If you’re selling your home, replacing or adding wall art is a great way to create a clean slate for the next owners. This is why good home staging art is a key part of staging your home when the time comes to do so. When we say “good home staging art,” we’re not talking about the quality of the art because we’re not art critics. We’re talking about choosing art that will enhance the interior style of your home, won’t distract buyers during showings, and might even inspire buyers to keep your home in the running.

As a home staging company with years in the business, we know what kind of art will enhance your home’s features and help create a cohesive interior decorating look you need when trying to sell. Here are some tips on choosing “good artwork” for home staging:

Keep Home Staging Art Simple and Classy

Don’t think that an art piece being larger inherently means it’s better. The scale of your artwork should fit naturally with the scale of the wall you’re hanging it on. Covering a small-to-medium size wall in your living room with a massive painting, as beautiful as it may be, will just look obnoxious instead of stylish. Use art as an accent for the room it’s in; don’t allow it to take control of the space completely.

Also, when it comes to choosing art for home staging, it’s easy nowadays to find pieces that look like fine art paintings or photography, without spending the kind of money you would for original art pieces from famous artists. Local home stores have plenty of wall art with a perceived value that’s much higher than the actual prices end up being. In other words, they look a lot more expensive than they are. This makes it even easier to purchase simple, classy artwork that brings the room together.

Keep It PG

PG isn’t an industry term—we literally mean PG as in the movie rating. Don’t hang artwork that could potentially be offensive or off-putting to buyers. Avoid any artwork with nudity, violence, and other mature content. Even if you appreciate it, not everyone will. Focus on artwork that showcases pleasant visuals like beautiful photography of a natural landscape or even stylish, abstract imagery. As a rule, we also recommend staying away from art with people in it altogether. This includes silhouettes and figurative renderings as well as abstract paintings of the human form.

Avoid Religious Imagery

Just like with artwork depicting mature content, there’s nothing inherently wrong with religious imagery, but it might deter potential clients. When you’re living in a home, you can put as much religious artwork on display as you want. That being said, if you use religious artwork to stage a home for buyers, you run the risk of personalizing your property too much. The point of staging is to strip your personality from the home and provide buyers with a solid jumping-off point to begin injecting their own personality into the home after closing the deal.

Choose Wall Art that Compliments the Room

Successful home stagers choose art that blends in with the room decor and compliments it in terms of color and style. Wall paint, furniture, and some decor should be of one or two calming colors such as light blue, gray, cream, or white. Choose wall art that matches the neutral color scheme or add a small pop of color that suits the other accent pieces you’ve added to the room’s decor. We recommend adding the wall art last, so you can be sure it matches and isn’t too distracting. If the piece seems to stick out compared to the other decor you’ve placed throughout the house, consider something else.

Home staging experts also recommend looking for art that contributes to the story your home is telling. Sure, the furniture and decor should be on the simpler side, but if your home has a contemporary look or Mediterranean-style architecture, it’s nice to compliment that with similarly-styles wall art. By choosing wall art that sort of “matches” your home’s best features, buyers are more likely to make a subconscious association that ultimately creates an emotional attraction to your home. It might seem small, but in today’s competitive real estate market, every little bit helps!

Thanks to this guide on how to choose art for home staging, you should have a better grasp of what we mean by “good artwork” in regard to this process. Now you’re ready to finally begin interior staging. The artwork you choose for staging should fit naturally and beautifully in the space you hang it and, most importantly, it shouldn’t have imagery on it that might alienate buyers. Don’t worry—once you move into your new place, you can hang any art that you want.

If you’re selling a home, our home staging experts can help you create a flawless interior space and attract a wide range of potential buyers. From artwork to furnishings for every room, our staging services are a no nonsense investment that will help you sell in today’s dynamic real estate landscape.