Living room layout mistakes (and how to fix them)

living room layout with good traffic flow

The living room is often one of the near-used rooms in the business firm, and commonly wears many hats. Sometimes it's a room for entertaining, sometimes it's a relaxing spot to read a volume and sometimes it's a comfy place to picket TV or do homework.

So it'due south no wonder that a lot of people accept issues getting their living room furniture arrangement to look and experience right. And these common living room design mistakes may be the cause of those problems! The good news is…they all have easy-to-do solutions.

Living room layout mistakes (and how to fix them)

As you may (or may not) know, I'one thousand a bit of a serial furniture arranger, especially in my living room.

I get bored of the decor in my house pretty quickly, and want to alter it up.

The easiest style to practice that without spending whatsoever coin is to re-conform the furniture.

So I've tried a lot of dissimilar living room article of furniture arrangements…and I've fabricated my share of mistakes.

Which is why I'm sharing these living room layout do's and don'ts that might help you lot figure out why your living room isn't working as well equally yous would like.

A Notation Most Pinning: Some of these images are from houzz.com and cannot be pinned due to their copyright restrictions.

1 | Don't: Take Besides Few Tables

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I of the almost common living room layout mistakes is non providing enough table infinite for people to put down a beverage or a book.

Whether it'south considering your room is so minor you lot couldn't fit a table in, or y'all have a tabular array merely information technology'south so full of accessories that at that place'due south no room for a glass, this is an event that should be corrected if you want your living space to feel comfy.

Do: Provide easy access to a table for every seat

For small-scale rooms that feel cluttered, try using a glass table which takes up less visual space.

Eileen Gray glass table over the arm of a pink and white sofa

I love to use an Eileen Gray table* in this situation.

It is height adjustable, usually not very expensive, and slides over the arm of the sofa so that information technology doesn't take up much room.

Garden stool used as a table in front of a sofa in a small living room

Or if you lot really don't take room for end tables, try placing a garden stool in forepart of the sofa.

They look pretty, are small enough to walk around but big plenty to concur a loving cup of coffee.

2 | Don't: Create An Uncomfortable Conversation Area

The side by side living room layout don't is creating an uncomfortable conversation expanse.

The living room is the main public gathering identify in nearly homes, so providing a identify for people to sit and talk comfortably is important.

Most people prefer to exist seated facing the person they are talking to, rather than right beside them.

So while a big sofa with a chaise at 1 stop is perfect for watching Tv, it isn't ideal for promoting conversation.

Do: Conform furniture to make it like shooting fish in a barrel to talk

To provide a comfortable conversation area, arrange your sofa and chairs in a group then people are naturally facing each other.

This tin be done in one of two ways:

Modern Living room furniture arrangement with two gray sofas facing each other in a conversation area
©David – stock.adobe.com

1. Position sofa and chairs directly across from each other.

Baroque living room layout with two sofas perpendicular to each other and a large chandelier
©sweetl1 – stock.adobe.com

2. Create an angle with the seating by positioning them at a ninety caste angle to 1 another.

Either of these seating arrangements can be done using chairs as well as sofas, and then don't think you need to go out and buy another couch.

3 | Don't: Utilize The Wrong-Sized Surface area Rug

The next one of my common living room layout mistakes is using the incorrect sized surface area carpet.

An expanse carpet is a peachy way to pull a furniture organisation together.

Merely if it's the wrong size or not placed correctly, information technology can make the room await unbalanced, and the furniture experience uncomfortable.

Information technology'due south REALLY abrasive to have a table or chair that has 3 legs on the rug and one off.

Every time you sit down down,  it rocks and reminds you that information technology's uneven!

And and so you'll probably cease upward wadding upward a piece of paper towel to make it level (like y'all do when that happens at a restaurant).

Practise: Follow these guidelines to cull the right rug size

Living room furniture with the front legs on the rug
©bmak – stock.adobe.com

Choose an area carpet that is large enough for your furniture to fit on it using the post-obit guidelines:

  • The chair or sofa legs should either exist all on the carpet, all off the rug or have the front legs on the carpet. Note: If you choose the "legs all off the rug selection", the carpeting should come up right upwards to the edge of the chair legs. It volition expect unbalanced to accept a modest rug in the middle of the floor with the seating a couple of anxiety away.
  • All table legs should ever be on the rug (table surfaces are less forgiving of being on a slant than chairs and sofas)
  • Your furniture grouping should be centered on your carpeting to make the room experience balanced.
  • To prevent people from tripping, the edges of the carpeting should non stick out into a pathway that people use to walk through the room.

4 | Don't: Use Too Many (Or Too Few) Pieces Of Furniture

If you lot're like me and tend towards the maximalist approach to decorating, yous might be guilty of this living room layout don't: Cramming as well much furniture into a small space.

If people have to contort their bodies to arrive and out of the chairs around your coffee tabular array, it may be time to re-call up your living room furniture arrangement.

However, information technology's also not very comfortable to sit in a living room where the furniture is too far autonomously.

If yous tin can't achieve the table easily to put downwards your drink, the tabular array may likewise non be there.

And having to yell beyond the room to talk to someone sitting across from you makes having a conversation difficult.

Practice: Space your furniture properly

Follow these rule-of-thumb measurements to create a comfy furniture arrangement for your living room seating expanse:

  • Leave xiv″ to xviii″ betwixt the sofa (or chairs) and the java table.
  • Chairs that are positioned beside each other should be about 18″ apart. That leaves enough room for a small-scale table to fit between them.
  • Sofas (or chairs) that are positioned across from each other should be no more than 9 anxiety autonomously.

