Flow and Focal Points: to help our clients sell their homes faster and at a higher price, when laying out furniture, we pay close attention to creating flow for prospective buyers when they’re looking through a home… And Focal Points for visual emphasis.
Going with the Flow
Owner and lead Designer of The Finishing Touches, Jayne Morgan, is qualified in interior design and often uses residential interior design principles, to determine the best furniture layout for each home.
“The way we arrange furniture for home staging, revolves around creating a logical, effortless flow for prospective buyers, as they walk around and try to imagine how they would use the rooms and spaces,” explains Jayne.
Top Tips for Flow
Use a Floating layout: avoid putting furniture right up against walls. If you ‘float’ furniture away from walls, even just allowing a small amount of space, gives a visual impression of the room being more spacious.
A common mistake we see, is furniture placed or grouped so that a room feels blocked off; it’s hard to walk past easily and/or to imagine the room as a versatile space.
Create conversation areas if there are little ‘nooks’, or awkward spaces in a room; group furniture together in a way that doesn’t impede flow, but shows how people could enjoy gathering together in the room or space.
The TV: Usually it’s best to orientate lounge furniture to the TV, because it’s important to show prospective buyers how they could place their lounge furniture to watch TV.
Long rooms: In a really long room, you have the opportunity to create zones and break up the space, without impeding flow.
Choose or create a Focal Point
To help achieve visual emphasis, especially in a large space, try to have one main Focal Point as the ‘hero’ and arrange furniture around it (without blocking the flow).
A focal point could be a window with an attractive view, an artwork, mirror, fireplace, intriguing object/s, feature wall.
A statement piece of furniture could be a focal point in itself.
Lighting can also become wonderful focal point. An example for a large, open living and dining area, could be a pendant light with furniture arranged underneath, to draw the eye.
Bedrooms: In a bedroom, the bed is the focal point. For more impact, try to have the bed facing people as they walk into the bedroom. This is also better for taking photos to market the home.
‘Furniture and other house chattels (bowls, photos, paintings etc) are top quality and will definitely show your house at its best, especially when combined with Jayne’s eye for layout.’
Hugh Martyn – CLIENT & Home Owner
Home visit to plan the Layout
The Finishing Touches carefully plans which furniture to use and where. When a Quote is accepted, Jayne arranges a Property Assessment, to see the home personally, make notes, take photos and measurements (especially in the key selling areas).
If a visit isn’t possible, Jayne’s training in interior design means she can work off house Plans.
Scale & Proportion
Did you read The Finishing Touches May Blog Post, about Scale and Proportion? These interior design principles also influence the furniture we choose for property styling and home staging, and how we arrange it – including the use Negative (empty) space.
Learn more in the Blog Post: