Give It A Rest!

On October 25th I posted my first in a series of Decorating Ideas. I want to elaborate on each one in future posts. Today I am talking about~

2. The space you leave empty is as important as the spaces you fill. Your eyes need resting places in a decorated space.

Over the years we all collect things we love and want to display in our homes. However, when we put up too much is becomes just that...too much! Too much stimulus is not at all restful or inviting. Not every square inch of floor, wall, and table tops need to be filled.

Here is an example of a home we were hired to stage for sale several years ago. This home was owned by a beautiful, very artistic lady and she loved a lot of everything in her home. For living there it was fine and really brought out her personality. Of course for staging a lot of it had to go.

The point of this is to show you that too much stuff creates too much visual confusion for most of us. Take a look...

Double Click for a Larger View

By adding so many pictures and accessories nothing stands out. The wall opposite the sofa was a series of bookcases with so much stuff you would not have believed it. By removing about 2/3 of the things in this room it looked so much better and the house sold rather quickly.

This client was so charming but her threshold for a lot of visual stimulation was higher than for most of us. Be selective about the things you want to surround yourself with in each room. It is great to rotate things and that way you can use all the things you love, just not all at the same time. The trend in the 80's and 90's was a lot of little groupings. The trend now is more towards larger pieces and less accessorizing.

This is another client's home and where a similar problem had to be addressed. The two photos that follow are the same room!

Before

After

These are just a few suggestions to update your look, declutter, and simplify your environment.

You will notice that in a lot of our staged houses we use a lot of pillows on the sofa and chairs. That is to keep people walking through from having a seat and messing things up! It is great that they feel "welcomed in" but we do not want them to sit down and relax while they tour the homes. It would be fine if they put things back as they found them, but....you know how that goes.