Living Room Layout

The way we design and decorate our houses, reveals a lot about our personality, likings and preferences. The living room of the house, is the first place which guests get to see, upon their arrival in our house. That is why, the layout, design and decoration, needs special emphasis. While planning this, right placement of furniture is necessary, so is the right amount of circulation space, conversation space, etc. If you are looking for the perfect layout, then here are some useful tips and ideas on the same, which you can make use of.

Placement of Sofa

When planning living room layout designs, the first thing that you should decide upon is the placement of the sofa, and the rest of the things such as where to put cabinets, accessories, side tables, chairs, etc, should follow later. The way sofas are placed in the living room, will determine the kind of conversation space that you will have. Ideally, sofas, along with chairs, should be kept in a U shape arrangement, so that when the guests are seated on them and chatting, they face each other. Another option, if you have a smaller space, is to go in for an L shaped sofa arrangement. For a very large living room, placing two, three seater sofas, facing each other, with a round table in between them, will look good.

Placement of Furniture

The furniture layout is always planned, keeping the focal point of the room in mind. This natural focal point can be anything, be it a beautiful antique fireplace or a picture window which has an amazing view. The furniture should be placed in such a way, that everybody's eyes are drawn towards this focal point. Its generally seen that in many homes, television serves this purpose, however, it should be avoided as far as possible, as this concept of placing all the furniture facing the television has become very common. Instead, opt for a pair of French doors, and keep it as the focal point for the living room.

Free Movement

Living room layouts should be designed in such a way, that there is no obstruction in the movement, caused due to the placement of the sofas, chair, tables and other furniture. A good way to ensure that is to draw a map of your living room, which includes everything, such as the entrance door, windows, fireplace, columns and cabinets. Once the map is done, draw imaginary lines from the entrance door to the windows as well as the other doors, which open to the other rooms in the house. Now, make sure that no furniture item is placed on these travel lines.

There are a number of other things that a person can do to create a balance in his living space. For example, opting for armless sofas and chairs, if the room is small, will create the illusion of more space. Buying furniture and accessories, in pairs lends a symmetry and unmatchable beauty to the room too. So go ahead and buy two similar looking chairs, lamps, end tables and cabinets for the living room. If you follow these simple basic rules, while designing your living room, with a dash of creative thinking from your side, your dream will no longer be a dream.