7 interior design hacks every agent should know

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When the flicker of home staging and its empty realities crystallize, buyer’s remorse can set in. Guiding buyers out of neutral with design hacks every agent should know offers buyers a window into a personalized palette unique to their style and needs.

Staging vs. design

Let’s begin by identifying the key difference between staging and design. Staging is a story of mass appeal. It’s a complete depersonalization of the home, a new story the seller wants to tell.

Design is the dramatic opposite. It’s the personalization of a home. When that realization hits, and the buyer is left with greige walls and the memory of minimalist pieces, it’s a developing story. One that agents must unravel.

A critical decision-making time

Don’t count on buyers being resourceful. The stager’s job was done, a wide net was cast, and the buyer was caught in its web, seduced by staging’s broad appeal. Not exactly the story of the spider and the fly because staging’s “third wall” is fully transparent, and the buyer gets it.

But, it’s the solid hacking skills of agents that will secure offers and seal deals by identifying buyer needs and solutions to make a house a home. 

In market shifts, look to these 7 design hacks

1. Carpet hack: The basic rug rule is measure twice, buy once 

If all of the furniture in the room is entirely on the rug, the rug is too big. Size the rug for the grouping, not for the size and dimensions of the room. Choose a large enough carpet where the front of the couch and upholstered pieces are on it, with at least three inches of carpet in front of the legs to anchor the furniture.

2. Numbers hack: You can’t go wrong with these design numbers

Drapery rule: Low drapes equal low ceiling. Drapery should be installed 8 inches to 10 inches above the window frame to visually raise the ceiling and give it the illusion of height. This design hack corrects rooms with low ceilings and creates a luxurious and dramatic feel for rooms with high ceilings.

Traffic pattern passage: Most buyers purchase or move too much furniture, or their furniture is too big to properly fit a room. Without leaving a 28- to 30-inch traffic passage, previously staged rooms that appeared large will become small. 

Artwork height: Another common error is improperly hanging art, without regard to the installer’s eye or height. Hung properly, art placement is 54 inches.

3. Deceiving hack: Trompe l’oeil, an age-old design hack, is making a comeback 

French for “fool the eye,” these are tricky solutions that solve problems by “creating” visual space or adding artsy detail:

• Stacking art to heighten a narrow space
• Using wallpaper to depict a mural, a stone wall, architectural detail or window in a windowless room or bath.
• Disguising paneling and plank flooring with paint
• Disguising a metal condo door (when the HOA won’t allow replacement) by painting the door’s interior black or a dark saturated color to complement the foyer. Looks like a wood upgrade.
• Adding wall trim, squares or vertical rectangles as an effective visual device to break up a large expanse of wall in a room or up a staircase, in lieu of hanging frame after frame of art that lacks pattern and detracts from design.

4. HGTV hack: Think Chip and Joanna Gaines-style shiplap

From barn house to farmhouse, this design hack of reclaimed lumber for walls and ceilings was popularized on the HGTV show Fixer Upper. Shiplap, also known as tongue-and-groove, hides popcorn ceilings, adds accent walls and opens up small spaces, drawing the eye up with its vertical planks. The new trend is nickel gap, panels spaced a nickel-width apart, offering a less country, transitional design.

5. Integrating hack: Combine personal style in hardware and lighting

Trade modern recessed lighting with transitional pendant lighting. This hack is an instant DIY success using a pendant light recessed can conversion kit that transforms a space by swapping out a high hat for a decorative pendant over a kitchen island, in a hallway, living room or other space.

Run a transformative hardware design throughout the house. For a personalized design theme applied to both lighting and hardware, go modern or vintage by adding new handles, knobs or pulls to kitchen cabinetry, and replace switch plates and door knobs in a variety of finishes.

6. Kitchen reno hack: Opt for open shelving, wall-mounted plate racks and painted cabinets 

Upper cabinets can quickly feel heavy in a small kitchen. A demoed vanilla-box kitchen can quickly go from spacious to confining once traditional cabinetry is installed. Open shelving and wall-mounted plate racks that flank the range hood are functional, charming and a space-saver that won’t eat up visual square footage.

If the budget doesn’t call for a rip-out, paint the cabinets, switch up hardware and lighting, and opt for a contrasting color for an existing island. Deep saturated colors are trending over all white. For a good stain-blocker paint primer that even covers formica, look for Zinsser Bin alcohol-based primer.

7. Placement hacks: Room shapes that create design, mood and space

Knowing basic room shapes and conversation groupings takes the guesswork out of judging adaptable room spaces and avoids the “now let’s try the couch over here” approach: 

• L-shaped furniture placement creates a room-to-room boundary
• V-shaped furniture placement creates a hallway or entryway where none exists
• Non-perimeter furniture placement in various room shapes avoids a “waiting room” effect
• Symmetrical seating for cozy nooks, dens and fireplace settings creates drama
• Two rectangular placement areas for large rooms avoid a furniture showroom effect

The agent provides, but the buyer decides

As a perpetual design hacker in my own home and throughout various homes I have listed over the years, having solutions at your fingertips brings with it an air of confidence, savvy and artful value to the homebuyer at every stage of the homebuying process. 

When a buyer sizes up a house to be a home, it brings a very personalized and nuanced set of challenges to the agent who needs to be prepared with a straightforward list of design hacks. An agent doesn’t have to be the decorator, but the agent does have to be the provider of design solutions so the buyer can choose their own design. The agent provides. The buyer decides.

Annette DeCicco is a real estate broker and director of growth and development at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Jordan Baris Realty in Northern New Jersey.