We’re thrilled to feature a guest blog from Anna Shepherd, a Hackney-based interior designer and founder of Life Design Stages. She shares insights into how staging can transform your sale, and why the first seven days on Rightmove really count. Planning a move (or just curious how to make your home shine online)? You’ll find plenty of advice below.
90% of buyers search online first, and uninspiring images get just two seconds. It’s mind-blowing that a house purchase can be decided on a 20-minute viewing. So when we say every second counts, we mean it.
Period features aren’t unique, room sizes aren’t special. But those same bones can have wildly different outcomes . In areas full of similar homes, thoughtful styling is what earns your listing 20 seconds, not 2.
The first 7–10 days on Rightmove or Zoopla are critical. This is your opportunity to secure the asking price. Online to IRL viewings are everything. Once you’ve got them through the door, you want minds made up by the exit, not by the time they get to the kitchen.
After that initial Rightmove buzz fades, your listing is old news. The only reliable way to regain interest? A 2% price drop. So investing just 1% of your asking price to get it right first time starts to make a lot of sense.
You know what Staging is, right? You’re reading this because (for now) you’re property people. You’ve seen it in Property magazines and ads for new-build flats. Maybe you’ve even thought about it, but dismissed the idea.
You can’t empty out your home of people and possessions for months, where would you all go? You can’t afford to not live there. Moving is expensive, you need to save for the costs… and stamp duty! You certainly don’t have £10–15k to spruce up the place you’re keen to leave!
You’re not hiring some expensive stylist from central London to make your Victorian terrace look like a Made.com showroom.
WHAT IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO?
What if staging worked around your life, not against it? What if it embraced your home’s character instead of erasing it?
So while you’re downloading that staging intel… what advice do we give clients like you to boost saleability?
Because you’re friends of Location Location, and that makes you friends of ours, we’ll spill this for free. A quick Google will give you many samey lists, but they all boil down to:
1. Use Fresh Eyes on the Drift
You’ve stopped seeing clutter and duplicates. Buyers haven’t, they spot it instantly. You need someone with no emotional ties to decide what adds and what distracts.
2. Tackle the ‘I Meant To’ Moments
That chipped front door makes an impression. The bike battered hallway? They’ve clocked it before you say hello. Yellowed bathroom silicone and tired tiles? It adds up. Alone, minor. Together, deal-breakers.
3. Stop the Scroll!
You’ve got 20 seconds to get a click. White walls are stylish, but rarely does it pop in listings. There are 10 homes like yours in their search results. What stops them scrolling? Colour, texture, and lived-in spaces they can imagine as their own.
4. Style for Their Life Stage, Not Yours
This is the most overlooked point. Your buyers aren’t where you are. They’re where you were when you started out. Selling means helping them see how they could live there.
I’m Anna, founder of Life Design London. Last summer we noticed a wave of dull listings (a lot of bare floorboards) in local agents’ windows. We started asking how staging could work better for our design clients.
We’d staged properties before, but only vacant, part-furnished ones. When we design, we aim to add value with every change and we know the local neighbourhoods and demographics intimately. But we found nothing that truly fit our clients’ needs.
That’s when the idea of our own tailored staging service took hold.
Almost a year later, Life Design Stages is here, our all-in-one staging service designed for the types of homes we already work with.
Hackney is our heart, and where we work most, so this is where we begin our new adventure. Our service is now available across Hackney, Islington, Haringey, and the Shoreditch end of Tower Hamlets.
If you’re selling and this resonated with you, we’d love to help.
To chat or book a consultation, drop us a line: anna@lifedesignlondon.com
