Arranging furniture can be a daunting task. When you’re faced with an empty room (like moving into one of your rental properties) knowing what to put where can seem overwhelming. But all you need to do is follow these common sense rules and you’ll find that arranging furniture isn’t so scary after all!!
- Choose a Focal Point: Never underestimate the power of a focal point. The may appear naturally like a built in or window, or you can create them yourself with a media unit and television. You’ll need to arrange the furniture around it.
- Don’t Push Furniture Against the Walls: The size of the room will dictate how far you can pull your furniture away from the walls, but even in a small room you’ll want to allow a few inches between the backs of furniture pieces and the walls. IT allows for breathing room and can make the room look a bit bigger.
- Create Conversation Areas: People should naturally be able to take to each other without having to crane their necks or shout across the room. You want the furniture to face each other and they should be close enough that you can have a natural conversation with others.
- Find Balance: Balance is always important in decorating and when it comes to arranging furniture in your living room you’ll want to consider both size and placement of the various pieces. Don’t group all the large or small pieces in one area of the room. Also make sure there’s variety in the shapes. If you’ve got a straight-lined seating consider a round coffee table – or vice versa.
- Consider Traffic Flow: People should not be tripping over furniture to pass through the room. Make sure there are a couple feet between the coffee table and sofa, and between chairs.
- Use the Right Size Rug: Area rugs belong under the furniture. Exposing some flooring around the edges of the room is fine, but when using a rug you want to make sure it’s bug enough that all the furniture in a seating arrangement can sit on it.
- Put Tables at Arm’s Length: every seat should have Easy access to either side tables or coffee tables.
