Staging and styling a small space

We were recently commissioned to provide a show home for developers Nacropolis Construction in their lovely boutique development, Penn House in Rickmansworth.

The development consisted of seven studios and a one-bedroomed apartment; the apartment having already been sold.  Our brief was to create a contemporary living environment and maximise the space in one of the studios, which measured just over 35m² (or 376 square feet).

We made just one visit to the site before installation, when the studio was very much still a building site as the pictures below demonstrate.  The studio did feel small, so we knew we had to be smart to create the illusion of space when it came to staging.

We used a few design tricks to achieve the styling outcome, including:

·       ‘Open’ rather than solid furniture which allows views through and doesn’t break the eye-line. 

·       Furniture which is the right size for the room.  Understanding scale and proportion is so important in staging, whether you’re working in a small or large space.    Scale considers how the furniture works in the size of the room, whilst proportion looks at how the individual items fit together.  Both need to be right to avoid the room looking ‘off’.

·       Light – this studio had loads of natural light from three large windows, and for that reason we decided not to use blinds or curtains for the staging and to maximise the daylight as much as possible.  We then included lamps at different levels, a low lamp on the media bench, two bedside lights, a tall floor lamp and two large feature ceiling shades to draw they eye to different areas of the room.  A large floor mirror opposite two windows also helped to bounce the light around the studio.

·       A large rug which doesn’t break up the floor and anchors the furniture in the living room area.

·       A cohesive colour palette which harmonised with the existing fixtures and fittings, and repeating accent colours in the accessories.

·       A large piece of abstract art to balance the scale and create visual interest.

The result?  The studio looks spacious and bright, and genuinely demonstrates how a potential buyer could comfortably and happily live in a small space.  We hope you like it!