Living Room Furniture Layout

Furniture arrangement can either give your living room a cluttered, overstuffed look, or a comfortable, homely feel. Since it is the most integral part of our home, the decor requires time and thought. Arranging furniture without any proper layout can be like completing a jigsaw puzzle. Though, we usually have a layout in our mind, most of the time it doesn’t come out the way we want. Therefore, some decorating ideas need to be considered before you begin with your living room layout. In most cases, entrances to all other rooms are located in the drawing room, so there should be sufficient circulation space for the family members. Since, most of the furniture items will revolve around a focal point that will invite people to gather, seating for many people should be the primary point to be considered, while everything else can be secondary.

Living Room Furniture Ideas

Following are some simple ideas that will give a unique, classy look to your living room.

• Measure the room, and draw an outline of the room on graph paper, using a scale of ¼ inch to 1 ft. Mark where and how many windows and doors are located in the room, their size, the height of the windowsills, and the distance between the windows and the doors. Also note down the location of the cable and light switches, electrical points and outlets, and telephone points.


• Select a focal point of the room, and arrange the furniture and lighting according to it. Some of the common focal points can be a window opening out to a garden, a fireplace, a bookcase, a home theater system, etc.


• You can also make one of the corners as the focal point, by keeping a tabletop waterfall, beautiful lamp, or other decorative pieces at that corner, with some lighting to highlight it.


• To establish conversation areas, there has to be at least 4-10 ft of space between the sofa and chairs so that your guests can talk to each other comfortably. If this space is less than 4 feet, the room will look too cramped. If the distance is more than 10 feet, it will be difficult for people to communicate. Make sure the legroom between the sofa and the coffee table is at least 14-18 inches.


• Pathways should be 2-3 feet wide so that you can walk comfortably in the sitting room without hitting or stumbling on furniture.


• In small apartments having space restraints, the entertainment center, like a TV, should be placed in such a position so that the remaining furniture can be set around it. The sofa can be placed exactly opposite to the TV, and two chairs on both sides of the sofa will give a uniform look to the room.


• For small living rooms, don’t use heavy cabinets and sleek metallic chairs together. A low table against a high back chair, with a long piece of art work, will give a balanced look to your living room.

Try keeping the number of furniture pieces in your living room low to avoid a congested or stuffy look. You can keep two loveseats opposing each other in place of four chairs, or one sofa and two chairs in place of one loveseat and three or more chairs. Though drawing room furniture arrangement can be a bit challenging, by keeping the above points in mind, you can surely add a new, beautiful look to your living room, that too without wasting much of your time and money.

Living Room Furniture Layout