Likewise make certain you don't accept too many tall breakable things on the tables, or your guests volition exist doing that contortion matter once again to endeavour to avoid breaking them (probably unsuccessfully in some cases).

5 | Don't: Line All The Furniture Upwards Along The Wall

The next living room layout issue that many people have is lining all of their furniture up confronting the wall.

While this is an easy style to get your furniture in the room, information technology ends up feeling somewhat like a high school gymnasium…with the stands (seating) all around the edges and a large open up space in the middle.

Not exactly the warm, inviting look you want for your living room.

It'due south also harder to create a focal bespeak this way, since your heart has a harder time figuring out where it is supposed to stop.

Practise: Float some furniture in the room

Modern living room furniture arrangement with a sofa facing a daybed
©zhu difeng – stock.adobe.com

Pull at least some of the furniture abroad from the walls so that it "floats" in the room.

Fifty-fifty having one sofa (or a couple of chairs) that aren't anchored to the walls will help.

6 | Don't: Put All The Large Things On 1 Side Of The Room

Similar to having the furniture lined upwardly against the wall, arranging all of your large pieces of furniture on ane side of the room will make the room look off-balance.

It'southward like you lot're on a boat with everyone standing on one side. It feels like it's tilted to i side.

Many of today's open up concept living rooms don't take a lot of wall space, so this mistake is easy to make since the large things tend to end upwardly against the wall.

Practise: Balance out the room

Pay attending to the placement of the big furniture pieces in your room. Try to spread them out across the room so they aren't all congregating in ane area.

Residue out a large armoire with big chairs or a sofa

Large built-in features like floor to ceiling fireplaces, bookshelves and large windows besides count as "big things" in your room.

So yous can use them in your balancing equation, too.

If your windows aren't that big and your fireplace doesn't have much of a presence, build them upwards by calculation floor to ceiling window treatments, or building a bigger fireplace mantel.

Detect out more almost interior pattern principles (like residue) Hither.

7 | Don't: Not Defining Activeness Zones

A lot of houses these days take open concept living areas. Which is great for making a firm experience open and airy.

But they can also feel similar a huge cavernous space that is difficult to decorate.

And that'southward where defining action zones becomes important.

The thought with activity zones is to decide what functions you need to be able to perform in the room – like entertain guests, watch Television and read a book.

And then define areas of the room where each of these activities volition take place.

Do: Create "rooms" within a room

Gray and white living room layout with two sofas and a daybed
©vik173 – stock.adobe.com

Create separate "rooms" within your living room for each of the functions y'all want to perform in that location.

You can define the rooms by using groupings of furniture and an surface area rug which helps to create a boundary for your optics.

Day beds are a great mode to split upwards a room since y'all tin come across over them, so they don't take away from the open, airy feel.

And they don't accept a back which means they await good from both sides of the room they are dividing.

8 | Don't: Position The Sofa With Its Back To The Entrance

The adjacent common living room layout fault is positioning the sofa so that its back is to the room entrance.

This means that people who are sitting on the sofa cannot come across people when they walk in.

And whether you lot realize it consciously or not, information technology'south an uncomfortable situation to be in.

It makes you feel like someone could sneak up on you lot at any time, and nearly people don't like those kind of surprises.

Practise: Add a console table behind the sofa

Traditional living room furniture arrangement with a console table behind the sofa
©ostap25 – stock.adobe.com

If moving the sofa is non an option (or you just similar the manner it looks in that location), try putting a sofa table behind information technology.

Then add together a couple of lamps or some taller accessories to information technology.

This creates a barrier behind the sofa that eliminates the feeling of beingness unprotected.

9 | Don't: Cake The Traffic Flow

All rooms should have a defined traffic pattern.

That'southward the path people will have to walk through the room and to become to different areas within the room.

If you have to navigate around multiple pieces or furniture and easy-to-knock-over accessories to get where yous're going, then you accept probably committed this living room layout fault – blocking the traffic menstruum.

Do: Create a clear path

Make certain you know what the traffic pattern is for your room.

Then leave at least 30″ of space for the walkways through the room.

They should likewise be like shooting fish in a barrel to navigate without having to worry about tripping over obstacles, such equally lamp cords or tables.

And try to directly traffic effectually your conversation area, rather than through the middle of it.

x | Don't: Rely Solely On Overhead Lighting

The last living room layout false pas is relying solely on overhead lighting.

Ceiling lights are quick and easy ways to get low-cal into a room.

But they ordinarily aren't the nigh flattering. That downward light creates shadows on people's faces that doesn't await cracking.

And they often don't provide the right kind of calorie-free for all of the functions you need to use your living room for.

Do: Add together lamps and sconces

Add sconces, table lamps and floor lamps to your living room expanse.

Middle level lighting fixtures make almost people expect their best so position a couple of tabular array lamps in your conversation surface area.

For reading, a floor lamp that directs light downward towards your chair will work best.

For watching Television set, brand sure that any lights you add won't cake the view or exist reflected in the Tv set screen.

Layering different types of lighting together can create a actually dramatic upshot.

At present that I've given myself a refresher course on what not to do, I call back my living room is calling for another room arrangement!

Other Living Room Decor Ideas You Might Similar

  • L-shaped living room layout ideas
  • Living room decorating tips: How to create the perfect living room
  • Living room furniture arrangement tips
  • Pocket-size living room library makeover

Have comments or questions on our living room layout do'southward and don'ts? Tell us in the department below.


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common living room layout mistakes