LIVING ROOM

Re-Arranging the Living Room

Tips for Everyday Style

By Alyssa Davis

If you’re tired of the same old look in your living room or if the room is not working in a way that meets your needs, it may be time for a compete overhaul. But this doesn’t mean you have to spend money on new furniture; you can simply rearrange what you have to create a more stylish and inviting living room. A better furniture arrangement will make better use of the space that you have and by paying attention to detail you can bring more style into the room than ever before.

Identify Your Style

To create a stylish living room, you first need a style goal.  Interior decorating and home design magazines are a great place to start. They provide inspiration and ideas on how to arrange your furniture that may have never occurred to you and new ideas for contemporary wall art.

Once you have your inspiration and style goal in mind, get rid of everything that does not match your goal, this includes furniture, accessories and clutter. Anything that does not belong in the living room and needs to be gotten rid of or stored in a different place.

Create a blank canvas

Now that you are left with just the furniture and accessories that will stay in the living room, draw your room to scale on graph paper. Make sure that you include the locations of doors, windows, stairways and unmovable features such as a fireplace or built-in bookshelves or window seats. 

With colored paper, draw your furniture to scale in simple square or rounded shapes, and cut those out. Now you can easily arrange the furniture on paper and play with various arrangements that might work. Don’t settle on the first arrangement: your goal is to create a living room that meets your needs while being spacious and welcoming at the same time.

Tips for Rearrangement

· If your room has an obvious focal point, such as a fireplace, of course you want to feature it. But if you don’t have one, create one by arranging furniture in clusters or groupings for conversation, reading or television viewing.

· Flank a fireplace with a sofa and loveseat or two occasional chairs that face each other across a coffee table or ottoman combined with stylish metal wall hangings over them. This type of arrangement encourages conversation and often makes a room appear spacious as well.

· Try to arrange your furniture so that it is not pushed back against the walls. It is more inviting to have some space behind your furniture where you can locate an accent table, lamps or decorative items, such as a trio of Tuscan vases holding fresh flowers. 

· If your living room is large, zone it out: one area can be a conversation nook; another can be for television viewing or dining. Even in a smaller living room, two occasional chairs and a small side table could create an inviting nook in a corner.

· Make the room a destination where people will want to gather. Consider an area rug, even over existing carpet, as an anchor for a seating arrangement.

· Try arranging your furniture at an angle instead of at right angles that mimic the shape of the room. Try placing the largest item, like a sofa, on a diagonal and arrange smaller chairs across from it or off to the sides. In addition to creating a more spacious and welcoming look, this kind of arrangement is more advantageous for conversation.

· Use only what you love and what works with your design goal. If a piece just doesn’t meet your standards, swap it out with an item in another room of the house that may have more style appeal in the living room. Lamps, side tables, rugs, cushions, paintings and sculpture, vases figurines and wall art decor are all items that you may already have that would look great in the living room.

Keep an open mind and compare your result to your inspiration photos. If something is off, try again. A little tweaking may be all you need to create the living room of your dreams.

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