One of the best types of furniture for staging homes are transformer tables as they have a wow factor when they morph shape and size, store compact saving you money when they’re not in use, and show how all spaces can be multi-functional. With a table that expands you can display how every room can have both space to live and entertain when hosting company.
Small spaces can become multifunctional with tables that open to reveal storage, lift vertically, and fold out to become a 6 person dining table set. Other transforming table designs let one person work at desk height while another section remains low so a different person can relax their feet or set down drink at coffee table height.
There are a few types of transformer tables including:
- Coffee to dining tables are a style of transforming table that starts as a coffee table and expands upwards and outwards to become a dining table.
- Console to dining tables begin as a decorative console that fits in your hallway or against a wall, then expand long ways to become a table for seating multiple people.
- Lift tables transform vertically by having the table top or sections of the table top rise so it transforms from an end table to a desk, dining table, or other type of raised surface.
- Extending tables are the most common type of transformer table and extend long ways or outwards (a circular table that keeps its circular shape by increasing the diameter) to seat more people.
There are no shortage of ways that you can use transforming tables when staging a home, or for your own home if you want to maximize function, and here are a few of our favorites.
Turn Living Rooms Into a Dining and Social Space
When potential buyers walk into the living room they’ll instantly start to picture how they’ll use the space. As they mention hosting family dinners during the holidays in the dining room, or having friends over as they see a finished basement or spacious family room, you can show how each room can give them space to be social and live while also hosting large dinners.
Our Junior Giant for example can be placed by the entrance where you have buyers sign in and display a platter with cookies as it is a stunning console table. Now move it into the room you are going to display it, or have a second one there ahead of time. This is your chance to make the space shine.
Expand the table to a 6 person and 12 person configuration, all of the sudden you went from a large enough space for people to congregate at a party to seating everyone when it's time for dinner. Best of all it only takes minutes.
If you have two console to dining tables, you can say “By the way, the console you signed in at is also one of these dining tables. You can host friends and have space for every day life in this home.” This shows how style meets function in their new home.
Family and TV Rooms
All staged homes will place a coffee table and stack decor items to make a room feel like home. Where your listing can stand out is by taking that same home feeling and making it functional for all types of home buyers.
Mixed Generation Home Buyers
If the potential buyers mention they have a mixed generation household (their parents live with them and they have kids), a family room or tv room is where everyone will spend time. Kids like to sit on the floor while older people will want a chair with back support and to not have to bend over to reach the items they use.
When you have a coffee table that lifts on one side and stays lower at the other, and has proper mechanics and locking systems to ensure the lifted section rises and lowers with ease, you make a case for the room and home.
Our Occam coffee table for example has two separate lifting surfaces, storage underneath, and a stationary surface that remains low. If grandpa likes to sit in a chair and grandma likes the couch, they can each store their in-room essentials like slippers, books, eye glasses, and other items while having a raised surface to easily set them down and retrieve them from.
The kids can use the lowered portions to color on, do homework, color, or play games. It is the perfect furniture so the grandparents can babysit the kids while the parents (your buyers) have a night out. But it isn’t multi-generational only.
Couples and Roommate Home Buyers
You can demonstrate a work from home situation. While one person has half of the coffee table lifted to a desk height for work, the other can lounge back and relax out of the line of the camera during conference calls. You now have a work and a relaxation or play space where nobody is interrupted. This makes the room and table perfect for friends buying a home together where one is in school and the other has a full time job.
Small Spaces, Condos, and Studios
When you are showing a small space like a studio or condo in a large city, or an older home with an apartment for rent, coffee to dining tables are going to help sell the property. The goal here is to show that even if the space is small, you can still have a formal dinner or game night with friends.
Some coffee tables like our Alzare Square rests at 10 inches high in coffee table formation and transforms to a 30 inch tall dining table. Best of all the surface expands out to seat six people comfortably.
If the buyers are younger or a single person who likes to entertain guests, you can demonstrate how their social life does not have to be impacted even in a tiny home.
Tables that transform by lifting vertically, expanding horizontally, or both are a real estate agent, interior designer, and home stager’s best friend. They add wow factors to a showing, demonstrate how functional each room in the home can be, and they store compact so you don’t take on extra storage costs when the furniture is not in use.