Articles on home staging or how to decorate a house to sell quickly in a slow real estate market often focus on de-cluttering and neutralizing (unfortunately, often to the point of blandness). There is also much talk of the importance of kitchens and bathrooms, but bedrooms are important too

The right touches can take a sad room that would never stick in a buyers mind to one that is memorable and says "wow!"

Whether you're staging a master bedroom, guest bedroom, or child's room, the bed should be treated as a focal point. Dress it up with an attractive duvet, shams and decorative pillows. I generally get paid for my time to shop for these for a client. We use these items to stage the room they're selling, and then they get to enjoy them in their new space

In a master or guest room, if a queen-sized bed makes the room look small, use a double bed instead. Then add one or two night stands of equal height with matching lamps

Visitors should have a sense of space when they enter the room, so make sure the dresser isn't too close to the door. Consider also whether some well-placed art might warm up the space

In some cases, to make the room look larger it's best to place the head of the bed under a window. When you do this, make sure the window treatments pull everything together

The image in this article was provided by Staging Diva Graduate Jayne Steuart of Pearl Home Staging and Redesign LLC. She did an outstanding job transforming this 182 square foot bedroom with furniture the home seller already had, color and well-chosen accessories. (Read more about Jayne's project)

For more tips to staging bedrooms and any room in a house, check out the Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide: Home Staging Tips, Tricks and Floor Plans. It includes design ideas for every room and boosting curb appeal too. Plus you'll find sections on soothing the nervous client, how to differentiate a house from the competition, identifying the home's target market, communicating your vision and more