Home Staging Tip #4: Staging Your Living Room

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Our daily home life is reflected in how we decorate, arrange our furniture, and surround ourselves with mementos and collections and useful items such as cookbooks, sheet music, and pens, paper… you get the idea. Our personal style is what makes us comfortable; what makes us want to come home every day. But when you decide to place your home on the market, these items need to disappear. Why? Because you want the new owner to be able to see their own things in your space. And remember, this is NOT YOUR HOUSE anymore if you are putting it on the market. On top of that, you need to look at ways you can improve your home in order to make as much money from the sale. It has become very popular to speak with a screening room installer prior to putting your home on sale. This is due to so many people now regarding a home cinema as a high priority.

If you have followed our posts you will know that the first step is to let go of your home, envision someone else living there and you are now in your new home. The first place to stage is your curb appeal, next is the entrance and now you have reached the living room, typically the first room to enter upon leaving the front door or foyer.

The living room or family room is where you spend time with your family and friends, relaxing, entertaining, and playing with your children. Prospective buyers are looking for a clean, cozy, welcoming room that also provides enough room for entertaining.

Before you even start rearranging furniture or adding new accessories you need to start with declutterring. By removing all of your personal items, knick knacks, family photos, magazines, that silk palm tree in the corner with little white lights, you are creating a clean canvas to then evaluate what areas need the most attention. This could be a refreshing paint on the walls and or woodwork or replacing the windowsill that the dog chewed up when he was teething; a tangle of wires and plugs that stretch from your TV/Cable to an outlet. Prospective buyers hone in on neglected repairs or unsightly clutter and start looking for other areas that may have been neglected while calculating how much less they may offer to purchase your home.

By now your room should be in total disarray and it is time to set it up or stage it. I could write volumes on this one room, but will try to simplify by highlighting the key items:

• How does your room function?
• What is your natural flow of traffic? Keep traffic areas open for good flow. A traffic pattern is the natural flow of people traveling through a space, the paths in and out of a room and the areas where you walk the most. In carpeted rooms, you will often see a lot of wear in the carpet where the traffic patterns occur. This does not mean that this is the best use of that space. Determine the most natural way to get from one room to the next or from the entrance of the room to the seating area. With proper space planning, there should be enough room for people to travel comfortably in and around the furniture or through the room.
• If your room is small, are all the walls painted the same neutral color?
• Is your carpet worn and dirty? Can you discard your carpet and highlight terrazzo or wood flooring?
• Is your lighting adequate? A general rule of thumb is 100 watts per 50 square feet. Are lamps working properly?
• Are your walls dirty/dingy/full of nail holes and need a fresh coat of paint? When staging your living room, select warm, neutral paint colors. Neutral colors are the easiest to decorate with because they blend well with most surroundings and work successfully in all room designs. They make an excellent backdrop for the color you will be adding with furniture, draperies, artwork and accessories. Added color will simply “pop” against a neutral canvas.
• Are drapes or window treatments well fitted, neutral? Keep drapes neutral. Raise rods higher than the window to “raise” a low ceiling but be sure that the drapes reach the floor. Keep drapes open during a showing bringing in the natural light.
• What is your focal point? If you do not have one built in, can you create one? Typical focal points are built-in bookcases and entertainment centers, large windows with a great view, a gorgeous bay window, high ceilings, interesting details like a tray ceiling, angled walls and ceilings, beams, arches, fireplace arched windows, beautiful winding staircase and French doors.

There are a few basic rules to keep in mind when arranging your furniture. It is important to establish your traffic pattern before you begin staging the living room. Watch out for door swings and windows. You should have a comfortable 24” of space in which to maneuver in and around furniture. When arranging your seating area furniture it should be placed into conversation groupings. A sofa should have another sofa, or two chairs (of equal visual weight) facing or perpendicular to it. If you have a large great room, define zones according to the functions using area rugs to anchor each zone. If using one large area rug make sure it is at least 1 ½ to 2’ from the wall exposing the floor. Otherwise it will create the illusion of a smaller room. Repeat paint colors throughout and use low profile furniture to create harmony and flow. Arrange accessories in odd numbers of 3, 5 and 7. Odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye, and appear less “studied.” If uncertain, less is best.

Balance your art and accessories throughout a room. Don’t place everything on one side. This is especially important when using color; scatter your accent color in at least three places around a room to create visual movement.

These are just a few tips that should get you on the right track to staging your own home. If there is an area that just isn’t coming together for you, please feel free to contact us. Our goal is to help you get the most for your home and make this transition as easy as possible.

Has this information been helpful? Give us your feedback. Let us know if there is a topic you would like for us to address. Need the assistance from a professional Stager? Contact Vicki Grant, CEO of Grant Home Staging Services, grantstaging@gmail.com or (305) 394-9201, staging Key West homes since 2009.