One of the model kitchens at 225 Weybosset in Providence, Rhode Island, designed by ASH NYC and staged by Bowen’s team—the subdued palette keeps the space feeling open and calm.

Work in Multifunctional Pieces

Rather than adding an ottoman, a daybed, a bench, and a chest, look for a single piece that can serve all their functions, or at least a few of them—in this case perching, lounging, sitting, and storing, respectively. For a 250-square-foot studio apartment at 225 Weybosset Street, a new twelve-unit rental building by ASH NYC in downtown Providence, Rhode Island, where units range from 250 to 1,215 square feet, Andrew’s staging team brought in oversize ottomans with ample storage inside them (“functional seating,” as he calls it) and styled them to toe the line between daybed and dining room bench. Similarly, wooden blocks act as side tables and stools.

The aforementioned kitchen in a studio apartment at 225 Weybosset; its bench at the dining table also acts as an ottoman, daybed, and storage unit.

Be Sure the Rugs are Large Enough

“I won’t even use a rug if the vast majority of the furniture is not sitting all on it,” says Bowen, who typically pays to have a custom rug made for most of the homes the firm stages—that’s how critical it is to making the room look as large as possible. “Having a rug that’s too small makes the room read small,” he says.

One of the living rooms at 225 Weybosset, with a large rug that goes almost all the way to the walls of the living space.

Carve Out a Walking Loop

Besides first pulling all the furniture away from the walls, to keep the room from feeling cramped, Bowen also clears an obvious path through the setup—as what’s the good of a well-proportioned arrangement of furniture if you can’t move through it? “Walking space is absolutely crucial—I can’t stress that enough,” he says, adding that “there’s this idea of the walking loop, because you never want a walking dead end. That makes a room feel bigger.”

Getting around the sofa: just as important as the fabric on the sofa.

Steer Clear of Harsh Colors

While not dedicated to a completely neutral palette in their staged interiors, Bowen and his team do tend to keep harsh colors at a minimum—if only because they can be jarring. “When it comes to paint, we use white all the way to black, cool to warm, some navys, some greens, and the occasional mauve. . . . We stay very far away from red walls, orange, and yellow, which reads McDonald’s.”

Large art and deep mauves feel right at home in this gray bedroom—a dose of personality and color that actually emphasizes the scale of the room.

Don’t Be Afraid of Big Art

Across from a curious architectural feature in one of the 225 Weybosset rooms, a passageway to a once-adjoining apartment that has since been filled in, Bowen hung a massive trio of artworks to balance out the scale of the feature. Rather than dwarfing the room, he says, these big artworks actually fill the space, emphasizing its tall ceilings.