Stage the kids' room for a viewing: charming without chaos

The kids' room is the listing's emotional argument for every buying family — and at the same time the home's hardest room to stage, because it's inhabited by someone actively working against styling. The goal is a balance: the room should feel like a children's room, but photograph like a home.

What should show — and what shouldn't

• Show: a made bed, a reading nook, tidy storage and something playful (a teepee, a rocking horse)
• Show: soft colours — kids' rooms in muted tones appeal to adults, and it's adults who buy
• Don't show: the toy chaos, the laundry and the thousand small plastic pieces
• Don't show: a name on the wall or photos — the buyer's child should be able to move in mentally

The digital shortcut

Keeping a kids' room viewing-ready for weeks isn't a reasonable life. Photograph the room once when it's at its best — or let a digital tidy-up do the work: make the bed, clear the floor and tone down the personal, while the room's actual size and light are kept exactly.

Empty room that should become a kids' room?

Selling a three-room flat to families but you've used the small room as an office? Show it as a kids' room in an extra photo. In STAIGE you choose kids' room as the room type and describe the style — "bright kids' room with a cot and a reading nook" — and the family sees their life in the home right away.

The same trick the other way: show the room as a home office →