Are You Staged to Sell Diagonally?

The bigger your home on the market LOOKS, the more money it commands. Yes, buyers will study the square footage stats, but they will also respond to how your house FEELS. Let's examine one way you can make your home feel larger -- diagonal lines.

I laid peel and stick tiles on the floor in this 1920's house, setting the pattern to "widen" the room.

Have you staged your home like a square, or more like a diamond? If you think about a square, and then imagine the line that goes diagonally from corner to corner, you'll realize that the line that goes from corner to corner is longer than the line that goes from side to side. 

By arranging some pieces of furniture at 45-degree angles to the wall, you'll increase the apparent size of the room. A diagonal arrangement forces the eye to wander back and forth across the space, and makes the walls appear "pushed out."

Porches can look skimpy. If you set furnishings at a 45-degree angle to the house, 
the porch magically gains width.

Sometimes an angled bed is the best use of space. The rest of the room needs to 
stay uncrowded for this look to work well. 

These club chairs and their matching footstools jut into the room rather than hug the walls, 
making the space more interesting.   

Chairs and couches are the obvious choices for diagonal furniture placement, but a bed can be set in a corner location as well, even in a small bedroom.

Don't overlook the possibilities of setting furniture pieces like a bookcase, bench, armoire, chest, or dresser kitty-corner.

I love the jazzy look of floor tiles set diagonally, no matter what the pattern or size. If you are laying flooring like engineered hardwood, running the boards diagonally will create the illusion of a bigger room. A square or rectangular rug will do the same thing if placed at 45 degrees off the walls.

Are you missing an opportunity to make your home on the market look larger and more interesting? Any time you can show off the longest line in the room, do it, either by what you put on the floor or how you arrange furniture.

When you stage your house, make sure everything isn't squared off.  I give many more pointers on how to arrange furniture in my eBook, DIY Home Staging Tips to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar. You can download it now, and start staging your own home today.

Photos: Top photo: Pink Overalls; Porch: Better Homes and Gardens; Bedroom: Faith Sheridan; Living room: Sarah Richardson