A living room can lose it’s cool over time, when not properly maintained. As a home stager, I’m always coming across a space that’s suppose to be bringing family and friends together, rather than tearing them apart.
The living room is a place for entertaining, relaxing and of course spending time with loved ones. This room is usually more formal and where the entire family comes together on a daily basis.. Here you can let your design style shine, especially if it’s the second room buyers or guests see as they walk into your home.
Three Emotions to Feel in a Living Room
A pioneer in studying positive emotions, Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity: Research Reveals the 3 to 1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life, describes how a few positive emotions can increase your ability to move forward in life. In a living room we want a buyer or guest to particularly feel these three emotions:
- Awe — Offer the feeling of luxury when buyers walk through this room, remove inexpensive decor (add paintings, metals, glass, rich woods, and light-colored fabrics).
- Warmth — Make the room feel warm with wall color, a rug, textured fabric, throws, and pillows. Even lighting your fireplace, candles, and ambient lighting can bring warmth to a room.
- Elegance — Create a light and spacious room; use a few antiques and a symmetrical decor scheme. Worldly pieces from your travels are great to showcase in this room.
When looking at the living room pictured in this room, do you feel these three emotions? I know I don’t. In fact, there are several things actually wrong with this set-up making this an undesirable room to show, especially on the Multiple Listing Service. Can you spot what’s wrong?
This Living Room’s Problem
So, here are seven dilemmas irking me and I’m sure any buyer or guest walking into this living room:
- Wall Art —The artwork is extremely bold and too small for the wall. Not to mention it’s hung at the wrong height.
- Lighting —These wall sconces are not only outdated, but the wrong size for this space.
- Accessories — Throw pillows are suppose to entice you to have a seat. These pillows look like they’re trying to shimmy off the couch themselves. The random Asian sculpture is also not alluring.
- Table — The tables, or lack of them, don’t really make this space functional. The current coffee table reminds me of The Mario Brothers’ Game pipes..no? But, honestly, you could reuse those tables by spray painting white, gold or even a pop of color (just not bright green).
- Rug — This room is missing it’s anchor. A rug would create one cohesive area.
- Fireplace — While the fireplace is neutral, it’s missing a tile and not highlighting anything on the mantle.
- Personal Photos — Headshots of your family and friends should be kept in a photo book. Try using “action-shots” instead.
Now, that we have a better idea, as to why this room isn’t working. I wanted to show you what I would use to refresh this space. To save money I would keep the existing couch, but, move it further away from the fireplace or even move the couch off the wall and across from the fireplace.
Refresh Your Living Room
So, create a living room, or an entire home worthy of entertaining in. I’d love to hear about your living room dilemmas, what does it look like now? What do you plan on updating or refreshing? Let me know in the comment section below and don’t forget to post your photos! I get so excited seeing transformation photos.
Happy Refreshing,
