Arranging a Living Room

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Arranging a Living Room

Where the seating goes, coffee table sizing, rugs and lighting

A living room works or does not according to the seating layout, and most of the common problems have simple measurements behind them.

Start with the focal point

Usually a fireplace, a window or the television. Arrange the seating around it rather than pushing everything against the walls, which makes a room feel like a waiting area and is the most common mistake.

Pulling a sofa even twenty centimetres off the wall changes how a room reads.

Conversation distance

People talk comfortably across around two and a half metres. Seating further apart than that makes conversation awkward, which is why large rooms work better with two groupings than one enormous circle.

Coffee tables

Around two thirds the length of the sofa, roughly the same height as the seat cushions, with about forty centimetres between the table and the seat — close enough to reach and far enough to walk past.

Two small tables are more flexible than one large one in a room used for different things.

Rugs

The front legs of all the seating should sit on the rug at least. A small rug floating in the middle makes a room look smaller, and is the second most common mistake.

Lighting

Three or four sources at different heights rather than one ceiling light. Lamps in the corners, something beside a reading chair, and everything on dimmers where possible.

Television

At seated eye level rather than above a fireplace, which is too high for comfort over a long evening.

Sofas and scale

Measure the room and mark the footprint on the floor with tape before ordering. Check the route in including stair turns and the diagonal depth of the sofa, which is how it goes through a door on its side.

A sofa slightly too large dominates a room permanently, and nothing about the upholstery fixes it.

Storage

Closed storage for the clutter and open shelving for what you use daily, which is what keeps a living room from becoming a storage room.

Buying furniture that lasts

Kiln-dried hardwood frames with jointed and glued corners, a stated rub rating on upholstery fabric, and removable washable covers. Ask what the frame guarantee covers, since that tells you what the maker believes.

Check the fire safety label, which charities require to accept furniture later.

Colour and texture

Keep the palette limited and add interest with texture — a wool throw, a linen cushion, a wooden surface — rather than more colours. That is what makes a room feel finished rather than busy.

Sample paint on card and move it around the room before committing.

Traffic

Leave a clear route through the room that does not cross in front of the seating.

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