No matter the overall size of your home, you are often working in a limited area within the larger space. In my apartment, the main seating area is a 10x10 square which sort of floats at one end of a long, narrow room and includes this fireplace as the focal point. I created 10 very varied mockups of furniture groupings and layout options for my space using an online program — it was an interesting and enlightening exercise, one that you may want to try yourself...
The ten layouts are all to the 10x10 foot scale and the one constant is the fireplace on the middle of the right hand side. The size details for the furniture combinations are listed in the captions of each slide in the gallery and are visible as you click through them.
Clearly, some of these work much better than others in terms of use of space and flow (and several would be discounted immediately for actual room planning), but as an exercise, doing a larger number of mockups without too much concern over realistic use was helpful. As I completed more of them, certain "lessons" started to emerge that will inform how I understand this amount of space and what it can hold comfortably, such as:
• A mix of differently scaled seating pieces makes for a pleasant visual pattern - room #4, with its eclectic mix of large sofa, small armchair, ottoman twins and a side chair provides lots of seating AND maintains a flow of open space.
• Smaller pieces work well set on a diagonal to the main horizontal/vertical grid of the room, but when you try to do that with a larger piece (even a loveseat), it is a major loss of space. Unless you are looking to fill up a "too big" room, this is a very challenging way to go.
• Width is more of an issue than length in a square space when it comes to the major seating pieces - even though the sofas used are much longer (7'4") than the loveseats (5'3"), in most of the arrangements, they still work in this much space, due to their relatively narrow depth
• While potentially not the best for a room where you do lots of entertaining, a small scale sectional is actually a wise space saving move. In addition to providing lots of comfortable seating for when you want to stretch out and relax, it goes a long way toward defining the space without overwhelming it.
• Round coffee tables are easier to work into most layouts - they provide a balance to squared off larger seating pieces and don't break up the flow of the room as readily as a rectangular table.
• A very strict symmetrical arrangement of the larger seating pieces (both sofa and loveseats) takes up the most room, cutting back on the feeling of open space and flow. The mix of one large piece balanced by two smaller chairs creates an instant feel of openness that is sacrificed by the more formal arrangement.
• It was surprisingly easy to keep the focal point of the room on the fireplace in all 10 of the different room mockups, due to its central location midway along one of the "walls". While fireplaces are not normally movable, other common focal points, such as televisions or artwork are, so, given the opportunity, moving the focal point out from a corner and directly onto one of the mid-point axis of the space is a good way to go.
To build my mockups, I used the Raymour & Flanigan Interactive Room Planner, which a reader pointed me in the direction of earlier this week. It was super easy to manage, had nice features and is free to use.
I found this to be a fascinating exercise, one that will inform future arrangements, and one worth spending a pleasant hour or so doing. I'd recommend it for anyone to try, but definitely think it's worth a go for those of us with somewhat challenging room configurations to deal with.
That said, all of this good intel on my particular space aside, I know if confronted with an amazing vintage furniture find, I'd throw caution and all of my lessons learned aside and just bring it home. What about you? Do you do room mockups before purchasing furniture or just follow your heart and hope for the best?
Image: Janel Laban
(Re-edited from a post originally published 6.8.11 - JL)
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these would be very helpful if my room had no doors or hallway openings, like the examples. :-(
I recently moved and agonized over the living room furniture layout-- every wall had a window or a door, the fireplace is off-center, there is a built-in bookcase which is off-center, etc. The LR is also narrow. I ended up floating the furniture in the room and creating a focal point out of the fireplace and the illusion of symmetry. I'll try that interactive room planner next time!
Is there one for a STUDIO? Yup. I live in a studio that's under 200 feet. Please help me.
Yeah....doors and windows? A lot of times they kind of dictate where things will go.
Also, for those mental furniture re-arrangers among us, Icovia.com has a pretty good "free trial" for room planning.
I just bought some of the furniture slider things, skipped my workout one Saturday morning, and played around with my actual furniture in the actual space until I found something I liked.
Seriously--where are the doors?
Oh I have the same problem with my long narrow living room. With a fireplace, three large arched openings to other spaces, built in bookcases, and large, large windows---arranging the furniture is a nightmare. The fireplace doesn't work, so I placed the sofa in front of it. It looks weird, but it makes better use of the space.
re: no doors or windows - this are mockups of my 10x 10 foot sitting area within a larger room - there are no doors or windows needed for this example because it is a space that "floats" at one end of an open space
if you are mocking up your own room and want to factor those in, totally do-able!
