No matter how big or small your home is, home staging is essential for getting that terrific sale price and creating a space with which your buyers will fall in love. Here at Sell In Style Property Styling, we style homes all throughout the Brisbane area. These homes range from anything from new builds to established properties. One of our most commonly asked questions is how to stage a small home. When looking to stage a small living room, small kitchen, small bathroom, or small home in general, there are a few tips and tricks that we have to make the space feel bigger and more open. Today, we’re diving into staging a small space, looking at the strategies to make every square foot of your home count and what you can do to create a warm and inviting space.
Why bother staging a small home and a small living room?
For those who are in the position of selling their small home, you can often find yourself asking if it’s even worth it. The answer to this is yes: staging your small home and small living room is completely worth it. When we look at a home’s marketability, those that have been staged or styled are much more impactful than those that haven’t been. This is magnified even more for small homes. While it may sound backward when small homes are staged correctly, they often feel bigger than when they are left empty.
Small living area design ideas
Furniture placement is key
Furniture placement is incredibly important when looking to create the illusion of space and draw attention away from the lack of space. Particularly when staging a living room that’s on the smaller side, you want to keep furniture away from the walls. As much as it can be a natural instinct to push furniture up against the walls, this is something that actually makes a space feel much smaller than it is. Although staging and styling considers interior design principles, it’s about creating flow over function. This means bringing your occasional chairs into the middle of the room, your coffee table into the centre and keeping your couch away from the wall.
Use reflections to your advantage
In property styling and staging, we use items such as mirrors and glass coffee tables to create space and reflect light. This little trick, which we’ve used in plenty of our properties, does an incredible job of making a space or small living room design feel and look bigger than it actually is. When staging and styling your home in Brisbane, if you can, bring in pieces such as a glass-top coffee table, mirrors, and reflective styling pieces.
Emphasise your outdoor area
When we talk about home staging and styling, people can often forget about the backyard and front yard or facade. These elements are incredibly important in creating a buyer’s first impression. Although smaller homes don’t always have a huge front or backyard, do all you can to improve them. This can be anything from tidying up the lawn, cleaning the areas and adding in a few instant pops of colour to your landscaping with some flowers.
Bring in as much light as you can
Lighting plays a huge role in making a small home feel bigger than it actually is. For those homes that don’t have many windows, do it you can with artificial lighting to create light. This can be anything from adding a lamp in the corner of your living room and turning all of the lights on when showing your home.
Use light and neutral colours
To create a sense of openness and flow within a space, we use light and neutral colours as much as possible. These colours are great for creating a blank canvas on which to build. They act as a base, so we can then bring in accent colours depending on the season.
In addition to this, lighter colours and tones reflect light and instantly make the space feel and look bigger. This is essential when home staging a small living room or creating a staging design for a small house.
Less is more
Oftentimes, we find that our clients are trying to add to the space and continue to add more and more; however, in turn, what this actually does is create a cluttered effect. This becomes very evident when home staging a small living room or small house. When home staging a small living room or small house, use the principle of less is more. Creating a minimal-looking feel is often more impactful than adding too much to an area.
Avoid any clutter or personal items
For those with a small living room or small house, it is imperative to the overall home to avoid absolutely any clutter or personal items. Especially with smaller homes, removing anything that’s in excess will completely transform the space.
Final Thoughts
Home staging homes with a small living room or even trying to style a design for a small house can be tricky. It’s finding the right balance between creating enough of a space and not adding too much.
While you can definitely style your home for sale on your own, if you’re looking for a team that can do it for you, then get in touch with us. Our team has been in the real estate industry for seven years and is highly experienced and passionate about what we do. We style homes in Brisbane and create spaces that your potential buyers will fall in love with. We use demographics to stage and style towards their needs and their wants.
However, in the meantime, to see our recent projects, follow us on social media and read through our blogs for all of the insider tips and tricks on staging and styling.