One of the questions that I am often asked by my clients
is why home stagers often arrange furniture on the diagonal. The answer is fairly simple, although not
necessarily intuitive. When the
furniture in a room is arranged on the diagonal, the room often appears
larger. When done properly, the
arrangement of the furniture draws the eye to the focal point of the room, such
as a bed, a fireplace or a large or unusual window. There are a few rules that need to be
followed in order to successfully arrange furniture along these lines.
Rule number one:
The room cannot be crowded.
It is absolutely imperative that there be relatively few
pieces of furniture in a room that is on the diagonal. Although one of the
reasons to do this is to make a room appear larger, arranging a room on the
bias actually creates a great deal of
dead space, particularly the corners of the room. So if there are too many
pieces in the room, it will actually make the room appear crowded and achieve
the opposite effect. Some home stagers use plants in the dead corners, but
inexpensive up-lights or halogen torch lamps provide a much better effect.
Rule number two:
The room must be large enough.
Furniture on the diagonal usually does not work in small
rooms. Bedrooms that are less than 8 by
10 are seldom candidates for this treatment, unless the only piece of furniture
in the room is a bed or a desk. Home stagers often use the trick of keeping the
room arranged along conventional lines (with the furniture aligned along the
walls of the room) but putting an area rug on the diagonal. This helps focus
the room and draws the eye to the part of the room that is being featured. And
it can make the room appear larger.
Rule number three:
Only place the furniture on the diagonal if the room has a focal point.
There is nothing worse than walking into a room and being
confronted with a large piece of furniture.
For instance, the side of a bed should never be the first view of a
bedroom. So long as the windows will
accommodate, the bed should be coming out of the corner of a bedroom opposite
the door. This makes a sumptuously made bed
the focal point of the bedroom.
Along the same line of reasoning, the side of a sofa
should not be the first thing that one sees when entering a den or living
room. If there is a fireplace or a
picture window, placing a sofa and chair at a 45 degree angle draws the eye to
the fireplace or the window which is the logical focal point of the room.
One of the goals of home staging is to make a house look
as large as possible and to highlight the features of the home. Arranging furniture and rugs on the bias are
a simple way of accomplishing this goal.
But remember, in home staging, less is always more.
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