I recently moved into a 16x16 ft studio and found www.floorplanner.com to be very helpful in planning my new space. It allowed me to specify exact dimensions for walls, doors, closets, windows, entryways, and furniture, and there are endless choices for structural elements, furniture styles, decorative elements like lamps and bookcases. It even allows you to designate colors for each item. It also has a 3D view which was fabulous for me, since I am not great at visualizing how a floorplan will look in real life. I spent hours on it and had a lot of fun. It's free, and highly recommended.
These are interesting. I get the fact that you have done mock ups of a space within a space. What about those of us who don't have space within a space, or who don't have square spaces. Any ideas there?
I went the low tech route. Before I moved into my remodeled condo, I made a scale drawing of the space with to-scale paper cut outs of my actual furniture. It took a while to make all the pieces, but it was SO worthwhile. I created a bunch of different layouts and photographed each one. When I moved in I knew exactly where each piece of furniture was going. It saved so much time and frustration!
@janel
Is that a tiny, high, and deep window, or a tiny, high mirror? o.O Also, I like your rug. I think if you don't have a MASSIVE rug to fill the space, though, having a smaller one (that you are attached to of course) could make things a lot harder....
Assuming the rug is not round, of course.
to the posters looking for doors or windows, just play around with the program. there are ways to add doors, windows, fireplaces, stairs, radiators, etc. to your sample space.
Hmm. Even though this isn't our floor plan - this is giving me some ideas at least. We have an awkward living room space to say the least - it's long and narrow, has a nook where I suppose a TV should go and a fireplace in the corner, plus it doubles as a living/dining room for us. We tried to do a quick drawing mock-up before we moved in, but once we got there we didn't like any of the ideas. After a year of living there, we still feel like we've got a decent layout, but the addition of a newly found Eames lounger has really thrown things off!!
Thomasville Furniture has a similar room planner on their site that allows you to add openings, doors and windows. It may be just what you are looking for.
I do think this is a very interesting exercise, and seeing 10 mock-ups all together like that is enlightening.
However, I think most of us don't have the luxury of a *floating* 10x10 foot space. The rest of us have windows and doors into our 10x10 foot space, and while I could mock up 10 different arrangements on paper just for the heck of it, 9 of them would probably be unworkable because of the windows and doors anyway.
And yes, we all know you could put windows and doors on your floor planner, and the floor planner is an indispensible tool. The point is, for the rest of us, making 10 layouts just to compare them might be fun, but not useful.
Again, I think the 3D view on floorplanner.com is incredibly helpful and is a huge advantage over 2D floorplans. You can spin the room around and look at it from every angle, as if you're standing outside the room and looking at it through a window. You can even add people into the scene, which helps with perspective.
I like the 7th layout and really like the idea of having two loveseats instead of a sofa and chair. I often wonder why I ever thought I needed such a large sofa!
To the studio dwellers: I had a studio "guest house" (reconverted garage) with a fireplace in it. I put my futon (which slid up to be a couch) to one side of the fireplace. Then a low table kind of in front of the fireplace/far enough over to let the futon down. Some chairs around the table. The table and chairs doubled as both sitting and dining furniture. There are lots of great low tables out there now that can serve as "cocktail/dinner/coffee tables" - a little higher than a coffee table, but lower than a regular one. Pair that with chairs that sit a little low. Another option is to put some floor pillows around the coffee table, to allow for dining.....
Not everyone lives in a perfect box like that...there are always doors and windows to consider. Also, I have very little room to move my tv, since the cable is drilled into the floor of the basement and it gives me very few options on where to put it.
I want the rug! And I can attest to the wonderfulness and flexibility of two love seats vs. sofa and chairs.
It looks like there are several stairs to the right of the fireplace in your photo. This would definitely add a wrinkle to your room layout plan. I think traffic flow to the stairs would then be an additional issue that would impact the 10 X 10 square.
It looks like the furniture is too close together in most of the plans and does not allow good traffic flow.
what about a 540 sq ft l-shaped studio?
Hi - these shapes are easily manipulated. Play for a few minutes. If you can find your way here and leave comments you can also work out the room planner, coz I did.
thanks for the inspiration, i've been unhappy with the layout of my living room since we moved in 2 years ago... hopefully i'll be able to figure out a comfy layout soon, because we're seriously considering moving. if you don't love your living room its hard to love your house.
Well, while the examples lack the real issues related to doors, windows and other fixed architectural challenges to designing within an existing space, the exercise of trying out different arrangements is still valid.
