"What Were They Thinking Thursday!!??" - Don't Line Them Up

Furniture layout can be a little tricky, especially if you have an odd shaped or sized room. We learned a couple weeks ago to buy furniture that is the right scale for our room. And this week, we are talking about the correct way to position your furniture. I am just going to look at living rooms today.

One of the most common mistakes people make is to put all there furniture along a wall. Let's take a look at bad furniture layouts.

You don't want to have to yell at each other across the room. Your furniture layout should stimulate conversation, not hinder it.

The couch is too close to the fireplace

Maybe they just moved in

Your furniture should float in the room. Just because you have a smaller space, doesn't mean you should put all the furniture against the wall. This will not make the room feel bigger.

Start with anchoring the room with a rug. Make sure you get one that's big enough! Usually for a typical living room layout you are going to need at least a 5'x8' if not larger.

After you get the rug positioned, place your couch. It should sit on top of your rug by about 6" or so. Once the couch is in place, add the coffee table. The coffee table should be about 2' from the edge of your couch. This leaves enough space to walk around it but not too much to where you can 't reach and set a drink down on it.

If you have chairs, position those next. Whether it's across from the couch or on the sides, they need to be sitting on the rug just like the couch.

Let's take a look at some great furniture layouts.

Notice how the couch isn't all the way up against the wall. Even if you don't have very much space, you should still float the couch from the wall at least 8" or so.

~Jessica