Homebuyers want space for their money.
Sure, they look at the numbers -- square footage, number of rooms, dimensions of rooms -- but they are also influenced by how large the rooms feel.
How do your rooms feel? Big or small? Here are four kinds of furniture that make spaces seem bigger.
Curved pieces expand a room because they force the eye to keep moving.When you are deciding what furniture to store and what to keep for staging, send the square stuff to the storage unit.
Leggy pieces of furniture keep the room feeling light and airy. They show more floor and that always makes the space seem larger.
Leggy pieces of furniture keep the room feeling light and airy. They show more floor and that always makes the space seem larger.
If you have furniture with covered legs, can you show them off., Lose the tablecloth. Shorten the slipcover. Remove the bed skirt. What a difference!
Monotone colors make for a seamless look. When a room is furnished with some painted pieces, color-coordinate them so no one piece stands out. They needn't be all the same color, but making them all the same value (on the scale from light to dark) will enlarge the room. If you have mismatched upholstered pieces, dressing them in matching slipcovers will have the same effect.
Low-profile furniture lets a buyer take in more of the room at a glance. Don't make buyers' eyes take a roller coaster ride around the room. Not only does low-profile furniture make a room look bigger, it makes it feel less formal and more comfortable.
In this tight bedroom, a spider leg table in the
corner lets more floor show and works so
much better than a solid nightstand. Photo: Decorpad
Monotone colors make for a seamless look. When a room is furnished with some painted pieces, color-coordinate them so no one piece stands out. They needn't be all the same color, but making them all the same value (on the scale from light to dark) will enlarge the room. If you have mismatched upholstered pieces, dressing them in matching slipcovers will have the same effect.
Low-profile furniture lets a buyer take in more of the room at a glance. Don't make buyers' eyes take a roller coaster ride around the room. Not only does low-profile furniture make a room look bigger, it makes it feel less formal and more comfortable.
A low-profile buffet seems to increase space in this foyer. The wainscoting
and the choice of lamp style and bowl style accentuate the low lines.
And the mirror opens up the space even more.
Photo: Eric Roth Photography via House of Turquoise.
Transparent, translucent, and reflective furniture makes a room feel bigger than it is. There's no surprise here, because you can see right through the glass and Lucite, and reflective surfaces like mirrors and polished metals bounce light around a room to confuse the eye about where a room's perimeters really are.
These classic Lucite chairs almost disappear, making for a
more accommodating dining room. Photo: Decorpad
Get the look, get the book
I offer lots more tips on how to select and arrange furniture in two of my homestaging eBooks, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and For Top Dollar, and my book on Furniture Arranging. Think big, and create rooms that make buyers think your home is big.Top Photo: Wayfair