Ah, the living room: the room where you go to kick your feet up after a long week of work, the room where you go to enjoy your morning tea and toast before your hectic day starts, the room where your guests gather and share endless laughter and create lasting memories. The living room is a staple in our lives— its versatile nature makes it one of the most important rooms in our homes, and designing it to reflect as much as possible is critical to memory-making and feet-kicking.
Optimizing your furniture is undoubtedly one of the best ways to set up your living room the way you want. As furniture is the largest series of items within the room, choosing how they are laid out and carefully orienting them within a space is critical to establishing an aesthetic of the room that personally suits you.
Do you want to encourage conversation in the living room when your guests come over? Are you looking more to accommodate the physical layout? Either way, there are always ways to spruce up your living room with furniture.
Discover what we recommend and gain creative inspiration for your next remodelling. Here are five living room furniture set up ideas:
Idea #1: Start with the largest piece.
No matter what design or room shape you try to accommodate, starting with the largest piece of furniture will undoubtedly save you a lot of pain and hassle. Usually, this large piece of furniture will be the sofa or a large coffee table. You want to orient this piece towards the room’s feature that you want eyes to be on, whether this is the television, fireplace, window, or artwork. We also do not recommend placing your couch, sofa, or armchair directly in front of a window, as this can block some of the natural light we love.
Now that you have oriented your larger piece of furniture position the smaller items, such as armchairs or love seats, around the first piece. “Around” can mean multiple things: you can place them opposite or adjacent to the first piece depending on the atmosphere you would like to create in the room, but more on that later!
Finally, complete the room by including accent furniture, end tables, lamps, decorative art pieces, or a smaller coffee table. Another advice: ensure each piece of seating is within reach of a tabletop surface.
Idea #2: Arranging it to encourage conversation
If you want to encourage conversation and set up a living room conducive to that, look no further! By placing the seating pieces (i.e. couches, armchairs, ottomans) close to the middle of the room as they face each other, the conversation will be highlighted as the room’s purpose.
Ensure that your seating is no more than 8 feet apart to ensure optimal chatting distance. Place a coffee table within the arrangement of seating to keep drinks within arm’s reach of guests. Include a couple of throw pillows and blankets on your sofa to encourage guests to get comfy! If you’re missing any pieces, browse a furniture store to complete your living room look.
Idea #3: Arranging it to encourage lounging and relaxation
Suppose lounging and TV-watching are the main goals for your living room. In that case, we recommend opting for a sectional sofa as it provides comfortable seating in many different positions, depending on how you feel.
Want to play out and lie down? Not a problem! The longer portion of the couch can do that for you. Want to sit up and eat dinner? No worries! The cushions on the sofa will support you. Because sectionals come with various conformations, you can combine several pieces to fit your space and atmosphere.
Idea #4: Open-concept living rooms
If you have an open-concept living room, you can use your furniture arrangements to divide your room into different spaces for different purposes. For example, placing chairs and tables on one side of the room can provide a space for you to do work, play games, or play a slideshow from your recent vacation.
You could set up a sofa on the other side of the room to facilitate conversation, as we mentioned before! With this, we would like to emphasize that you can mix and match our suggestions to create the living room of your dreams. There is no cookie-cutter living room that we can suggest that will appease everybody’s individuality and personality.
Idea #5: L-shaped layout
Arranging furniture in an L-shaped living room and dining room can be difficult: there is less space for furniture and the television, for example. The typical manner many choose to arrange their furniture is placing the sofa along the length of the walls while the TV is placed on the wall directly in front of the sofa. This way, you can enjoy the same luxuries but with a slightly different layout.