There are online apps for this as well as cheap $5 or $10 software discs at your local office store that can do the trick. Even some graph paper and scaled paper cut-outs will do the trick.
I used Google Sketchup for my small place. A little more work, but I was able to capture every detail very clearly. Just make pretty much everything an 'object' (including keeping the walls as seperate 'objects').
Where's the TV?
That table is great! I've seen taller ones, but never one that could be used as a coffee table. What is the name/make of this wonder?
@lolax
You are a brave woman. (Er. Apologies if I have wrongly assumed that a person with a husband is female.) But I am half expecting many ATers to show up now shouting about how TV ruins evvvvvvvverything and are an eyesore and do not belong in socializing spaces or whatever. XD
So useful!
I love this! :) A huge help! Thanks :)
To answer a couple questions...
To add a door click on the wall and add a break.
Wall mounted TVs are in the work out stuff and for the other TVs just use the entertainment stand.
My 10 x 10 room has a doorway and is open to the kitchen, as well as having an opening to a hallway. I have to have my computer in this room, and it only really fits in one space, while the TV is stuck in one area.
With all this in mind, I have a loveseat to the right of the door (perfectly under the window), an ottoman before it, the tv to the left of the ottoman, the Parsons table with the computer to the right, and a light armchair in front of the couch (doubles for the computer). And, because I need storage, I have an armoire next to the tv.
It works just fine for 2. :)
A floor plan is an absolute must. I've used it to lay out my storage unit, and to help a friend move a houseful of furniture to Texas, in a 10' U haul truck. The numbers don't lie, and you cant beat mathematics! It seems tedious, measuring everything, but its so worth it!
Yeah, do you not have any doors? Or books?
I did something similar to this myself, recently. I measured our apartment and furniture and made a to-scale layout in Adobe Illustrator so I could try different floor plans. I was able to try lots of options that I wouldn't have thought of just doodling on paper, since I could easily see if something would fit or not.
@lepidoptery: one wall of our 10 x 10ish space is our entertainment center... It's a very odd room though. With stairs on one side, a freezer tucked under the stairs, the entry port for the gas line that juts out about 18" from the wall, and a diagonal wall partially in the room and partially at the bottom of the stairs leading to the hallway.
I have the Ikea Expedit TV thing (the 5 x 5 one... yes, I know, but it fits perfectly!). On one wall - since the rest of that wall arks off into the hallway, it is the perfect size to go from the other wall to the light switch. On the opposite side, I have a pullout couch, and partially in front of the TV cabinet, I have a chair. I also have a narrow bookshelf between the couch and the wall (on the side of the couch) for some more long-term storage - winter blankets, large skeins of yarn, etc. It also works well as a side table when you're on the couch. Under the gas port thing is the pefect height for stacking my two guitar amps, and I could easily put another larger one in as well if the need arose.
It's a crazy room, but it works very well!
many thanks for this great and very informative article. As for buying vintage again, I have bought it in the past and I find that because my space is so limited (I live in a 99 square foot living/working studio in a residence) a wrong choice of furniture can be extremely upsetting. Before I do anything at all I would like to buy the services of an interior designer to create the room setting so that I would have a plan for buying and not just go for individual pieces. I just read the history of Apartment Therapy and I like the idea of buying the services of an interior designer by the hour to, for instance, just do a map of a room with actual furniture and prices that I could collect a little at a time when the money comes in.
I'm sorry, I can't help myself: Layout's not a verb. You can have 10 layouts, or you can lay things out 10 ways.
Cool! I have a 800 foot house, and my open big room (living, entryway, dining) is more than 100 sq. feet, but my couch/TV/living room fits the 10x10 nicely. We had to work around our doors and windows to carve out a living room, but these layouts are very cool. Based on the fact that we are pretty stuck to our sectional (which is a tad large for the space) example 2 works nicely for us!
@Janel
Really helpful post! I'm not sure where people saw "10x10 room" because you obviously stated 10x10 area. That is why there are no doors/windows. Many of us have somewhat open layouts between the dining/kitchen/living areas, so this is great for defining an area.. This is probably one of my favorite posts I've read on AT in a long time.
Thanks :)
MODQUAD, you do understand that you could add the window and doors to your plan to make it useful for your situation. I doubt your room is 10x10 like the example. Also I feel the article was talking about the the use of room mock-ups not how you should/could lay out your space.
ARTSYGIRL - A floor plan for a storage unit and moving truck, your are the best. I would love to have you help with a move. I agree, math is great!
