“This house would be perfect if the family room were bigger.”
 
I was receiving another S.O.S. call from a Realtor who wanted to sell a beautiful brand new house.  She explained to me what the reaction had been from the majority of people who had visited the home for a viewing.
 
The number one objection was that the family room was too small to fit furniture for adequate seating- and on account of this fact alone, numerous potential buyers had walked out.
 

You might think there’s really nothing that can be done if a room is too small. That’s the way people see it, and that’s it.
 
The truth is much different, which is fortunate for anyone who has tried to sell a house only to find people think that one or more of their rooms is too small.
 
The Problem

Viewers had come and gone from this house and everybody was saying the same thing:   “This house would be perfect if the family room were bigger.”  

What are you supposed to do when someone says that?  You can’t make it any bigger.  You can’t argue with them. They truly believe that the home is too small. 
 
 
It was after several months of the home being on the market and repeatedly hearing that the family room was too small that I was called in to see what I could do to transform this space.
 
My goal was to demonstrate that the space is big enough to fit a comfortable amount of furniture, allowing for enough seating for entertaining.
 
 The Solution

 
 
To transform this room, I used a small contemporary sofa and love seat in a funky eggplant color to appeal to the target market.

With some added lighting with table lamps, a green rug to tie in with the green cushions and a few accessories it began to make sense.

I also used a glass-top coffee table and end tables to give visual space.  This technique was also used in my first case study.
 

The Result:

 The result of this staging was an amazing success!  
 
In fact, this home sold immediately after staging.

And the amazing thing was that the buyer was somebody who had previously reluctantly disqualified the house because of the small-sized family room! Luckily for the seller, she was willing to come back to visit the house to see it staged.
 
Most buyers will have difficulty determining the actual size of a vacant room and what would fit in it. A room looks smaller in a vacant house than in a furnished house.
 
The first reaction of buyers is to think:
 
“My sofa won’t fit here”
“My bed is too big for this master bedroom”
 
A properly furnished/staged room will show buyers that yes, indeed, there is plenty of room for their furniture.
 
Do you have an empty house for sale with a smaller-than-average sized room?
 
You do not necessarily have to adjust your selling expectations.
 
With proper staging, even smaller rooms can become an ideal size!