Living Room Furniture Arrangement Ideas Arrange furniture to suit the way you use your living room. Everything In This Slideshow Arrange for Face-to-Face Conversation Arranging the seating pieces to face each other over a shared coffee table makes conversation easy, and the table keeps drinks in easy reach. Plan your perfect furniture arrangement with Arrange-a-Room! See it in Action! Find out what three things you need to consider when planning your furniture arrangement Divide the Room with Furniture Divide a large living/dining space into separate zones with furniture placement. A sofa facing away from the dining room defines the conversation area from the rest of this open layout. You have both a TV and a fireplace, but aren't a fan of having both on the same wall? Try this arrangement strategy. Seat Four with Chairs If you don't have room for the usual sofas and love seats, four comfy chairs will serve as well--or perhaps better.
In this clean, crisp setting, matching white slipcovered chairs define an orderly, compact, yet welcoming seating group. Pull Furnishings Together with a Rug Use a large area rug to unify a seating group within a larger space. If the rug isn't large enough to contain all of the seating pieces, make sure that those farthest from the wall are solidly anchored on the "island." Arranging a Great Room When your living space is part of a larger great room, make sure your arrangement fits the space. Watch and see how to make it happen. Enlarge the Space with Diagonals Placing the furniture diagonally gives a boxy room some flavor. The diagonal also creates a welcoming pathway into the seating group. Use the sofa and coffee table to establish the diagonal axis and arrange additional seating on the same axis. To subtly anchor the seating group to the room's architecture, align the area rug with the fireplace wall. Make Space for Lounging In living rooms where lounging and TV-watching are the main activities, a sectional sofa offers flexible, comfortable seating.
Sectionals come in a variety of units, from armless chairs to love seats, ottomans, and chaises that you can combine to fit your space. The sofa in this living room is oriented toward the TV (not shown) and the extra seating is lightweight and can be easily rearranged to face the TV. Divide Large Spaces with Seating If your living room is the setting for large parties, bring intimacy and a comfortable sense of scale to the room by dividing it into two conversational groupings with a path between them. Placing one sofa with its back to this path underscores the separation between the two groups, as do the area rugs anchoring them. Focus on the View An effective room arrangement starts with the focal point, the cornerstone of your living room design. Typically a fireplace plays this role, but in this contemporary cottage space, the view out the French doors takes center stage instead. Orient the main seating piece toward the focal point and arrange the secondary seating pieces around the main piece.
In winter, the room could be rearranged to focus on the fireplace. Create Order with Symmetry Pairs of matching sofas, side tables, and lamps strike a perfect balance on each side of the fireplace in this contemporary living room. Symmetry imposes a sense of order on the space. In a large, open room, use furniture arrangement to divide the space into different activity zones. Here a table and chairs gather on one side of the room, providing a spot for informal meals or games. In the center of the room, a sofa, chairs, and ottoman form a conversational cluster anchored by a rug. Use Chairs Instead of Sofas In a small living room, create a sense of greater space and openness with a collection of chairs instead of using sofas or love seats. The scale of these armchairs suits the smaller living room. Set Aside a Sunny Corner A pair of chairs with a set of stools converts this well-lit corner into a cozy spot for two. Whether you entertain large groups or small ones, providing guests with paired seating helps ensure that everyone will have at least one conversational partner.
Arrange in an L Shape In this large living room, a sofa and a love seat form an L framing a large coffee table. This simple arrangement provides a convenient conversational cluster. A single chair at the other side of this group can easily be moved closer to the conversation grouping. Create Quiet Spot in a Bay Turn a bay window into a quiet spot for two with a pair of comfortable chairs and an ottoman. Provide the chairs with a table and lamp so you'll have light for reading and a place to rest a cup of tea. Snuggle Up to the Fireplace The fireplace is the natural focal point of a living room. Flank each side with seating, whether it's two sofa or a sofa and pair fo chairs, and place a large coffee table in the middle. If you're more likely to lounge in front of the fireplace than sit on a sofa, keep a supply of oversize floor pillows and ottomans on hand. Ottomans can move where you need them for seating, or they can stand in as side tables. Living Rooms with Open Floor Plans
Living and Dining Rooms The first step in arranging a space is determining its size. Use a tape measure to get the dimensions of a room. Or, a quick tip: Measure your foot and then walk heel to toe across the room. This is an easy way to estimate the basic size. Then, check the dimensions of the hallways, stairs and door widths leading to the space. This is the eternal challenge for a homeowner, being sure the entrance and egress of the room are large enough for potential purchases. Design by Jennifer Jones Every object has a height, depth and width. To add visual interest to any space, incorporate a variety of furniture with different characteristics. If you're going for a serene, unchallenging area for rest or recovery, keep the furnishing volumes in a room similar. This rustic living space from HGTV Dream Home 2011 uses an extra-large sectional with small armchairs and side tables to create an energetic space with various volumes. The size of pieces relative to one another and the size of the space is their scale.
Similarly scaled pieces are more serene when used together, but a nice balance of pieces creates a harmonious atmosphere, utilizing the differing physical qualities of height, depth and width throughout a room. When furnishings are out of scale, you'll notice that it just won't feel comfortable or right. Design by Sarah Richardson The relationship of items to one another to form a pleasing whole is called balance. There are two forms of balance: symmetrical and asymmetrical. Bilateral symmetry is like the human body: There are two of everything. Asymmetry refers to an imbalance, such as two candles of slightly different sizes next to each other. Symmetry is very restful, while asymmetry is used to add visual motion and excitement. Design by Pulp Design Studios Look at your space as a painter looks at a work of art. There are visual tricks that painters use to create the appearance of depth in a space. You can use these tools, too. The first trick painters use is "triangulation."
In interior design, triangulation is the placement of two end tables on either side of a sofa with a painting above the sofa. If you can imagine this scenario, it is lower on the corners with the apex of the view just above midcenter at the top of the painting. Design by Domicile Interior Design The second trick painters use is the creation of depth in artwork, which is a two-dimensional medium. Paintings often have a foreground, midground, background and vanishing point. Stand at the threshold of your room. Place a chair, perhaps at an angle, in the foreground closest to you. The cocktail table will provide a midground and the sofa with the wall behind it will serve as the background. A window in the scene will give you your vanishing point. Or, the vanishing point can be within a work of art placed above the sofa. Design by Andreas Charalambous All furniture arrangements have a certain gestalt, or "totality," a "form." Large rectangular spaces can be dealt with by dividing the "form" of the space into another form.