Agree with ARTSYGIRL. Sometimes when looking at future rentals I prefer to view the floorplans before going to the inspections or if none is available, go to the inspection and note the floorplan myself. I also make a point of knowing the sizing of my current furniture, especially the biggest/oddly shaped pieces. I'm not an Architect or Designer but I know my own belongings to be safe than sorry.
Interesting. But Real Life usually has more constraints.
My living room is probably about that size, but mine has a fireplace at one end flanked by windows, another window on the left wall as you face the fireplace, is open to the kitchen behind you, and has a partial wall to the right, with the hall from the front door merging into the space, and requiring no furniture blocking that "aisle" for traffic flow...
So we have a sectional sofa under window on the left facing the TV opposite the window (not ideal, we deal with glare). A chair sits diagonally in the right corner under the window by the fireplace (and next to the TV, but facing the sofa). It's duplicate is at the end of the sofa, kind of at the end of the "aisle" space, facing it's partner. A rectangular Mission style coffee table fronts the sofa, smaller matching end tables are at each end of the sofa, with a plant stand version by the corner table, so that person also has a place for a drink.
The L section of the sofa (a chaise) protrudes a bit in front of the fireplace, only blocking a bit of the view.
This was the ONLY layout that worked with our existing furniture. (And we are quite comfortable with it.) The only alternative layout we had required us to hang the TV over the fireplace and float the sofa in the middle of the space, with it's back marking the "aisle". (We did wire for that contingency, but hung art over the hookups!)
If the photograph is the real space in question, the stairs at the right would make all but numbers 5 and 9 impractical from a traffic flow standpoint.
My issue is not being able to "feel" a room without actually moving the furniture. I almost always place furniture according to a sensible plan/layout, only to find at some future date that it feels MUCH better when I do something I'd never have expected.
Like recently, in my 8x8 office, I replaced a small, wheeled desk - VERY convenient and space-saving - with a 6' x 2.5' desk under the windows. The latter looks and feels way better. But I have no real idea why!
This is a very topical post! I actually just 3D modeled my entire new house that we'll be moving into next week. Sketch-up is a godsend.
As far as those commenters looking for doors... If your room is 10x10, just stick in your doors where they are and rotate the furniture in your mind. These layouts are helpful to get the juices flowing, but aren't hard-and-fast! These layouts can also be used for rooms that are bigger but where the living space is confined to a 10x10 if it's an open plan or something like that.
@P-zed beat me to it. You can do a workout or a layout, but you work out at the gym and lay out a space.
That said, I've been agonizing about the layout of a prospective apartment with a very narrow living room, and this is a great tool; thanks!
4 is my favorite.
I'll second the suggestion for floorplanner dot com. That helped me solve the problem of a narrow, fairly small, high-use room with large doors on two walls, a huge, ungainly fireplace and two windows on the third wall, and a strangely placed door on the fourth wall.
It took awhile to come up with something that worked with the traffic flow and actual use of the room, but it was a lot easier to use the computer program than to go out and buy a new sofa and then find that it didn't work in the room.
I love this! We live in an older home that has been opened up (kind of awkwardly, but with really good intention!). We have a wood burning stove in one corner of the living room, lots of doors, windows, awkward little spaces & multipurpose space. This has totally inspired me to find a different configuration of furniture in the space (and maybe some different furniture, too!).
Some day I'm going to do a study of nay-sayers who find difficulties & complaints instead of working things out or reading/processing more carefully-I find the diversity of comments here so interesting. There's got to be some interesting psychological importance in there somewhere! Thesis here I come! ;-)
This is really helpful to me. We just moved into a space with a living room area about this size. There are windows on either side and no wall on the back, but I have no trouble visualizing these furniture placements in the space, and it gives me some great ideas.
Thanks.
Looking at all the diagrams the one piece of furniture I would get rid of is the coffee table. It just takes up too much space. Replace it with small end tables for a more spacious look.
I have a 100 sf TRIANGULAR living room -- common design here where the fireplace cuts across one wall. I long for a cheap corner sectional to drop from the sky and fall into this room. Also a cheap round area rug and round coffee table (I'm trying to swear off MDF furniture). So far none of these things have appeared on kijiji/craigslist.
everything but 1, 8, and 9 seems way too cluttered to me. less is more, and if you're desperate for seating, better to use ottomans and stools as coffee/side tables until more guests pile in.
The comments have been more helpful to me than the actual post. Thanks for all of the suggested resources, ATers!