Furniture Layout Suggestions?

6 years ago

Hi everyone! The kitchen is pretty much finished with the planning, just waiting on things to arrive. In the meantime I am starting to look at layout options for the living room and then dining room. I do not have budget remaining for anything major and the furniture in the attached photos are just what I already had from my previous house (one sofa, two swivel chairs, one regular chair, two small end tables, one larger end table, coffee table, buffet). I would like to use what I have for now but am open to eventually replacing things. I also plan to add recessed lighting in the future.

I took dimensions and drew a roughly to scale layout of the main house first floor. The ceilings are 8 feet. The larger windows at the bottom are south facing, and the fireplace is 36" tall, so lower than average. It is also wood burning and fully functional, just cleaned and serviced a few weeks ago. I was thinking I could mount a TV above the fireplace without it being too tall overall.

Please pardon the mess, parts of the living room are temporary storage for the new kitchen flooring.
If any other details are needed please let me know, otherwise would love to hear your ideas. Thank you!

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Comments (5)

er612
6 years ago
Kate Hip
6 years ago
First of all: very cool house.

As for your question: I'd think of this as two separate seating arrangements: two chairs together in front of the bookshelves and the sofa + chair focused on the fireplace/tv.

Two chairs: add an overhead floor lamp and put a little chess set or other games on the shelf below the window. Put your books and anything you own that you want to show off on the surrounding shelves. This becomes a spot that encourages reading a book, telling a story to a friend, playing a game, doing a puzzle, or having a 1:1 conversation. Especially if you like to have people over, this can be a really nice space to have. It becomes the spot for wallflowers at parties, the spot where your mom sits to knit, and the spot where you sort through the mail. You could use the medium and small tables from your stacking table to give additional surfaces to these chairs, but the shelf under the window has a nice deep top that seems like a good place for a couple coasters and some thoughtful decor.

Sofa and chair combo: line the sofa up to be exactly across from the fireplace. Put the chair half in front of the window, half in front of the wall and angled toward the fireplace, not in front of the door. Put your round side table between the sofa and chair. Stacking side table on the other side of the sofa so you can stack and unstack easily.

I would also encourage you to turn the dining room table and chairs 90 degrees. I think this will improve the flow and it should give you enough room on the dining room wall that we can't see to put a sideboard/buffet/bar (whichever fits your style).
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Dave H
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you both! Kate for your idea, would it be somewhat like er612's second drawing but with the two chairs facing each other in front of the window? I like this idea because depending on the situation I could rotate those chairs down to join a larger conversation.
Kate Hip
6 years ago
Yes, have the chairs angled toward each other at a 90-120 degree angle in front of the bookshelf.

I'd also push the chair coupled with the couch further back toward the corner, move the couch further toward the chair, and switch the side tables, but otherwise, yes, same idea.
Dave H
Original Author
6 years ago
I like it! That'll definitely be the first arrangement I try.

Thank you!