How to make every room work harder during a viewing

The best viewings speak to both at once. The homes that achieve the strongest offers are rarely the ones that have been most heavily styled; they are the ones where every room has been thought about from the buyer's perspective rather than the seller's. Here is how to approach each space with that in mind.

First impressions at a viewing are formed faster than most sellers realise, and they are formed before anyone has reached the kitchen. The hallway sets the tone for everything that follows.

It should be clear, light and unhurried: coats away, shoes out of sight, surfaces free of the accumulated clutter that every household gathers by the front door. If the entrance receives good natural light at certain times of day, book viewings accordingly.

If it does not, make sure the artificial lighting is warm and considered rather than functional. A buyer who feels welcomed the moment they step inside arrives in every subsequent room already disposed to like it.

The kitchen is where premium buyers spend the most time during a viewing, and where they are assessing the most. They are not only looking at the specification; they are imagining their life in it.

Is there space for the whole family on a Sunday morning? Does it feel like somewhere you would want to cook, or somewhere you would want to leave?

Clear the worktops almost entirely: a good coffee machine and a bowl of fruit is enough. Put away the knife block, the cereal boxes, the pile of post.

If the kitchen has a view into the garden, make sure the garden looks its best from that vantage point, because that is the view the buyer will stand at and consider. The kitchen should smell of nothing, or of something quietly pleasant. It should never smell of last night's dinner.

The sitting room needs to feel generous without feeling staged. Buyers at the premium end are alert to over-styling, and a room that looks like a hotel lobby tells them nothing about how it actually lives.

The goal is to present it as a room at its most comfortable and considered best: furniture arranged to show the proportions clearly, natural light maximised, any working fireplace laid and ready. If the room has a feature that photographs well but is harder to appreciate in person, a bay window, a ceiling detail, an original floor, make sure nothing is positioned to obscure it.

Turn off the television. A screen on a wall, dark and prominent, draws the eye in a way that competes with everything else the room has to offer.

More than any other room, the principal bedroom is being assessed as a retreat. Buyers want to feel that this is a space where they could genuinely switch off.

The things that undermine that feeling are almost always about excess rather than absence. Too much furniture, too many personal items, a wardrobe left open, a bedside table stacked with books and chargers: all of it makes the room feel smaller and more pressured than it is.

Dress the bed well, keep the surfaces minimal, and if the room has an en suite, treat it with the same care as the bedroom itself. A principal bathroom that feels spa-like, even briefly, is one of the most powerful impressions a premium home can make.

Five years ago the study was a secondary consideration. It is not anymore.

Buyers who intend to work from home, which at the premium end is the majority, are assessing the study with the same seriousness as the kitchen. What matters to them is natural light, a sense of quiet separation from the main living spaces, and enough room to work without feeling enclosed.

If your study is currently doubling as a dumping ground, clear it completely and dress it simply: a desk, a chair, good light. If the room doubles as a guest bedroom, make a clear decision about which it is presenting as during the viewing, because trying to be both at once convinces buyers of neither.

At the premium end, the garden is rarely an afterthought, and buyers will always want to step outside. Lawns should be cut, borders tidy, and any outdoor furniture clean and properly arranged.

If you have a terrace or entertaining space, dress it as you would for a summer evening: chairs out, a table set simply. August is one of the best months of the year to show an English garden at its most appealing, and a buyer who steps outside into a space that feels genuinely lived-in and loved will carry that feeling with them through the rest of the viewing and beyond it.

None of this requires significant expenditure or a professional stylist. It requires time, honesty and the willingness to see your home as a buyer would rather than as someone who has lived in it for years.

At By Design, we walk every property before it goes to market and work with our sellers on exactly this kind of preparation, because we know the difference it makes to the quality of offers received. If you would like an honest assessment of how your home presents, we would be very glad to visit.