Home Staging Tips: How I Prepped Our House for Sale Without Painting It Gray

We recently listed our house—our third in five years—and once again, I found myself ignoring one of the most common home staging tips in real estate, like “neutralize everything.”

Apparently, the go-to formula for selling a home is to erase your style, slap on some Agreeable Gray, and make your house look like it’s waiting for a Pottery Barn catalog to arrive. But here’s my hot take: I think homes should feel like homes, not like blank slates.

So instead of following every traditional home staging tip about depersonalizing and painting everything greige… I leaned into the things that make our house feel alive: the spaces we actually use, the colors we actually love, and the routines that actually happen here. It might sound a little woo-woo, but I wanted buyers to get a real feel for what it’s like to live here, not just what it could look like in pictures.

Here’s what we did—and didn’t do—to get our home market-ready without sucking the soul out of it.

Renovation Roadmap — DIY Project Planning Guide

Practical Home Staging Tips That Still Feel Lived-In

1. We Didn’t Paint the Walls

Our main living areas and bedrooms were already painted white, but I didn’t remove the bold wallpaper in the bathroom or cover up the deep colors in the hallway. These elements were always intentional, and I trusted that the right buyer would see them as character, not clutter. And let’s be honest—paint is one of the easiest things to change if someone really hates it.

2. We Knocked Out Our 95% List

This was less about styling and more about finally finishing all those little projects that had been sitting half-done forever. We patched holes, touched up scuffed walls, tidied the landscaping, and closed the loop on all the “we’ll get to it later” things. That made a bigger impact than any throw pillow ever could. It’s one of those things you don’t necessarily notice is done, but you’d notice if it isn’t done.

3. We Decluttered (But Not in a Sad Way)

I didn’t want the house to feel sterile or empty. I cleared off surfaces that were visually overwhelming (like bathroom counters and our fridge magnets), but I kept the shelves styled the way they usually are, and left some signs of actual life.

4. We Kept the Built-Ins Lived-In

Instead of stripping our bookshelves and built-ins bare, I just rearranged and simplified. I left the kids’ chairs and art supplies in their nook and let the spaces tell a story. Someone walking through should be able to picture how they’d actually use the house, not just admire it from a distance.

5. We Styled Outdoor Spaces Like We Actually Use Them

The back patio got the same treatment as the indoors: colorful pillows stayed, the table got a casual set-up, and I left enough personality out there to help someone imagine what a night on the patio might actually feel like.

6. We Embraced Function Over Fluff

Even the pantry stayed practical. Instead of clearing it out to make it look bigger, I just organized it. Jars, baskets, and books stayed in place—because a space that feels real and well-used has way more impact than one that’s empty and echoing.

The Real Goal: Make It More About How It Feels Than How It Looks

I staged our house like I was living my best, most organized life—and honestly, that might be the most underrated advice when it comes to how to stage your home for sale. The end result is that walking in feels cozy and warm, like someone’s actual home. Plus, it was way less time and energy and money to leave everything as-is than to spend weekends painting it all and finding storage solutions.

Custom Breakfast Nook Build Plans

We listed this house a few months ago and within the first 10 days, we had four offers! People seemed to really love the lived-in, styled look, so hopefully it works for you, too!