Duvets for viewing - white or prints?

[Activemum81]

I was thinking white/ cream - will that be too boring? Shall I get some nice simple light prints instead?

I would, and I'd go for white.

When we sold our flat, I put new (white) pillow case covers on the pillows every time we had a viewing, and took them off and hung them up in the wardrobe at the end of the day so they remained unused.

Maybe it's something to do with the way we sleep, but our pillows always look rumpled, even when I try to smooth them, and I did notice it when I looked at houses. It's an odd area of fastidiousness with me (along with grimy sinks, bleurgh) that is totally belied by the amount of dust on my bookcases....

I just shook out the duvet, though, that seemed to look fresh enough despite use.

Whatever you decide, don’t actually use them day to day, just keep them for viewings. That way you will always have nice clean and ironed duvet covers. We also did th same for towels and bath mats

GrassStains Glad I'm not the only one. I accept I may have been a little overheated with the new pillowcase thing, but I like to think I'm one of a tribe.

Oops, grassstains, I forgot I'd NCd from my alter ego Dolores. Never mind, I'm sure everyone's got better things to do than track down my two personas. They wouldn't discover anything very exciting.

I have only ever taken note of bedding in 2 houses I viewed. One was because I had to wait ages before the agent shut up and let us leave and I was bored witless and the second one was because we liked the house and once again were there for a long time.

One was a little house in Central London which was clearly not used much and I remember that the bedding was a very expensive white cotton with Broderie Anglaise trim. The other was also an expensive white cotton with a Broderie Anglaise trim, in both of the larger rooms. I noticed because I only like white, good quality bedding. We didn't buy either property.

However the properties we have bought have been simply tidy and I have no idea what the bedding or towels were like so apart from envy at the white cotton there was really no incentive to buy the property because of it. I look for things like cracks in walls, damp smells and patches and missing roof tiles, sizes of rooms and how many bathrooms.

Thanks ladies, I get the point. STAGE LIKE CRAZY. Please pop on my other thread to help me understand this !!

it really is lovely to view a beautifully staged house! You think to yourself ‘the bedrooms look relaxing, and the lounge cozy’.

I totally disagree with this.
If a house looks all staged' or 'dressed' like a showhome, it makes me think "... but where would we put all our 'stuff'?" I then get wary of it being 'dressed' with smaller sized beds / settees etc like they do in show homes to give the impression of space. I like a house to look like a family lives there.
I might be unusual, but I even get put off by an immaculate garden - it makes me think ".. oh no, this is going to be really time consuming and expensive to maintain"

back sometimes dressing a place isn't making it immaculate- a family home would prob do best immaculate but relaxed. It's about selling a lifestyle...

I would also be very suspicious of 'staging'. money spent on that may conceal lack of fixes.

and stinky perfumes instantly shout ' this house is damp'

I have several sets of White Company bed linen for every bed. White fluffy towels too. If anyone viewed they would see this as standard. I would never buy cheap tat just for show! A white cotton duvet cover of a high thread count is essential in our house. We don’t have damp, poor storage, small settee or nasty smells. I would be selling style! The beds are part of it. I tend to think that bed linen says a lot about a house!

White. It's sophisticated and classic. There's a reason why hotels don't have patterned covers.

The thing is, nobody is meant to notice or remember your duvet cover. But you want them to get a feeling the house was fresh, cared for, clean, welcoming, a bit stylish but up to date, hey I want to move in...

A smartly dressed bed in the master bedroom vs a crumpled old duvet will contribute to that. For the average house, obviously a renovation project is different. But this is about making an average house as good as it can be.

My fur-shedding long-haired black cat is snickering at me for even reading this thread. .

I borrowed a nice expensive looking quilted throw and cushions so I could cover the bed for viewings and whip off after (so no changing back and forth). Was same for photos. We didn't "stage" as such but de-cluttered into temporary storage and bought a new shower curtain and matching towels for e.g. (stuff we could take with us). Kept our style and family vibe but the version I wish it was rather than the monstrous mess reality! I think it really helped people see themselves living there (sold a week after we put it on market)

The last thing I would be looking at when purchasing a house is the bedding. I didn't even realise this was something someone would think about.

Rosemary in no way am I superior but definitely rational.

I think the point is that it is unconcious, not that people choose to buy a house on a bedcover. Unconciously, we DO notice, si actually it is important to think about this stuff.

Most of our thought processes, which actually influence our decision making process, are unconcious.

Many people are buying a lufestyle with a house, which is why subtle staging makes a big difference.

at mercurial123

Not everyone thinks the same. I'm not interested in anyone's lifestyle and what their taste is. My main concern is location and price. I have enough imagination to know what a room could look like once decorated. I've seen too many houses refurbished cheaply to sell but have major issues. I viewed a house like this early in the year cheap kitchen and bathroom put in but the roof desperately needed replacing.

My fur-shedding long-haired black cat is snickering at me for even reading this thread

My cat is white so if I ever sell I am 100% staging with white bed covers!

Rosemary in no way am I superior but definitely rational.

Look, if people were so god dam rational and above all the sales-influences... there would be no money spent on advertising, product placement, visual merchandising in stores, huge amounts of science behind where to position offers in stores etc

There is a reason why the best properties sell when all things appear equal, eg room sizes, quality of kitchen and bathrooms etc. Generally it’s appeal to a buyer. They can imagine themselves living in that house. It’s far better to take a bit of trouble (if the house is worth it) and entice buyers! If it’s a good house,(perfect in other respects) why not dress it a bit? It costs little and viewers in the main appreciate it. By all means indicate storage, room sizes and uses but people like a clean and uncluttered house to view and white bed linen helps a great deal. However but something lovely - use it. Cheap tat never is nice to sleep in!

I do think that a small minority of buyers are entirely rational BTW. They are the ones who snap up bargain properties in good areas which are structurally sound but require cosmetic improvement .

But the Op isn’t aiming at them, she’s aiming at the average viewer who wants to see themselves living there and is buying a lifestyle.

It takes a couple of weekends work and a few hundred pounds to put 5-10k on many houses. Why not do it ?

We sold our lovely flat in the middle of summer. I put brand new white pintuck bedding onto our winter duvet and the spare pillows so that on viewing days, I could just throw our summer duvet into an Ikea bag and put it in my car - much faster to remake the bed that way than to start swapping duvet covers at 8am.

Similarly, my son's bedroom had plain, pastel-coloured walls and normally he had bold car or digger bedding. I knew the people viewing might not have children so used the spare single duvet in a white duvet cover with broderie anglaise, making it easier to picture his bedroom as a spare bedroom suitable for adult visitors. Most of his toys were in put away in the built-in storage and that was helpful to show buyers how good the storage was, but anything that didn't fit (mainly largish plastic vehicle toys) went into the boot of my car on viewing days.

Staging can mean new furniture etc, I know, but our furniture is generally pretty good so I just bought some slightly different scatter cushions for the sofas that I knew would work well in photos.

We sold for above asking in a falling market and set a new ceiling for our block, so I'm happy we did it. All in all, we probably spent £200-300 on dressing (apart from occasional fresh flowers etc which we'd have had anyway) so it felt well worth it.

White is the only acceptable colour imo.