How To See Potential In An Empty Home According To Experts

When you’re looking for a new place to live, it can be quite challenging to look at a completely empty space and envision just how you’ll settle in. Planning out furniture placement and decor ideas can be really difficult, since most of us aren’t interior design experts. That’s why it’s best to see what the people whose profession this actually is have to say about the matter. Here is some advice on how to spot potential in an empty home.

Imagine Your Daily Flow

Imagine Your Daily Flow

Danielle and Kyle of Danielle Kyle Design stress the importance of looking for functional space. According to Kyle:  “What really matters is thinking about living inside the space. We ask ourselves questions like where we want to be sitting with our morning cup of coffee and where friends would gather for a great conversation.” Space is only actually useful if it helps us live the life want want inside of it. Danielle says: “We look at each space from different angles until we are able to identify the room’s aesthetic and structural strengths. Picture windows, unique built-ins, and existing arches are all an immediate plus, but they should work with what the home already has to offer.”

Look For Architectural Features

Stephanie Watkins of Casa Watkins Living says she looks for architectural features to accentuate in order to create a beautiful feature in the home with what the home already has to offer. Natural light and surprising little spots are always helpful. Stephanie says: “Though I believe any space can be turned into a beautiful creation, I’m a big fan of big windows/French doors for great plant life, plus some sort of architectural feature which could be a bump-out, archway, or a nook. These types of details make great potential for an interesting feature in a space.”

Look Past The Furniture

Kera Jeffers of Haute House Love says that empty spaces are actually great to visualizing a home’s true potential. She says that letting your imagination do the work is quite helpful as you can really get creative. She says: “For my crazy design brain I can always see the most potential in an empty space because there aren’t any furnishings to cloud judgment. For me seeing the potential has less to do with specific elements and more to do with being able to exercise the part of the brain that can dream big.”

Look Past The Furniture

Walls & Windows As Blank Canvasses

Megan Duncan from The Minted Vintage says that you can DIY some character into your home by looking at the walls and windows as a blank canvas. A plain room is just a molding, trim, or other add-in treatment away from the room of your dreams. As Duncan says: “When looking for potential in an empty space, I look at where a built-in cabinet or shelves can be added for storage and styling or a wall treatment like board and batten can be installed. Next, I envision how to dress windows up with custom trim. Even small windows will look bigger with a little extra detail. I love to add wood elements throughout a space, so features like cased openings and ceiling height are next on my list. Wrapping an opening with trim work and installing faux beams on the ceiling can really make a space feel extra cozy.”

Walls & Windows As Blank Canvasses

Accentuate The Quirks

According to designer Sarah Glenn, you should embrace rather than try to hide the quirks of your home. She says: “I love to look for something quirky to highlight in a space, especially in a way that connects the room to the sense of place around it. My son’s nursery has 7-and-a-half-foot ceilings and a dormer looking out over a canopy of trees in our backyard. The space has a natural coziness to it and reminds me of a treehouse. I embraced that feeling by painting the room a dark hunter green, layering in shades of blue through textiles and art, and incorporating natural materials with a vintage wool rug, leather rocking chair, and an antique pine dresser.”

Accentuate The Quirks

Look For The Unique

Erin Spain emphasizes that recognizing unique features of your home can help inspire a makeover. She says: “Sometimes it’s the scale of the space or architectural details like molding; sometimes it’s the layout or the amount of natural light it gets. Each space is unique, so I try to envision what it could become based on whatever assets it might already possess.”

Look For The Unique