Interior design is an incredibly exciting activity. It’s an opportunity to showcase your personality and sense of style through objects you and any guests who come over will interact with daily. But the practice of furniture placement can be challenging for the same reasons it’s so exciting: sometimes there’s so much possibility that you wonder where you should even begin.
Whether you’re dealing with a shoebox apartment or a massive mini-mansion, this article will give you a series of cohesive tips and guidelines guaranteed to turn any living room space from drab to fab!
Assess Your Space And Its Potential
Your first step is to simply determine what your living room could comfortably fit without appearing crowded. This means that you should measure the room’s dimensions, taking note of the length, width, and ceiling height.
When you begin to establish a mental layout, consider the following:
- How many individuals will be using this living room? What are their unique preferences?
- How much seating is comfortable without causing crowding?
- Does your living room hold multiple purposes and require furniture that needs to be moved around at will?
- Do you often hold events or celebrations that will require extensive cleanup?
Use these questions to identify your living room’s primary functions. Consider whether you’ll need a dedicated space for children to play or if you want to implement something like a bar for the entertainment of adult guests. Once you have a clear idea of what this room will be used for, you can use this knowledge to determine what furniture goes where.
Choosing The Right Pieces
Once your vision has been solidified, it’s time to begin the execution phase. The most crucial part of this phase is the selection of the furniture you’d like to feature within the room. You can use the answers to the previously mentioned questions to better determine this. Here are a few recommendations to help you choose the perfect pieces for your space.
Opt For Comfort and Support
The most important element of any living area is that it’s comfortable. This feeling of comfort can be curated in many ways, but the most obvious is through the room’s seating. If there was any element of the living room that is suggested to be on the more expensive end, it’s your seating area.
Have the members of your household each test any seating you purchase. Things like couches and armchairs might have upholstery that looks aesthetically pleasing but in practice, becomes flimsy and easily falls apart. Comfort and durability matter!
Combine Fashion and Function
This tip is especially important when dealing with a smaller living room space. Don’t buy things that are exclusively beautiful or exclusively functional. Try to find items that strike that delicate and decadent in-between.
Look for furniture that fits your sense of style but still has an alternative function that makes it worth the space it will inevitably take up. A great example of this is a 60-inch fireplace TV stand, that can supply warmth and a cozy atmosphere to the room while still providing a place to set your television.
Curate an Intentional Vibe
Everyone has a unique vibe about them, whether it be hipster, minimalistic, or avant-garde. Don’t buy several pieces that combine into something loud and confusing; find pieces that complement each other and build to a greater goal. For instance, if you find a gorgeous antique wooden table, you might want to skip out on buying that modern black-and-white couch.
Know The Perfect Spots For Your Pieces To Go
When the aesthetic has been determined, and all of the pieces have been purchased, then comes the time to decide where these pieces should be placed. Your first thought might be to haphazardly arrange things wherever you feel initially inclined, but there is, in fact, a method beyond that traditional madness.
Choose a singular piece of furniture, which is often the most unique or interesting, to act as an anchor and focal point. From there, you can arrange the rest of the furniture to center around this main item. You can place seating around it so that conversation regarding this centerpiece is encouraged, and you can strategically place the focal item somewhere in the midst of the room’s natural flow of movement to draw even more attention to the object.
There is also a common practice of utilizing lighting to make some aspects of a room more visually significant. Doing this gives you control over what becomes bright and what stays within the shadows. You can also accomplish this by making the furniture placement intentionally symmetrical or asymmetrical.
Experiment and Adjust Your Arrangement Often
While there may be a science to this process, it isn’t exact. The best arrangements are often discovered through a series of trial and error, so don’t be afraid to move things around even after creating what you initially thought was the perfect setup.
The most comfortable living room is one in which you, the owner, feel like yourself. The most stylish home is one that you believe fully encapsulates your energy as an individual. Remember to take risks and be unconventional, but still ensure that the final vision is one that represents you.
