Balancing a Room

Jan 22, 2012 | Home Staging Tips [post_comments" zero="0" one="1" more="%1$s"]

What do you mean balance? I’m not talking about leveling the floor out or making sure the ground is even. Balancing a room means evenly distributing the visual weight to create flow and harmony in a space.

When Home Stagers lay out a space, everything is placed a with a purpose in mind. They consider these key categories when distributing the items in the room to achieve the best balance:

Size
Color
Transparency
Shape
Lighting
Function

A great technique that Stagers use when balancing a bedroom is placing the bed with a headboard, two matching night stands on either side, a matching table lamp on each night stand, and a painting that spans approximately ¾ of the width of the bed (which compliments the colors of the bedding).

This has been done to create visual balance. In the picture above, notice how the visually heaviest item (which is the bed) is flanked by matching night stands. A correctly sized painting is also centered over the bed to create a visually appealing triangular shape. Colors are also pulled from the bedding to draw your eye upwards to the painting and create a more natural flow. Finally the evenly placed lighting works to lighten the heavier looking objects and creates a nice ambiance that flows over the ensemble. Over all a great technique that sells!

Questions you should ask yourself when evaluating the balance of a space are:

Does the room feel cluttered in one area and empty in another?
Do the arrangements feel titled or uneven?
Does it look like it’s missing anything?
Is the room too dark or heavy?
Do the colours match and flow nicely or are their sections of color that seem out of place?
Does the furniture seem too big or too small for the space?
Can you move freely throughout the space?
Is the space functional or is there something disrupting the flow?

TIP: Larger furniture should be placed evenly throughout the space and not grouped all together. It helps if the largest piece is more towards the back of the room to avoid a claustrophobic sensation when you walk in.

Don’t get too attached to a lovely piece of art or a beloved piece of furniture. Rooms have personalities that are selective and discriminatory. If you put something in them that doesn’t belong or get along with its personality it will look out of place and upset the balance.

Thanks for reading, and please browse through our Blog for more Toronto Home Staging Tips! And always remember: “A Home that shows well, sells well!”