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littlemiso

Advice for seating arrangements in living room and basement

8 years ago
Hi there! I’m looking for help figuring out how to furnish seating for a living room and a basement. Neither are small spaces, but I want to make sure that I didn’t miss any considerations, and that I am choosing the arrangement that flows best and makes the space feel open and comfortable!

I’ve looked at a lot of photos and read many threads here on Houzz and here are some sketches I came up with. Unfortunately they’re not completely to scale, but we’ve measured/taped and we can comfortably fit a 104” x 91” couch with left chaise in the living room except it’s a little tight against the island bar stools when they’re pulled out.

We have 131” x 135” in the squareish space in the basement bound by the pillar drawn. I’ve included a few real life photos to help visualize.

Living Room:
Open floor plan
One garage door and one front door (right in the sketch) on either side of the fireplace (more space on the right side of the fireplace)
Need walkways between dining room/island barstools and potential couches - I only included the dining table in the first two sketches bc most of them aren’t really to scale
Not sure if we’re going to mount a TV above the fireplace


Basement:
Projector will be mounted from ceiling where the * is marked on the sketch
Entry is from the stairs in the sketch, two doors behind the photographer in the photo

Comments (10)

  • 8 years ago
    What are you putting in basement, tv or are you just wanting a seating area
  • PRO
    8 years ago

    It is much harder to shop for furniture to fit the decor, to get color coordination, etc.

    The easiest part is to arrange your furniture because you have all the furniture pieces, just try placing them until you find the best arrangement that you be comfortable with.

    Furniture can only work one way or another and you put it the best way it fits your needs.

  • 8 years ago
    Thank you! I think some elements of Irene’s photo would work - we have bar stools to the left of the couch so two seats would be tight. I like two seats to the right though. It keeps walkways available. I also like the backless seating in front of the fireplace to keep the visual line to the fireplace, but I’m not sure we have enough room so I’ll have to measure and tape. I’ve attached a living room photo from another angle.

    The basement will be for watching TV, conversing and playing games. There’ll be a projector hanging from the ceiling hitting the wall perpendicular to the kitchenette, so ideally we have a couch facing it, but that puts the back of the couch as the first thing people walk into. A right chaise or sectional would force everyone to walk around the pillar.

    Unfortunately, I don’t have any existing furniture to arrange. We lost everything in an accident a year ago so we’re starting from scratch.
  • PRO
    8 years ago

    If you don't have furniture, the plans you provided in previous images add dimensions to them.

    Also, find the furniture you like and take them dimensions this way you can get sound to advise because most designers here use design software where you can drop furniture inside according to your room dimensions and known needed clearances from columns, etc and see what will work best.

    Something like this.

    Customer provided plan

    Plan layout using design software

    3D space Visual


  • 8 years ago

    Have you asked your family members to vote on their preferences? That might narrow down the options.

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Thanks GN Builders. We've found sofas, sofas with chaises, and sectionals we like, but it's hard to narrow down without having decided on the arrangement.

    decoenthusiaste - there are only two of us. We like 1, 2, and 3 for the living room, though I think 3 might be too tight. For 1, we're concerned about walking through the front door and having to navigate around the chaise. So 2 or something like what Irene posted might work best.

    We like 1 best for comfort for the basement, but I think it'll make it hard to move around. For the basement, we're thinking 3 might work best, where there's at least one chair facing the projector wall, and you can still walk through the room.

    Here is a floor plan with measurements - there've been some changes in the living, notably that 1. there's the fireplace pictured in the first post, and 2. the kitchen extends all the way to the wall at the top of the diagram, and the island is shifted up to center on the vault of the ceiling, so the dining table is next to the stairs. The basement depth is also 24'8".

    Living Room

    Basement

  • 8 years ago
    Could you do something similar to this in your basement and put tv under aircon, like the narrow bar table and stools, if you had room of course, just a thought
    Constance thanked Irene Morresey
  • 8 years ago

    Ohh Irene, that looks great and would provide some extra seating for big gatherings. It would also open up the basement if we had one L of the couch against the wall where we originally wanted to project. I'll have to consult my SO to see if he's willing to give up the projector :)

  • 8 years ago

    Consider a reversible chaise sofa so you'll have more options for arranging and rearranging by simply switching the chaise part from right to left. Love this MCM one.


    Eleanor Midcentury Modern Bi-Sectional Velvet Sofa, Olive · More Info

    Eleanor Midcentury Modern Bi-Sectional Twill Sofa, Urban Surf · More Info

    Constance thanked decoenthusiaste