How to Replace Family Photos With Pictures When Selling a House

Replace family photos with less personal artwork when selling your home.

Home staging involves preparing your home for sale by improving its appearance. One of the most important home-staging steps is to “de-personalize” your home, which includes the removal of personalized artwork, such as family photographs, from walls and surfaces. Replacing these photographs with less personal artwork leads a potential buyer’s eye around your home while leaving room for them to imagine how their own individual artwork may be displayed in the home.

Instructions

1. Remove family photographs from walls and surfaces throughout your home. If you choose not to remove all family photos, limit yourself to one or two small photos on a nightstand or in a bookcase.

2. Select a single theme for pictures, such as black-and-white photography, landscapes, architecture or botanical prints. Themes may be used in a single room or throughout the home to create a cohesive design flow.

3. Choose pictures with similar color schemes and patterns for each room. The colors in the pictures should complement your wall color.

4. Pick out pictures with identical or similar frames. Frames for each room should be matched according to color, size and style.

5. Select artwork that fits the size and shape of the wall you need to fill. For example, use one large picture or a grouping of two or more smaller pictures to fill a large wall.

6. Leave some empty wall space in each room. This will help the rooms appear larger to potential buyers.

Tips & Warnings

• Repair any holes or damage previous pictures have left on the wall.

References

• Reader’s Digest.com: 13 Tips for Selling Your Home; Tara-Nicholle Nelson
• Home-Decorating-And-Staging.com: Art for Staging a Home