How To Arrange Living Room Furniture

The living room is one part of the home that’s typically seen by many different people, so it’s important that it’s gives the impression that you want it to. It’s also where most families spend the majority of their time, watching TV, talking, or spending time together in another way. To complicate matters, though, there are probably lots of different pieces of furniture you need to have in the living room, and it’s a space that may serve more than one purpose. How do you get the perfect living room arrangement to meet the needs of everyone involved? These tips on how to arrange living room furniture can help.

Plan Out the Room First

Before you disrupt your current living room furniture arrangement, take some time to think and plan. Measure out the room and the furniture that you want to place in it so that you know exactly how much space you have. It’s a great
idea to create a sketch of the room, drawing it to scale on graph paper. Be sure to mark windows and doorways on your sketch. From there, you’ll want to carefully cut out furniture pieces that are also to scale, based on your measurements. Now you can move the furniture around on the paper instead of lugging it from one side of the room to the other.

Not only does this method help you determine how to arrange living room furniture in your home, it also encourages you to be realistic about how much space you have. By taking measurements first, you might discover that you really don’t have room for a second living room chair, or that there is space for a few more plants or a small side table.

Think About a Focal Point

Pretty much every expert on home decorating will tell you to create a focal point in your room, and with good reason. When you have a focal point as part of the living room arrangements, you know how to organize the furniture. It also allows you to make the room interesting in a visual way, by drawing the eye first to that point, and then leading it to other pieces that you might want to highlight.

While the focal point in most modern living rooms is usually the TV, you could have another focal point, too. Architecturally speaking, it could be a fireplace or a bay window. If you don’t see a clear focal point, you may want to work with the longest wall as your center, because all of the furniture needs to be facing that focal point. A special paint treatment or a piece of art can act as a focal point on that wall. Living room arrangements that have a focal point are often more comfortable and pleasing to the senses.

Once you’ve chosen your focal point and arranged the furniture in relation to it, take a step back. Does the arrangement discourage people from talking to one another? Can you do anything other than, for example, watch TV in the room? While a focal point is important, it shouldn’t distract from the real purpose of the room – to allow people to sit and spend time together. Angle the seating so that people can look at each other and hold a conversation easily.

Leave Some Space

Remember that people are going to want to move around your living room, so you’ll want plenty of space – at least 3 feet between furniture where people will walk. It’s also a good idea to leave some space between furniture and the walls so that the room feels cozier. When you push everything to the edges of the room, the center can feel cold and empty. Leave empty space in your decorating too. Your eye is immediately drawn to the focal point that you’ve created, so give yourself some breathing room with a little bit of blank wall or furniture in a neutral color.

While you’ll arrange most of your seating around the focal point, if you have lots of extra room, go ahead and create a reading area, a spot for a table and chairs, or whatever else you’d like to add. A living room furniture arrangement with large empty spaces can make your home look bare or empty, rather than cozy and welcoming. When thinking about living room arrangements, consider what activities you want to be able to do in the room and how you can use the space to accommodate them.

Thinking about the room first is far easier than simply shifting the sofa here, there, and everywhere. With a little planning, the process of how to arrange living room furniture can be fun and easy.