square foot, meaning it can actually be a more luxe-looking option than a higher-end material used in a conservative dose.