How to Place Furniture in a Living Room

Designing a living room isn’t just about colour coordination, choosing stylish living room furniture sets, or filling the room with expensive pieces. Where you place your furniture will determine the overall aesthetic, accessibility, and ambience of your living room.

When it comes to furniture placement, top designers use a few tricks of the trade to help guide the overall flow and feel of a room.

All designers agree, the first and most important steps are to: measure the room, and consider the focal point. Your living room’s measurements will give you a better understanding of the size and style of furniture you can choose, helping you make the right choices for your space.

The focal point is often the best visual feature of a room, such as the fireplace, the windows, or the view. Understanding where the focal point is will help determine your furniture layout.

Once you have the measurements and have chosen the focal point, you may still wonder what type of sofa to choose - a loveseat or a sectional? How do you deal with shelving and storage? And what should you do about filling corners, lighting and choosing coffee tables, side tables, or consoles?

Luckily, there are a few design tricks that can help you create the perfect living room.

Loveseats and Living Room Chairs

Loveseats are incredibly versatile and work well for both a formal and informal setting. Loveseats placed directly across from each other may give a room a formal look, but this arrangement also works well for after dinner conversations and informal game nights.

If you have a large, open space, you can create two intimate seating areas by placing two loveseats back-to-back, with a console table in between.

You can even corner loveseats in a room to make an L shape, which also creates space for extra living room chairs.

When placing living room chairs, consider how they will be used. If they are for extra guests and entertaining, then you will want to make space in the main area of the living room. Will some of the chairs be used for quiet reading time? In this case, you may want to create a comfortable space in a corner with a lamp and side table.

A best practice is to allow 30 inches between different furniture pieces to provide ample space for people to pass through. This is important to keep in mind because a living room is usually a high traffic area, and no one wants their home to feel cramped and overcrowded.

Sofas and Sectionals

We often choose furniture based on how it looks without considering how it will fit the size of the room.

For smaller spaces, New York interior designer Christina Murphy suggests investing in tight back sofas and club chairs. They can be just as comfortable as overstuffed sofas and can save quite a bit of space.

The corners of a room can be difficult to deal with, and often, this becomes an empty space. A sectional sofa can be a solution to this problem. Sectionals can be customized to fit your room, are easily positioned in tight areas of a room, and come in a variety of styles and sizes.

In an open floor plan, a sectional can make an attractive and comfortable room divider. However, when choosing a sectional, the shape of your living room should be considered. For a long, narrow living room, an L-shaped sectional is recommended, whereas, in a round-shaped room an S-shaped sectional works best.

Shelving and Storage Furniture

There are various shelving and storage solutions for your living room. Choose a design that will accommodate your personal storage needs, as well as suit your style.

For a contemporary living room or a smaller space, consider wall-mounted shelves or glass shelving units over bulky, traditional bookcases. Glass can add a sense of space and light while providing a place for much-loved items you want to display.

Another solution for extra storage is storage furniture. This could be a small dresser with a lamp, a chest that doubles as a coffee table, or a side table with drawers for that much-needed extra storage without compromising space or style.

Console Tables and Coffee Tables

While the focal point of a room is based on an aesthetic principle, the centre point of a room is all about the social aspect. In a living room, the centre point is usually the coffee table. This is where people can sit back over a glass of wine, or put their feet up at the end of the day.

Large rooms may have more than one centre point. You can make any area of the room a centre point with the right furniture. A corner with two accent chairs and a small side table makes a great place to hold an intimate conversation. If you have a large, open-plan room, you can place this arrangement in a couple of areas to create several, separate seating options. Not only does this make a large room comfortable and inviting, but it’s also great for parties and entertaining.

A console table can add life to large, empty walls. Console tables work well to underscore a painting, and by adding a light, this arrangement adds warmth to your living room.

While the coffee table acts as a gathering point, the side tables in your living room are equally important. Side tables come in a wonderful variety of styles and can add a creative edge to the room. Side tables can be found in chrome or gold, with unique legs and accents. Place them next to your sofa or chairs, and add extra lighting, books and magazines, or your favourite accessories.

As a top living room store in Calgary, Bondars provides a wide range of modern living room furniture. Whether you need a modern coffee table or a sofa set, Bondars is your one-stop shop to buying living room furniture in Calgary.

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