Virtual staging guide
How to measure a room so staged furniture fits
Scale errors are what make a staged photo read as fake, and they come from guessing distances rather than measuring two of them. You do not need a floor plan to get this right.
Measure the longest clear wall
- Wall to wall at skirting height, with doors and radiators noted; that number sets the maximum sofa or bed.
- Subtract 60 cm at each end where a door swing or a radiator needs clearance.
- A piece that fills more than two thirds of the clear wall will look oversized in the photograph.
Measure the walkway you need
- 90 cm behind a dining chair, 60 cm at the foot of a bed, 80 cm through a corridor.
- Take the walkway measurement from the widest existing gap, not from the empty room.
- If the walkway drops below these numbers once furniture is placed, remove a piece rather than shrinking the room.
Work from the photograph too
- Use the door height as a ruler: a standard door is about 2 metres, so furniture can be checked against it in the image.
- Check the ceiling height before choosing anything tall; a low room needs low pieces.
- Note which way the floorboards run, because furniture placed across them reads as a different room.
Related
/how-to/shoot-an-empty-room · Staging a bedroom · Staging a dining room
Staging keeps the walls, windows and camera angle of your photograph; only the furnishing is added. Upload the room and the frame comes back at the resolution you sent.