Mastering the Master Bedroom
Close your eyes and imagine a luxurious hotel room. After you get a firm image in your mind, take a look around your master bedroom. Does it say relaxed luxury or is this week’s laundry hanging on the treadmill in the corner?
If your reality is the latter, then it’s time to return the master bedroom to its intended use — an inviting couple’s retreat and centre for relaxation and — ahem — restoration.
The master bedroom should look like a retreat for two. Convey this to the buyer by showing two pairs of pillows on the bed — two sleeping pillows, two pillows in shams, two toss pillows. Using layers of pillows builds a bed that suggests to buyers climbing in and getting a good night’s sleep. Use this same “built for two” notion when you add accessories — place a pair of gender-neutral prints on the wall, a pair of candles or a pair of bird figurines on the dresser.
It’s For Sleeping (And Other Stuff) – And that’s It!
The master bedroom needs to be . . . a master bedroom. You want it to look like a place to sleep and relax. If you’re doing anything else there that requires furniture or other items that stay in the room, you need to move, pack, and store those things. Especially anything that says “work.”
Here are the subtle messages buyers see when the master bedroom is a multipurpose room:
Home gym: That treadmill in the corner reminds a buyer that she just doesn’t have enough time in the day to work out. And when you think about it, is gym equipment the last thing you want to see when you go to sleep and the first thing you want to see when you get up in the morning? Just looking at it can wear you out.
If you’re using the treadmill as extra wardrobe space, draping it with clothes clean and otherwise, you’re telling the buyer that you don’t have enough storage space in the bedroom. Your best bet is to get the treadmill out of your bedroom altogether.
Home office: Some master bedrooms have an adjoining sitting area — great for relaxing and catching up on your latest recreational reading, not so good as an extension of your office.
Clear out the work-related reading materials, laptop, desk, and reference materials. But for every rule there is an exception. If the bedroom really is the only place for your home office, make sure it’s clean and orderly, and then add art and greenery to warm up the space. Figures 156 and
Laundry room: You need a place to fold laundry and iron the occasional outfit, sure, but the master bedroom is not that place. Buyers don’t want to be reminded that washing and ironing the family’s laundry are ever present tasks.
If your master bedroom is an extension of the laundry room — the spot where the family’s clothes are collected, folded, and pressed — equipping each bedroom with its own lidded clothes hamper gets everyone else’s clothes out of your room. Find another place for the iron and ironing board and store them away when you’re not using them. If you have five minutes to get ready for a showing, extra clutter can go into the hampers in each room or in the “shuffle duffle.”
Music room: In some cases, you just can’t find another place for that keyboard or guitar. If you can’t move them out of the room, then at least move them so they aren’t visible from the open doorway, where they’re more likely to become a distraction.
Keeping instruments in the master bedroom clutters the room and detracts from its tranquillity.
Creating the lifestyle message
The message you want to send to buyers looking at your house is that the master bedroom is a haven away from the rest of the world — even though this may not truly reflect the way you use it.
Use the following tips to create this refuge:
• Use neutral, plush bedding (and towels if the master bath adjoins the master bedroom). Plush bedding gives buyers the message that the bedroom is a great space to relax.
• Use four to six pillows: two with shams, at least two with solid pillow cases. Pillows send the message of luxury and a feeling you can “sink” in, relax, and get a good night’s sleep.
• Use a bed skirt or a bedspread that goes to the floor. You want to cover the bedsprings and add softness to the room.
• If the room is spacious enough, create a sitting area with a chair or two and a small side table and lamp. The sitting area says that the master suite is a great place to read quietly and unwind at the end of the day or a place to enjoy quiet time with a loved one.
