See How a Stager Transforms This Cramped Dining Room into a Multifunctional Space
When furnishing a home, it’s important to consider clearance. Clearance refers to the amount of space between furnishings for people to move. When a space has low clearance, it can be challenging to occupy that room; squeezing between things and moving items out of the way just to get from point A to point B can be a real nuisance, both for the people living in that home as well as their guests.
This Rhode Island beach house’s dining room was experiencing poor clearance before stagers came in to help free up some space and make the room more functional when the owner was ready to sell. “The owner of this beach cottage, with a tiny one-room space, needed to appeal to buyers,” says Kristen Brown, co-founder and stager at Salt + Pine, who worked on this project. “We needed to show designated spaces — there was no usable dining area.”
Here’s what Salt + Pine did to improve the dining room.
They focused on the furniture.
Kristen and her partner, Amy Keeley, didn’t make any permanent changes to the space, such as painting or resanding. Instead, they allowed furniture alone to exemplify the cottage’s charm and potential. To allow buyers to envision themselves in that home, the stagers brought in pieces that would work to highlight the space in an appealing way, focusing on a neutral aesthetic with a coastal influence as a nod to the location.
They showcased how one can live and host in the dining area.
One of the greatest challenges they encountered during this stage was the size. With such a small footprint, the stagers wanted to make sure they were demonstrating how future owners could live and host in that space. “Generally in a beach house, you want as many people as you can get in there,” Brown explains, alluding to vacations and hosting guests. “We needed to make it into a space with a living room, a dining space for at least four people, plus additional chairs and seating. The dining space needed its own area for that, and the living room furniture was encroaching.”
To achieve this, the stagers moved and cut down the living room furniture, placed a table directly underneath the existing pendant light, and added a drop zone between the two sets of doors to show how the space could fulfill more than one purpose, which is instrumental when working with a small space.
“Before, it wasn’t totally against the back wall but that table wasn’t centered under the light and it made the space feel awkward and disjointed, plus the door was not easily accessible,” says Brown. “Our goal was for multiple people to actually move around in that space and move through that door.”
The stagers’ efforts were well worth their time, as the owner saw the beach cottage sell quickly and for above the asking price. “The beach cottage sold in 22 days,” Brown recalls. “At the time, the average for Rhode Island was 30-plus days.”