Living Room Layout Ideas

Buying new furniture sometimes means coming up with a new layout, or you might just be looking for a change to your usual layout.  In the living room, new sofas and chairs generally take up the most space. How they are laid out influences everything from aesthetics to the amount of room you have to move about. To some extent, the size and shape of each piece of furniture limits layout options.

There is no right or wrong way to place furniture in your living room. Rather, what's right for you is what is most comfortable – physically, emotionally, and aesthetically. We would like to help you arrange your living room by offering some tips to get you started.

Before You Start

At the top of the list, before you start moving furniture, is determining the focal point of the room.

Every room has a focal point. In your living room, that focal point might be a fireplace, a piece of artwork, a television or a large window overlooking your garden. The idea is to choose a focal point and then use it as your anchor.

You could try cutting out pieces of paper to represent the room and your furniture. Essentially, you want to create a scale model to work with. This allows you to work out multiple arrangements, to see if they will work, before you actually move a single piece of furniture. Just make sure all of your paper cut-outs are to scale.

Basic Layout Concepts

There are some basic concepts to follow if you want to maximise the space in your living room without compromising comfort and safety. For starters, any layout you settle on should still leave plenty of room to move about freely. If your layout is such that you can barely move between furniture pieces, you are increasing the risk of tripping and falling.

Next, remember to consider how much natural light the room gets. More light makes smaller rooms look bigger. Thus, it doesn't make sense to block a window with a piece of furniture if you are dealing with a small living room. Along the same lines, consider the colours in the room as well. These affect size perception.

Do you have small children or pets in the home? If so, your layout could also affect them. If your children are toddlers or younger, it's best to keep the space as open as possible to avoid accidents; such as moving coffee tables away from the centre of the room. Where pets are concerned, if they have a favourite place to sit, try not to disturb this too much.

Small Living Room Layout Ideas

With the preliminaries out of the way, let us talk about different types of living rooms. We'll start with smaller rooms, which are designated by measurements of less than 3m.

With smaller rooms chairs and two-seater sofas work well.

See our Colosseum Sofa in Oleandro Silver

For a more casual feel, place two chairs in adjacent corners and slightly angled toward the centre of the room. A coffee table between them completes the arrangement. Your TV directly opposite makes the room a multi-purpose space.

Corner sofas can also work very well especially for a small family that needs plenty of storage space too.  Add in a storage ottoman for stray toys and a television unit opposite with additional storage, and you have a functional space without too much furniture.

If you don't have room for a corner sofa or 2-seater, forget the sofa and opt for 2 cosy armchairs.  This provides a lot more versatility.  If you have a fireplace or central focal point such as a TV angle them towards it.

Narrow Living Room Layout Ideas

Some living rooms regarded as small are also long and narrow. One wall is less than 3m while the two adjacent walls are 4 or 5m in length. This sort of arrangement opens the door to a corner sofa paired with a couple of nice chairs. A two- or three-seat sofa isn't out of the question either.

A popular arrangement for narrow living rooms involves dividing the space between formal and casual areas. At one end, a Malone Corner sofa can define the formal space for conversations. Offset on the opposite wall with a single chair. On the other end, a two- or three-seat sofa can face the far wall where your TV is mounted. End tables on either side make a convenient place for drinks.

Rectangular Living Room Layout Ideas

A rectangular living room is longer than it is wide, but this does not necessarily translate into long and narrow. How you lay out your furniture in such a room really depends on its proportions. Assuming you do not want divided spaces, we have several suggestions to think about.

You can make a rectangular living room quite social by placing furniture so that you can clearly see one another without any blocked lines of sight. If you're interested in corner sofas, our Melbourne large corner sofa works very well to define one corner of the social space. Throw in a chaise end and you'll have a little extra sitting room.

Opposite the sofa's corner, place a single chair angled toward that corner. A nice coffee table in the centre of the space adds perspective and provides a place to set drinks.

For a more family-friendly layout, position the furniture so that it has a clear line of sight to the TV yet leaves plenty of floor space in between. The Knightsbridge sofa makes a great piece as the main sofa. Slightly in front and offset is the perfect location for a comfortable knightsbridge accent chair.

Just be careful to leave the space between furniture and TV as open as possible. This is a perfect space for spreading out and playing games, reading books, etc.

Open-Plan Living Room Layout Ideas

Of course, open floor plans give you the most flexibility of all. Many people create definition between separate areas with a large sofa that marks the beginning of the living room area.

View our malone sofa

The largest corner sofas are perfect for open-plan living rooms simply due to the sheer amount of space. Consider the Colosseum Corner sofa as the anchor of an open-plan living room. The Knightsbridge Corner sofa is another excellent choice. Using a large corner sofa like this helps to define the seating area in a multifunctional large space to create a cosy and intimate chill out zone.

To further enhance the cosy feel of the living area, you can use contrasting wall colour, lighting and textiles to enhance the area and make it more inviting.

Bay Window Layout Ideas

If you have chosen a large bay window as the focal point of your living room, arranging your furniture is likely to revolve around the view from that window. Consider a two- or three-seat sofa directly facing the window. Individual chairs on either side of the window, angled toward the centre of the room.

The armchairs create a lovely area for curling up on and reading a book. Choosing contrasting textiles on your armchairs too could really help to draw the eye towards your focal point.

Alternatively consider framing your window with a perfect-fit curved sofa, but be careful to choose a sofa that is quite low so as to not block daylight streaming in.

Another possibility is to place sofas and chairs against the walls perpendicular to the window wall. That leaves the entire window open. A smaller sofa on the opposite wall provides more seating space while still giving you enough room to move around.

Corner Sofa Living Room Layout Ideas

You may decide that your brand-new corner sofa will be the focal point of your room.  Let's look at some options.

If you have an open plan living room, or an exceptionally large living room you could consider placing the sofa in the middle of the room to divide the room into 2 sections, and break up the vast space.  Your living area can include a coffee table, storage unit or bookcase and television, the other area could be set out more as a dining space or home office area.

colosseum corner sofa

If on the other hand your room is quite small we recommend placing your corner sofa in the opposite corner to the doorway into the room. This can make the room feel more spacious and open. Consider placing a floor lamp behind the corner section of the sofa to add light to your focal point and make use of this otherwise unused space. If you want to keep the space in the middle of your room free of furniture, consider adding a rug to help add a splash of life to the area.

Footstools can be very handy in small rooms as they can be moved around easily and be used for extra seating or double as a table for nibbles when required.  Some also come with extra storage compartments for stray books, toys or TV remotes.
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It should be clear that there is no right way to lay out every living room. Furniture layout and interior design are very personal things that are heavily influenced by individual preferences, perceptions, and needs. Regardless of how you choose to layout your space, know that Oliver Matthews sofas and chairs can be perfect for every living room.  All our sofas are hand made entirely by us, so we can make your sofa or corner unit to any size and can even alter the height or depth to suit your personal requirements. All our luxury bespoke sofas are available as a sofa, corner unit, sofa bed or armchair.