HOW TO HANG ART, PART 3: ABOVE THE SOFA

At Spade and Archer Design Agency we almost always hang artwork above the sofa if we can.

Note, sometimes there is a window or no wall behind the sofa, thus art would not work there.  There are a few rules here. We use a piece, or pieces of art that combined are, at least 50% as visually large as the sofa but no more than 100% as large as the sofa. In this shot we can see the artwork is about 75% as large as the sofa. We center the artwork on the sofa, and hang the artwork about 4” above the back of the sofa to the bottom of the artwork. Note, 4 inches about the size of your fist from the pinky to the thumb. 

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HOW TO HANG ART, PART 2: THE ART GRID

At Spade and Archer Design Agency we have made grided artwork a main stay. The art grid uses a few of the most basic design principles like rhythm, repetition, and scale to bring out the beauty in even the simplest piece of art. When hanging a grid use these guidelines to insure a successful adventure. 

1. Figure out how many pieces you want the grid to have then buy that many of the same frame. If the frames are all the same, the mats can be cut at different sizes to accommodate the art. We like to use artwork that is all different but on one general theme like cars, surfers, or black and white landscapes. 

2. Determine your spacing and use it for both the horizontal and vertical. If there is a six inch gap between two pieces next to each other, there should be a six inch gab between two pieces above and below one another.

3. Pretend that all the pieces combined make one piece of art. Then layout the outer edges of that piece both centered on the wall horizontally and 57” above the finished floor  to the middle of the piece vertically

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WHY DOES THE SOFA SIT AWAY FROM THE WALL?

At Spade and Archer Design Agency our goal is to try to make every room look as big as possible while still having a human scale.

While we will often place a sofa near a wall, we will nearly never press it up against the wall, unless the room is so tight that we have to. We try to leave at least a 6” gap between the wall and the back of the sofa to make the space look a bit more relaxed. The last thing we want to see “perimeter staging.” It’s that thing in spaces where it feels like all the furniture was placed in the middle of the room, the room was spun really fast and all the furniture flew to the outer walls and stayed there. Furniture does not need to be anchored by a wall, let it breath, let it live, let it float.

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HOW TO HANG ART, PART 1: SIDE-BY-SIDE PAIRS

Home staging with Spade and Archer Design Agency can be a bit different than interior design. With home staging we have to make sure the house is the star and the furnishings are back up dancers. The staging should be good, but it should not outshine the house itself.

When hanging a set, be sure to space them equal distant away from either each other or from the object they are splitting. In this case they have been hung with six inches on both the right and left side and at the same height as each other. We use the museum standard of hanging the middle of the art at eye level or 57” above the finished floor. 

One of the biggest mistakes we see when hanging pairs of art is to hang out 5 or 6 inches higher than the other. While there is a time and place for this (we will explore this in hanging art in staircases) this rule should almost never be used in flat rooms. 

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What's With the Buffet Set Up?

At Spade and Archer Design Agency we do things a little differently. It started with leaving calling cards like our vintage radios and culminated in an entire revolution of our industry with things like Guaranteed Home Staging® "Pay-At-Close" home staging and our instant pricing, and booking tools. 

One of our innovations along the way was the "Buffet Set Up." Many stager "set" the table with place setting of dishes at each chair. We found this look to be too contrived and predictable. It felt forced and fake. The last thing we want is for our buyer to feel like they are being bamboozled into buying a house. 

So for a few months we tried only putting a single center piece on our dining tables. We found that this left the tables looking like a massive empty void in the listing photos. The listing photos are the first thing a buyer sees, so vacant empty dining rooms in the listing photos was simply not going to cut it. 

Our compromise was to stack the dishes as if the table was about to be set. A nod to interior design photo shoots and giving the photos a bit of interest without being overwhelming and predictable. We called it the "Buffet Set Up" and it has been wildly successful. 

Under each of the top dishes is a sassy note asking folks not to set the table for us. It explains that we left the dishes this way on purpose. We find sellers get a laugh out of the note and understand why they hired us the first place. 

Houses staged by Spade and Archer sell for more money and faster than the general market. So what are you waiting for?

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