Home Staging Design Principles: Anchoring rooms with Rugs
While home staging is really more about great marketing, just like any other marketer, visuals are almost everything. In the home staging industry, we create our visuals with furniture, art, and accessories. Our goal is to target the most likely buyer, and create a space that feels ‘like home’ to them. We also need to emphasize that a room is spacious, how the layout will function, and what types of activities, or size furniture will work in a given space.
Area rugs anchor room design making spaces feel larger, or smaller.
As is fairly common for me, I often decided to write a blog when I’m inspired by something I’ve seen, whether good or bad, and often on social media. Today I’m inspired to discuss how rugs not only anchor a space, but they can make it feel larger or smaller. When used properly, the can also bridge the gap, to keep lone pieces from hanging off in some twilight zone area in the room.
Now, I’m not going to lie. I decided since I was going to show off some great rug use, using photos of homes staged by our parent company, Rave Home Staging, in Jacksonville, FL, then I probably needed to show you less ideal rug uses. For this, I went to Google. I know that we cannot use someone else’s photos, without their permission, but I thought it might at least give me some ideas on rabbit holes I could go down. Then, to my surprise, and happiness. I realized that I recognized one of the images. Yep. This was a photo, of ours, that I could use as an example.
Funny enough, this was actually the AFTER photo in a post about rug sizes, Home Staging Training: Rules about Rugs (and when to break them), If you read the blog post, you’ll understand why this was the best selection for this occupied property, along with gaining a lot understanding about properly using rugs in home staging. With that said, I can still say that this rug isn’t doing this room much of a favor. It is better than having no rug, but only marginally. So, let’s check out some rugs that are well used, and talk about the differences.
Using area rugs to join spaces together, increasing conversation area
Notice how the large 9×12 rug, in this room, makes the room feel really large. Frequently we see other home staging companies, select 5×7 rugs that only fill up the middle of the space. What this tends to do is to cut the room into 3 pieces; the right, center, and middle. By ensuring that the furniture fit nicely under each piece, including the chair by the fireplace, the room is cohesive, and our eyes perceive the space as one large one, rather than 3 small spaces.
In another room, of this same house, a 9×12 rug was used to create an island, in the center, of a very large space, allowing for additional uses, in the same room. The blue chair, ivory ottoman, and metal industrial bookcase, at the far end of the room, has become a reading nook. The animal hide rug clearly defines the space, and due to the closeness of the other large area rug, helps pull a slight connection together, where they are separate, and yet still slightly part of the main area.
Using area rugs in home staging to reduce pass through and tunnel spaces
In this room, the odd shaped area rug is used to bridge the space between the occasional chairs and desk. Without the rug, the room would immediately feel like three separate areas. There would be the desk, the walk through, and the chairs. The chairs and the desk area, along with the hutch, at the far end, would each feel like an independent zone.
Once again, the odd shaped cow hide rug proved perfect for connecting the two leather, mid century modern, chairs to the ‘bar area’, which was also functioned as a sofa table. This space, without an area rug, may just have felt like a walk way to move from the front door to the back porch. Instead, it allows the large space to function as a singular unit.
Defining the space can mean increasing or decreasing the perception of space.
Next, let’s discuss the idea that using larger or smaller rugs, changes the perception of space. In this master bedroom, a king bed was used, but the room was still enormous. By adding a large area rug, with tassels, we increased the perceived size of the bed, and the luxury of it. A smaller rug could have made a king bed actually seem smaller than it is.
A rug this large, gave opportunity for the entire area around the bed to be a focal point, creating an island of substance. Meanwhile smaller vignettes were staged off the rug, to showcase the idea that there was room for more than just sleeping in here. A variety of activities, including having a silent cup of coffee, in the privacy of your own reading nook.
Area rugs bring balance, harmony, and texture, to hard spaces.
And finally, rugs absorb sound in bustling or echoing space. They create texture, and may add color to lifeless, hard rooms. Rugs bring balance and harmony by evenly distributing weight across a boundary, unifying the multiple sides and zones. Rugs are a vital part of the design element. Used in the wrong proportions, however, and they achieve exactly the opposite. They bring visual chaos, disrupt balance, and draw your eye away from the true focal points. Remember, the tools are only as good as the operators. This is why it is important to hire someone who understands the intricacies of the how and why. Home staging is more than just adding furniture to a space. It’s about creating a marketing image that sells.
Still looking for more evidence? Check out the photos in this blog, where quality control replaced the rugs in many of rooms. Quality Control: It’s one of the key differences between Rave and other staging companies.
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