Tips for Arranging Furniture in a Small Living Room

Take advantage of vertical space to lend the perception of greater depth to a room. Display artwork, sculptures and consoles above furniture pieces, and strategic groupings below them to divide up functionally meaningful points in a layout and interrupt the eye’s tendency to be drawn around the edge of a space.

Avoid putting recliner sofas and chairs in small areas as they extend outward and block the traffic flow. Instead, choose swivel arm chairs as they take less of your floorspace.

Place the Couch in Front of a Fireplace

In small living rooms, the easiest way of panning furniture is moving from walls – breathing space is created around each furniture piece, and the room looks bigger.

This goes for sitting arrangements around a fireplace: if you have the lucky combination of a fireplace as the focal point in your space, a couch facing it might make for the ideal seating arrangement. Or not. If the fireplace is in a corner, hard to see from anywhere, or leads into a hallway, say, into the dreaded kitchen, then none of that would work.

Instead of placing your sofa directly in front of the fireplace, try arranging it on an angle, so it faces away. This is a good way of creating an intimate little group of seats but it also helps to divide up the space a little more if you’ve finally got the family and the child/pet fire fascination issues under control.

If your couch is placed at a slightly diagonal angle to a wall, placing a larger coffee table in front of it can help unify the space and create a pleasing seating area. Look for ones with clean lines as not to overwhelm the space.

Set Up a Bar Cart

A bar cart is also a multi-purpose item for a small living room, used for seating or book storage Apart from decor du jour, these multitasking pieces are a good way to save space on the floor while entertaining, and when having guests drop by for the holidays: check out this elegant floor pillow from Urban Outfitters that flips over to become a decorative accent pillow when you’re not using it as part of this multi-use piece.

Pick one focal point in a compact living room and make that the focus, then build the rest of the room around it. This helps a compact space feel more complete and pulled together. It also helps edit: maybe you’d like to keep the old chair you’ve had for a long time, but it no longer fits your aesthetic or functional needs.

Think about furniture placement: bringing sofa seating and chairs away from the walls and into the centre of a room creates a more democratic, open and convivial effect, as it did here. And it makes the space look bigger. Do this too!

Create a Cozy Conversation Area

Making a conversation area for guests by placing two sofas facing each other will enable them to see each other directly, while not having to strain their necks or turn their heads too much; two sofas also form a symmetrical pair, making the room appear more sophisticated than if they were placed differently, while also making the flow of traffic easier around and through the area, as everyone knows exactly where they can and cannot sit.

Never allow your sofa and chairs to get too close to the walls (Snug sofas feel like suffocating ones). A console table or piece of furniture behind the couch, allows for storage and creates a zone within a zone.

Floor poufs can also provide extra seating, when needed, and should be removable when it is necessary to provide more chairs. Instead of coffee tables, fabric ottomans can also be considered; these take up less space in the eye.

Use Different Heighted Furniture and Accessories

When your room is clutter-free and clean, throwing in a few accent pieces with dual purposes may help. A big storage ottoman, such as this neutral one from Wayfair, could serve as seating and be used for overflow storage for throw blankets or books – leading a room to feel more spacious, at least in Alex’s view. ‘Having stuff that does more than just look pretty makes the small space seem bigger.

Introduce interest with a glass- or mirror-topped coffee table, and give the illusion of more space in an area by reflecting light around the room.

With regard to living room furniture arrangement in a small living area, one should position the chair, couch, coffee table and chairs in a way that nobody should be disturbed. In other words, each piece of furniture must keep a certain gap so as to give a feeling of non-crowdedness in a small living area. The first thing that must be paid attention to is the distance between a coffee table and a sofa, as well as the amount of space between the floor and the legs of the dining chairs. At the same time, one should not forget that a chair leg must stand out from the wall for several inches to create an illusion of openness in a living room area.