Living Spaces

Barring unusual circumstances, you don’t sleep in the bathroom or cook in the home office, but distinctions are less clear among the boundaries of living spaces: living rooms, family rooms, great rooms, and so on. Because these public areas are important to family and everyday living in any house, in this section we help you look at the function, focal point, furniture placement, and upgrade elements (new paint, say, or more modern light fixtures) of each room that help you sell your house faster.

If your property has a living room and a family room, stage the living room as a formal space for reading and entertaining. You want buyers to see the room as an elegant and formal place to entertain their own guests. If your house has one room that is used as living room–family room combination, treat it as a family room but work to eliminate distractions like the TV (by hiding it in an armoire, for example).

To make a room feel more formal, place accessories in a symmetrical configuration and align furniture so that it’s parallel to the walls instead of angled. But be sure it still feels welcoming and inviting by adding lamps and a live or silk green plant.

To make your living room elegant, use formal accessories such as crystal vases, large floral arrangements, and elegant frames on artwork. Rather than adding a punch of colour with the accessories as you would in other rooms, use complementary, understated neutral colours — linen, creams, whites, taupe, or black — to make the room feel spacious.

Pay close attention to scale and balance, and vary items by height and width, placing the large and tall items at the back. For example, if you have three candleholders of three different heights, place the tallest in the back, the next tallest to one side but just forward of the first, and the shortest candle and holder on the other side of the tallest one, but slightly in front of it. This adds interest and dimension to the space.

Add warmth and a classic look to the formal living room by adding these upgrades: fresh paint, hardwood floors, new carpeting, upgraded or repainted baseboards and crown mouldings, and new hardware, doorknobs, and light fixtures.