The Focal Point
For your client's guest bedroom, you only want to use the essentials to take away from the room looking cluttered. A bed, dresser, and chair are the core pieces to include. If you have more space, side tables and supporting furniture can be included. The bed should be the heart of a guest bedroom. Pick a good location for it, then decorate around it. Your main aim should be to showcase the use of space in the room. Match the color of the dresser and table to that of the headboard if you are using a wood headboard, otherwise get a complimentary color on your headboard for fabric ones. If the room looks a bit crowded, you can remove the chair. If your client has a limited budget, you can paint or reface old furniture instead of purchasing new pieces.
Use The Natural Light
Some bedrooms don’t bring in enough natural light. Even worse, they have dimmed lighting and look dull at night. When staging your client's home, make sure the bedrooms are light and bright. You want to make sure it's even light and bright in the evenings with a variety of light fixtures. Install sheers and light curtains to let light in during the day. Heavy draperies or bold curtains hog all the attention and make the room feel stuffy. Replace bulbs and add light fixtures to brighten up the space at night.
Mirrors
Add mirrors throughout the guest bedroom to give the visual effect that it is a lot larger than it actually is. If you can, face the mirror across from the window in the room, to help reflect light throughout the space.
Color Schemes
The most successful color combinations for small bedrooms are monochromatic room designs. This style uses only one color in varying shades, tints, tones and textures in the wall paint, draperies, furniture and flooring. A monochromatic room design successfully creates the illusion of a more expansive and calming space.
Scaling The Room
Scale is the most important thing to consider when choosing furniture for a small bedroom. When staging the bedroom, you want your room to seem as large as possible. Don’t be afraid to have one or two large pieces of furniture in your small space when staging the bedroom. Using a bold piece of furniture, such as an upholstered armchair or armoire will actually make a small space look less cluttered then many smaller pieces. When staging the bedroom, especially a small one, use armless furniture, which will take up less visual and physical space. Take advantage of the vertical space in a small bedroom by using tall pieces of furniture instead of wide ones. You'll get the same amount of function without losing all that floor space. Stay away from sleigh and canopy style beds. These beds have a heavy presence and will take over your bedroom, appearing to shrink it in size.
