We recently discussed the importance of eliminating distractions in and around your home that might interrupt prospective buyers in their imaginary ‘trying on’ of your home. We know that about 90 percent of home buyers depend upon emotional connections when making buying decisions. This simply means that anything at all that gives the buyer an unpleasant jolt (like badly scratched hardwood floors), or poorly done furniture styling Sydney (furnishings that are too large, too small, or out of sync with your home’s architecture), can create a distraction that will keep those emotional connections from happening.
When these disconnects happen, you are likely to lose a sale.
In a perfectly planned blank slate – a home that’s been perfectly cleaned, painted, and repaired – badly placed furniture and art can spell the kiss of death to an otherwise promising transaction. Of course, home stylists who make this work their vocation know that this is the case and train tirelessly to get presentation 100 percent right, 100 percent of the time. Those brave souls who opt to stage their homes on their own don’t always have the experience behind them to always do this correctly. Fortunately, there are tools available to help.
Because some of us don’t have access to resident furniture movers, it is a good idea to do your furniture placement on paper first. Begin with careful measurements of your room, your furnishings, and a very simple scale drawing of your room. Then, again relying on good measurements, you can place ‘furniture’ templates as you proceed. There are many online websites that allow you to do this without the graph paper and, thankfully, without the need to haul furniture around. But, if you are low-tech, use graph paper and pencil.
However you proceed, do take the time to empty your room. Whether you do this visually or literally, this exercise will help you to erase old habitual placement ideas and give you a fresh perspective.
Your first job is to decide on your focal point. Bedrooms are fairly straightforward. In a bedroom, the bed is probably the focal point around which the room will revolve. In a living room, however, there are often many options. You will recognise the focal point in a room by determining where the eyes fall first when entering that area. A beautiful view, a great fireplace, or built-in entertainment units are all great places to begin. (Some rooms have multiple focal points. We will deal with such rooms in another article. For this discussion, however, select only one focal point and work from there.) Invite a friend over and get their perspective if you can’t decide. Fresh eyes and new perspectives are very useful.
Next, bring in your biggest, most essential piece of furniture for the room. In your dining room it would be your table, and in today’s family room, it’s most likely the television. Design your room to revolve around the function of this piece of furniture.
As you place other pieces of furniture, keep in mind that your room will have flow and function to go along with your focal point. If the function of the room is television watching, and that entertainment unit is the focal point, it’s a no-brainer to understand that you don’t want to design your seating so that people must walk (flow) between the television and the watchers.
Be careful, as you place other furniture pieces around the focal point to provide adequate space, (no less than a metre), for people to walk without tripping over chairs, tables, and other people. Proper furniture styling Sydney requires that seating should be about 40cm away from side tables and coffee tables.
At this point, you may find that you have too much furniture for the space you’re designing. This is not unusual as most people over-furnish their homes. Contemplate the function of the room and ruthlessly eliminate any furnishings that do not fit with that function.
If you’re going old-school in this process, by now your movers will have jumped ship and you may be ready to call in the professionals for help. We highly recommend the furniture design Sydney specialists at Urban Chic Property Styling. Allow us to help you make all your rooms function and flow around their focal points. You and your furniture movers will be glad you did.
