Furniture Arranging

After cleaning, decluttering and repainting, the next best thing you can do in preparation to market your home is furniture arranging.

Have you ever walked into a room and felt drawn to a seating area, maybe even felt compelled to put your feet up and relax.

This positive response to a room is often a result of the furniture arranging the home owner has done.

Here are a few tips from the Better Homes and Gardens Video “Room Arranging Do’s and Don’ts”.  In this example we will create a cozy, conversational setting in a living room.

1. Find a focal point for your room.  This could be an architectural feature such as a fireplace or a window.  If there is no natural focal point then create one using a tall piece of furniture such as a book shelf or wall unit.  A poster or picture arrangement may also serve as a focal point.  The furniture will be placed in such a way that everyone’s attention first goes to this focal point.
2. Avoid lining the walls with furniture.  Keeping furniture away from the walls will cause the room to appear wider.
3. An area rug helps define the furniture group.
4. Turning the furniture group at a 45 degree angle to the room adds a creative touch.
5. The maximum distance between the furniture at each end of the group should be 8 feet.  Too far apart takes away from the cozy, conversational setting.
6. Put end tables or coffee table within easy reach of each seat.
7. If possible don’t force the traffic lane through the middle of your seating arrangement. Allow a 2.5 to 3 foot path around the outside of your seating arrangement to allow passage from one room to another.
8. Remove any unnecessary furniture from the room.
9. If you have a long narrow room, don’t make the room seem even longer by putting the sofa along the wall. Try placing the furniture cross-wise to the room. The spaces at the ends of the room give the room a larger and airy effect.
10. Attempt to maintain visual equilibrium or balance by spreading the tall heavier pieces of furniture around the room.
11. In the case of an over-sized room, rather than spreading the furniture all over the room, create 2 or more groupings of furniture. Pick a focal point for each furniture grouping and keep each grouping within the 8 foot reach so that each group may have easy conversation. Re-route the traffic flow around each furniture grouping.
12. If you are thinking of buying new furnishings, avoid over-sized furniture ie very long sofas. Hand pick your furnishings one at a time. All of the pieces do not need to match.
13. Rather than lugging the furniture all over the room, trying different arrangements, here is a suggestion to save your back. Take some graph paper and draw your room with each square representing 1 square foot of your room. Then take sticky backed paper (post-it notes) and cut the pieces of furniture to the same scale (1 graph paper square equals 1 square foot.) Then move the furniture sticky notes around the paper trying different furniture arrangements.

We hope we have given you some food for thought in the area of furniture arranging.