I Asked a Stager for Help Rearranging My Cluttered Dining Room — And Got 6 Basically Free Ideas

When I first walked into the open house that is now my home, the staging was a mystery. It’s a Victorian-style house with nooks and alcoves that make furniture layout difficult, but the stager had thrown a complete air ball in approaching the dining room. Rather than stage it as a dining room, they turned it into a second living room, complete with a sofa, two accent chairs, and a coffee table. Off to the side, in one of the nooks, they had placed a small four-person dining table. I know that some experts say dining rooms are falling out of favor — and it was clear which side of the debate that stager fell on.

I’m very pro-dining room, and I promptly turned the dining room back into an actual place to eat when I moved in. But, for the past two years, a totally functional layout has evaded me. There are still parts of my dining room that bother me — a cluttered corner below the big window, an annoying lack of walkway at the entrance. I have two nooks to work with, and I’ve filled them with seating — a corner chair and side table in one, and a small sofa in the other. They’re pieces that weren’t intentionally bought for those spaces, but they’ve worked well enough. 

However, I was curious how a professional might approach the space — particularly one with an eye for flow through a space. I chatted with Barbara Cooney, founder and owner of So So Spiffy Staging, and she gave me six ways (some free, some less so) to totally transform the space.

Cooney’s first suggestion is actually one that I’ve had on my mind for ages. She pointed out that the sofa simply isn’t right in the room, and there’s a better, smaller-scale solution. “The sofa looks a bit out of scale for the space,” says Cooney. “I would add a pair of small-scale club chairs instead of a sofa.”   

Club chairs, which are armchairs known for having low backs and deep seats, offer a low-profile vibe, which will allow you to open up the room. Cooney says that with a more sleek, modern selection — such as barrel chairs — you’ll be able to create balance with the other furniture pieces there.

Of course, to give the two club chairs some life and function, there needs to be some sort of surface on which to place a drink, a book, or whatever you might have in hand. Luckily that can be done without me having to purchase anything new, as I could use the side table that’s already there.  

“The scalloped table and lamp could be moved in between the sleek barrel chairs, and the corner chair would be removed,” shares Cooney. “This creates a nice balance of antiques and modern while opening the space up.”

I’ve always had a hunch that the china cabinet, although beautiful, wasn’t quite right for my dining space — especially because it interrupts the flow of traffic around that corner of the table — but I hadn’t thought about removing it altogether. Cooney suggests that it might be best to leave that corner empty or move the much smaller chinoiserie cabinet to that spot.

“The china cabinet is positioned too close to the wall,” says Cooney. “It could be removed completely and the small chinoiserie bar could be moved to that wall, replacing the china cabinet.”

“Changing out the small table and chairs would also open up the window space,” says Cooney. Removing them totally would actually draw the eye towards the window and give more focus on that area. It’s a tweak that involves removing rather than adding, and I can’t complain about a free upgrade to the room.

I have inherited dining chairs in this room — they just happened to nicely complement the dining table I bought secondhand. They’ve been on my list to reupholster, but Cooney actually suggests that going with a different style could make for a more modern, updated look.

“Dining rooms are all about the chairs in staging. You typically have four to 12 chairs around the table, and that is where your eye is drawn … to the back of the chair,” says Cooney. She explains that a traditional wood table could benefit from sleeker chairs with more upholstery, preferably in a soft neutral. 

I purposefully don’t have plants in my house because my cat will go after anything green. But Cooney says that a low-profile planter across the dining table, with enough room for several six-inch pots of white hydrangeas, could give the room a more welcoming look. As she says, “Rooms need life with real plants.”

As for where to go from here, I’ll consider doing the free swaps first before I pull out my wallet. But it shows that even a little bit of decluttering and swapping can go a long way into making this room more functional — even if it still looks pretty great right now.