How to Furnish a Long, Narrow Family Room
As Central PA’s home staging expert, I work with some top notch real estate agents. I especially love working with local realtor, Kristi Knox of The Knox Bowermaster Team of Berkshire Hathaway in Carlisle PA. So when she called me to stage a home that had recently vacated and needed to go on the market within the week, I met the challenge and had it staged within 3 business days. This 4 bedroom home has a very long family room that when empty, felt deceivingly narrow. I knew potential buyers would have concern about whether or not their sofa could fit comfortably in the center of the room facing the fireplace, the focal point of this room.
Where to Put the Kitchen Table?
Another concern was the lack of an eat-in space in the kitchen. The home was built for a large family and sat on a beautiful lot that cries out for an active family. The kitchen was large with plenty of cabinets and counter space, but had no table space.
Are Yellow Walls a Deterrent?
My third concern was the bright yellow walls. It’s a very large room and yellow, while warm and cheery, can be too much for many buyers.
Make Your Buyer Feel at Home
A real estate stager’s job is to arrange furniture and accessories to convince a buyer that this home can function well for their family. My goal is to create spaces with function and flow and to leave room to grow. If a space feels limiting, people will hesitate to buy. If the wall colors are too bold and the task of painting seems daunting, buyers will hesitate. It is my job, as a home stager to convince the buyer that this is the perfect home for them. My goal is to show how to best arrange furniture and reveal how versatile a space can be for any potential buyer. A real estate staging expert’s job is to keep the buyer’s interest as they move through the space and to keep a buyer’s focus on the potential of this house becoming their home.
Have a Focal Point
In order to address the three concerns listed above, I needed to break the long room into three distinctive areas. I intentionally brought in a large sofa and floated it directly across from the fireplace. You want your main seating, typically the sofa or sectional, to face the room’s focal point. Often home owners are confused about how to arrange furniture in homes where the television can not comfortably fit over a fireplace. When there are conflicting focal points in a family room, where do we put our sofa? (If you have this problem, call me. I have helped many solve the issue of conflicting focal points!) Fortunately in this home, there is plenty of space over the fireplace for a large TV.
Another important note to point out is that once the sofa was placed in this long and narrow room, the space visually opened up. The sofa anchored the space and drew your attention to the fireplace and still had four feet of walk through space behind it for passing through the family room to the kitchen.
Carving Out a Space for Family Meals
Next, my solution for the lack of an eat-in kitchen was to place a kitchen table set on the far end of the room, right next to the kitchen. By anchoring the table on an area rug, it set this section of the room off making it feel like its own space. A very large table could easily fit to make breakfast time and family dinners easy for any size family.
Like the wall art shown in this home? Find them and similar by clicking the barn wall art above!
Conversational Grouping
Now, with the sofa placed and the kitchen table area carved out, this left the other end of the long family room open. I placed two cozy chairs with a lamp and table on that end to create a sweet conversation space. Here you can sit down with a guest and catch up easily.
Complimentary Colors
Finally, to address the concern that some buyers would not like the sunny yellow walls, I carefully selected complimentary cool tones of blue to soften the yellow. Mid-tone aqua accents cooled down the space a bit to add balance and serenity. Voila! This long and seemingly narrow space now has three distinct areas. Each area provides function and purpose for any active family. This leaves no question as to how one can use the space and arrange furniture!
Sell Your Home! Staging Really Works!
Are you thinking about selling your home and don’t know where to begin when preparing the space for buyers? Are you a realtor in Central PA who could benefit from having an experienced interior designer? I’m available to help you and your sellers make their homes more appealing to buyers. Contact me today for a free phone consultation. My eye for color and design comes from over 20 years experience in the field. Check out my staging prices and packages on the website and feel free to email me with any questions. As your greater Harrisburg home stager, I’m excited to meet you and help you quickly sell your home for top dollar.
Happy Decorating,
