Last week I staged a home for a custom home builder. They had built a high end unit directly next door to their personal residence and want to get it sold. Talking to them, their biggest complaint from potential buyers are the size of the master bedroom & dining room. No problem, as a stager, we understand that rooms look smaller without furniture. Here is where we sometimes have to help clients understand that size does matter.....
This room is not a large room, particularly given that the home is nearly 400 sqft. I opted for a standard 4x6 glass & black dining table & added traditional elements to give the room warmth. The homeowner/builder is concerned the table is too small for the room. They want to place a table that seats 8 in this space.
My problem with this is that currently the room looks as if it will accomodate a larger table as well as a china cabinet, hutch or other larger serving/display piece. Adding a table large enough to seat 8, plus the 8 chairs will make the room smaller again, telling buyers that they can only have a dining table here. I also advised that I set the table side by side with the ends open to help keep the larger feeling in this space. I felt like this explanation was understood until I went back to take some photos I hadn't gotten yet.....
I did leave the table this way despite the overwhelming urge to put it back the way I had it. While the room does not necessarily feel smaller this way, it does take away from the linear design I had arranged. I suppose I should be happy that we didn't have to switch to a larger table... an event I told her would be 'unwise'.
It is important for homeowners to understand that while your room can accomodate a larger table, hutch, sideboard, etc that when selling it is more important to let potential buyers visualize the extra space by removing a few items & scaling down. Staging a home is different than living in one..... and size does matter!
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Melissa Marro, a published artist, now turned staging advocate and national speaker speaks her mind about real estate and the home staging industry. In her 'no holds barred' approach, audience members find real answers to the industries pitfalls and learn how to overcome them with tried and true information and guidance. With marketing as her passion, she turned a small home based business into one of the nation's largest home staging and training facilities. She now operates as the CEO of First Impressions Home Staging & Interior ReDesign as well as an instructor for Staging And Resign and regularly speaks at the StagerList Expos and Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)'s trade events.
For more information on having Marro speak at one of your real estate functions, please contact her at 843.822.2622 or email at marro.melissa@gmail.com
If you would like Marro's team to provide information on staging a property in the state of South Carolina, or the Greater Charleston Area, please visit www.WeStageSC.com, email marro.melissa@gmail.com or call 843.822.2622.
Which raises an interesting question - do stagers make deliberate design errors to encourage the buyer to feel superior, needing to rescue the home and do it right?
I agree with you that a small dining table "floating" in a small room suggests that the room is more than ample for any number of things. You did a lovely job, as always, and the pictures - placed symmetrically, offering a long slab of color - complete the sense of warmth and elegance.
You are such a pro.
With the four chairs around the four sides of the table, the table looks awkward and too small for the room. With the chairs two on each side... it makes the room seem full of possibility to add all that other stuff in. Amazing the difference the chair placement makes. I probably wouldn't have been able to resist moving the chairs back :)
WOW, I have never thought about chair placement and THANKS for pointing it out. I think pic #1 and #2 say very different things. #1 is more formal and #2 feels more intimate. Maybe it's a cultural thing but I personally prefer #2, because it feels more like a family dining with each other in a circular positioning (our family use round tables and Chinese & Taiwanese restaurants use mostly round tables).
Little things can make such a difference in feelings!
I too wonder some time if by placing the furnishing this way limited the buyers' imagination when it came time to furnish their own place, or they have no skills at all to begin with to think how they can place their own stuff in the staged home.
Cheers,
Cindy
I think you did a great job in getting across what the room could be. The homeowner's moving the chairs actually looks to close the table in. It might be a control issue - where she didn't want to feel she gave total control over to you and could still do something. I find this sometimes with my interior decorating clients.
It would be great if someone came in and told her "You know, those chairs would look better with two on each side". ; )