Arranging Furniture on an Angle

There are times when placing one or two pieces of furniture on an angle can give a room the little bit of kick it needs. Angled furniture redirects the flow of a room, allows you to move pieces away from the wall, and can sometimes make a small space appear larger. In our experience, there are no set "rules" for angling furniture; it usually takes a few tries, arranging and rearranging until you find a set-up that feels right. Click below for some inspiring ideas from angled rooms...

This open plan living room benefits from airy, low-profile furniture that seems to float in the space.

This set-up contains several grids: the pattern on the rug, the rectangular grid of the artwork, and the grid of the tufted leather daybed. The angled lounge breaks up the rigidity of the arrangement.

In Christy and John's Logan Square Bungalow, an angled chair in the corner of this space creates better flow between two rooms.

Rachel's Grad School Getaway, one of our Smallest Coolest apartment finalists, proves that angled furniture can work well in a small space.

The Philippe Starck Ghost Chair in a corner of Eve's Warm and Witty Loft creates a soft, almost invisible corner that gently opens up the room.

The beautiful blue and yellow bedroom in Marie's Memphis Apartment uses an angular arrangement to contrast with the retangular grid of the windows and wall moldings.

Comments (24)

Nothing square/rectangle on an angle in a corner ever!

I think Rachel's Grad School Getaway is not a good example: there's a weird interaction between the metal headboard and the dead space in front of the window behind it. Having the bed pointed into the corner like in Marnie's Memphis Apartment works better, although perhaps only with an unrealistically narrow bed.

My friend has a long narrow living room, very difficult to arrange. Putting the chairs and sofas at an angle to the room, but square with one another, made all the difference. There is now a great conversation area, and the room looks widers and larger.

In the top photo, the dresser looks good on an angle, but the bed just looks awkward to me.

The bed in the top photo is angled that way to add more functionality and diagonal interest in a room that is otherwise grid-like.
If the bed were in any other position in the room, one could not access it from both sides, and one couldn't get the benefit of the heat in the winter.
You might be reading the bed as awkward because it's difficult to envision the entirety of the room's perspective in one photograph.

That chair is so impending, just waiting for someone to stub a toe on its leg.

I agree with therapy4me. It's not just that it looks awful but it feels bad too. I don't know what it is, but it just gives me bad energy.

Nazrd, I did the same thing with my living room. It is only 11 feet wide, with a fire place that pops out about a foot on one side and then a staircase on the other side. When my boyfriend suggested angeling the furniture I thought he was crazy, but now with the couch and chair make a sort of L formation there is much better flow. http://www.floorplanner.com/projects/18198026

Many years ago I put my bed at an angle with the window behind just to experiment or from boredom of the way my room looked. I starting waking up with really bad neck pains and had to see my chiropractor for some relief and he asked me what was different in my life I told him nothing I could think of and how was I sleeping..I told him about the bed change and he said sleeping at that kind of angle is like sleeping on the edge of a sword or something but it was very bad Feng Shui. He had studied under a Feng Shui master so I did give it some merit and change the bed back.

Whether to believe or not to believe I did not get those pains again well not for a very long time.

I FIND IT A BIT WEIRD.

I love it!

signed, the guy who lives in that open plan living room

it CAN work, but every real house/apartment i've ever been in that uses this technique has felt wrong. most of the time it reduces available floor space and gives the feeling that you've interrupted the residents mid-rearrangement.

I just recently angled my bed in the corner of my room (does anyone else call this "caddy-cornering"?) and was in the process of looking for suggestions for filling in the space that has been created in the corner. While I'm not usually a fan of angled beds, I've enjoyed the new flow of the room.

My bed looks almost exactly like the first one on the January 15 post re: Colorful Winter Beds, except I don't have a headboard. So the corner is full of possibilities!

i don't see how angling a bed can make a room feel bigger. every one i have ever seen like this makes the room feel small and cramped. it's pushes it out into the middle of the room and takes up way more space along with the often wasted space behind it.

not for me...

I've never been a fan of "on an angle" furniture arrangement. Just strikes me as contrived and a waste of space. Anytime I see a furniture grouping on an angle, it's so jarring to the eye that I can't see anything else. Very much reminds me of really low end decorating shows from the late 90's.

When I was little, my mom would angle my bed in the corner so I would have to clean out underneath it. It was nice to have a change and made it feel special. We would always move it back straight when I had to clean under it the next time. For a little girl, it was nice , as an adult, it hasn't worked for me. I keep under my bed clean now.

I'll have to submit a picture of mine. My bedroom isn't very small, so I feel that the placement works. It doesn't feel crowded or like there has been a waste of space at all.

anyone know where I can find a white "beaded" twin bed similar to the one in the photo?

Amphetamine: That is a jenny lind style bed. You should be able to get one on craigslist for less than $250. Make sure to get the rails with it.

I have the highboy dresser in my bedroom on an angle, because I have sloping ceilings and if I press it straight against the wall I can't use the top surface of it for anything.

It looks pretty cool.

This is a pet peeve of mine. It's hard to supress the urge to straighten the furniture when I see this.

I placed my dining set on an angle - and it was a great decision. Now I have a room for a small buffet (it's actually 2x4 expedit) without chairs hitting it, I have comfortable flow from living room to the kitchen.. and it added a bit of drama, nothing special, but you feel it's active. I like it. :)

I was open to the idea of putting my furniture on an angle - mostly because I have seen in some books great example how it worked well. At the moment only my dining room benefits from it :)

I just did this with the entertainment armoire in our guest room. Everything was just too "square," and putting it on an angle between two windows was just the trick.

I have a friend who learned from her mom to angle everything...and it looks TERRIBLE! Every time I walk into her apartment, I cringe and just want to start moving things.

However, I moved into a new apartment with a very generously-sized bedroom (actually it is quite large)....but with VERY limited wall space due to positioning of closets, doors and windows (with radiators underneath). I chose to angle my bed...and it is the best decision I ever made.

I will agree it doesn't work in every room....