How We Styled Our Family Room and Kitchen to Sell

Well, our first home now belongs to someone else (a VERY lovely family). As you guessed it went really quickly and yes, they bought 80% of the furniture and accessories (very little art or one of a kind accessories that I couldn’t part with). But before we sold it we staged it to sell (and created this video series!!!) which meant for this room, that we really designed it for the very first time.

When we bought it, it looked like this:

We did a lot of updating to it through the years, and even shot it for a few different publications, all styled out.

Here it was in Domino. Geez this looks so dated now.

And here is looking towards the kitchen when it was in Good Housekeeping:

Charlie!!! and little Elliot was in my belly. Simpler days, folks. Simpler days.

And in Styled: 

It was great and looked ok when styled out in pictures but I think the main problem, and why I never loved it, was because of the sectional. It was just too heavy for this small of a space. It was also, so incredibly comfortable and easy to clean. We spent so much time on that beast which is why we always kept it in there.

Turns out it needed a sectional but one of different proportions. Once this exact sectional (borrowed from the lovely ladies of 1000xbetter, although I believe it’s from CB2 and they still sell it) was in there it made so much more sense and the room felt so much better.

It fits perfectly in the corner, keeps the room feeling open and provides almost as much comfortable seating as we had before. Now, our family couldn’t handle a white sectional in our TV room, especially when it’s shared with the kitchen, because we are disgusting animals who shove food in our mouths while watching any sort of garbage TV, but I do love this look so much more. I will say that this sofa is a 6 on the comfort scale – it’s on the firmer side. Although the Article sectional we used in the living room is really, really comfortable (real down) by the way. I was impressed.

Once the sofa was confirmed, I knew exactly how to stage this room so that it highlighted the space and appealed to the widest audience.

1. I kept an open and airy color palette. The sofa and rug make for a neutral backdrop for colorful (but not too colorful) pillows and throws with pattern (but not too much pattern). There are a few big pops (the indigo and the mustard) but mostly they are all pulled from the rug and are quiet and neutral.

We had that Rebecca Atwood piece above the couch commissioned and man, do I love how perfect it looks in this room (we had it custom framed by Framebridge who did such a good job). It’s the absolute perfect scale for the sofa and that large wall. And once we flanked it by those amazing sconces I stood back and said ‘WHY, OH WHY DIDN’T I DO THAT YEARS AGO?’. The truth is that this room was always a disaster because of the kids. The cats ruined our huge pouf, but the kids loved it too much for us to replace it. The sofa was always covered in yogurt (fun fact, I’ve now come to spot clean my furniture much more often and it’s shocking how great it works – turns out I was just super lazy before). I think I just felt like “why invest in this room because it’s just going to look like we were robbed every day anyway?”

Seeing it like this just makes me finally feel proud of it.

Meanwhile on the other side of the room …

This side of the room was previously riddled with toys as it was their play area. Our Saarinen coffee table was their play table and play dough was typically smashed into all surfaces and crevices at any given time. We got rid of all signs of kid when we staged it, and it’s shocking how it instantly became a real room again. We brought over our white credenza to the new house, thinking that we needed it – only to bring it back and sell it to the new owners, ha! We borrowed this piece from the 1000xbetter staging company in the interim (although it’s from West Elm). It was nice that it was a smaller scale, but I loved the white piece back here a lot (I don’t think I ever shot it in there, sorry!).

As you know this space is shared with the kitchen and it is ALSO our TV room. We didn’t do much to the kitchen, beyond touching up all the paint, and recaulking the backsplash at the seams. The kitchen was redone only done 2 years ago and it’s held up pretty nicely.

Before you think – my god that TV is up high, you should know that it usually lives 18″ lower. Such a boring story but we had already moved the tv to the other house, and the day we shot the video we were like – gah! we need a TV to fill that spot! The TV down in the guest suite was brought up, but the brackets didn’t match so we essentially just rested it on the bracket rather than totally mounting it to the wall – thus leaving the TV way higher than it was when we lived there.

I forced Tessa to take some pulled back more real estate shots and she complied. I love, love, love being able to see the whole space and while I know that this shot would never be in a magazine I think I’m not alone when I say I appreciate how full of information it is.

That Rejuvenation rug is great by the way. If you are in the market for a neutral that still has some color, it’s a very good one. We sold our framed vintage car photos (framed via Framebridge) to the new owners – but I thought they looked great in this space.

Man, I have such amazing memories there. Such a happy kitchen that definitely felt like ‘me’.

And here’s the second video we put together with Curbed, all about decluttering a room to make it more appealing to potential buyers:

That’s how we did it. If you are interested in any of the specific items you see in the pics we have pulled together a “get the look” for you below.

1. Sconce | 2. Custom Art (framed by Framebridge in Irvine frame) | 3. End Table | 4. Sofa | 5. White Pillow | 6. Blue Patterned Pillow | 7. Blush Tie Dye Pillow | 8. Blue Striped Throw | 9. Rug | 10. Vintage Art (Framed by Framebridge in Mercer Frame) | 11. Blue Roman Shade | 12. Blue Sham (vintage) | 13. Crackle Print Pillow | 14. Textured Knot Pillow | 15. Blue & White Stripe Pillow | 16. Table Lamp | 17. Mirror | 18. Credenza | 19. Navy Cross Stitch Pillow | 20. Blue Knit Pillow | 21. Fringe Throw | 22. Yellow Round Pillow | 23. Ceramic Bowl | 24. Urchin Box | 25. Cowhide Rug | 26. Woven Basket

But wait, there’s more. One of my biggest style tips is to keep a consistent color palette, so here’s one more quick ‘Style School’ about how to pull together a color palette based on an item in your space:

Let us know if you have any questions below. Check out how we staged the master bedroom, Elliot’s room, charlie’s room and living room, too.

***After Photos by Tessa Neustadt