I know that this is probably not what you want to hear, but I'd forget about the huge sofa. It's far too big for this room. On your sketch, it takes at least a quarter of the space. You may be trying to cram far too much pieces of furniture in a space that will not allow it.

You need to flip the furniture. Put the sofa on the wall across from the door with the chaise section of the sofa along the wall where you currently have the media center. Move the media center to the wall to the left of the door.

Once you reposition the sofa and the entertainment center the whole room will open up and will give you that entire wall where the sofa currently is to put your chairs and ottoman. On the wall to the right of the door you should be able to angle the glass desk and that will allow you to ditch the corner desk.

I agree with both Loora and Minu. Get rid of some of your furniture! And swing the couch around. Ideally get a smaller couch, or one that's more low profile. Good luck!

Sometimes a big sofa in a small space is very cozy. I used to have a very large sofa in a smaller space than this. The only reason I don't still have it is because it didn't fit through the door in the next apartment! I think your arrangement looks good, but if it were me, I might ditch the poang chair.

This is Lisa, and thanks for the answers so far. Yeah, it'd be heartbreaking to lose the sofa because its the only brand-new furniture I have (this was NOT a planned move). Its the Ciera sectional from Bob's http://www.mybobs.com/Ciera_Fab if that changes anything. But I totally told you guys to give me honest feedback!

My one saving grace might be the new living room is sort of a smaller version of my current one. My current one is 15 1/2 by 15 1/2 and its setup similarly to what I have sketched. The tenants in the new place have an overstuffed sofa, chair, and loveseat in that small living room so I thought maybe I could get away with it.

Minuoriginals, your comment is exactly what I was wondering (except I was thinking glass desk flat against the wall). I've had small living rooms that were setup as you described.

Keep em coming, I'm loving this!

Room should have ONE focal point. Huge sofa competes and layout feels claustrophobic. I think you will find this really helpful:
http://www.squidoo.com/ten-biggest-decorating-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them

I'm with everyone else. I'd go completely mad in a room with this much funiture. The addition of framed art, trinkets, and general decoration would completely drive me up the wall.

the sofa isn't huge. the room is small. can you hide the ottoman under the tv bench? the glass desk would lighten the room but is too large. you have to swap something out.

Too much furniture - the corner desk, round ottoman and a chair need to go.

I know lots of other people are suggesting ditching the couch, but it sounds like you want to keep it so I'm going to try other suggestions...

If you can flip the side of the chaise, I'd flip it to the other side and then put the couch in the upper left corner of the room, facing the wall with the door. The ottoman can go in front of the couch. Place the tv on the wall next to the door. Place one of the larger chairs in the upper right corner with a side table between it and the couch. Place the corner desk (or the glass desk, if that's enough room for you) in the lower right corner.

You may be able to squeeze in a side table next to the chair in the upper right corner (between it and the desk), but that's hard to decide from the drawing. You also might be able to squeexe in the side chair/Poang chair between the door and the desk, but I would try not to push it. If it were me, I'd remove one of the desks, the side chair currently next to the door, one of the larger chairs, and maybe a side table.

If the chaise can't be flipped, you can basically flip-flop my above suggestions, but you might need to get a smaller tv stand to fit on the smaller wall.

It's Lisa again. Yeah, I'm guilty of trying to add lots of furniture, especially for seating. I can fit the ottoman under the side table to get it out of the way (its small and squishy). The coffee table was cheap, I can replace it with two ottomans maybe? I also have a smaller chair that I can use instead of the Poang chair (its an Oh chair).

I had a vague idea of using that built-in nook as a mini-bar with a barstool next to it. That might be pushing it though.

I understand the whole unplanned move thing, Lisa, as I currently inhabit a 100 square foot room in my sister's house while I look for work in a new city and eventually a new apartment. Most of my possessions live in the basement right now and so I have to make a bedroom/office/livingroom in this tiny little room. I have a full sized bed, an armoire, a table, a rocking chair and a short file cabinet in this small room. Sometimes, yes, it's a little crowded...but sometimes when unplanned things happen, one has to work with the available space and make the best of it.

What one person might find claustrophobic may be another person's cozy haven. I've lived in small apartments with massive, old furniture most of my adult life. I love my pieces and would rather be a little crowded than to be without them. Everyone's aesthetic is different.

I find lots of inspiration in the Apartment Therapy "Small Cool" entries and here's the link: http://community.apartmenttherapy.com/contests/smallcool/2011/entries. Best of luck and enjoy your new digs!

Could you use an ottoman instead of a computer chair? We're doing that now because we have a room the same size as yours with an 11ft sectional.

I agree with Minu though, flip the sofa so it's on the top wall shown (sectional against the wall) and tv bench directly in front of it.

that will leave the other half of the room open so you could put the poang chair facing right, put an ottoman between that and the wall and maybe put a combo of 2 of 3 remaining ottoman's together as a sort of 'coffee table' area.

then on the left wall, place the desk center, on either side you will have space for the bookshelf and anything else left over. it might be best to use the left wall's wall space for the majority of your wall art to balance out the room, otherwise the side with the sofa will look kind of heavy.

i feel your pain with this room. like i said, we have the large sofa and a bunch of ottomans, coffee table, a huge vintage desk, tv stand and dresser. you can make it work. it just needs to flow a little better.

Aprilhearts, I think we'll need to replace the computer chair so yeah, that's a great excuse to get something smaller to fit under the desk. The corner desk does have more shelf space than the glass one so for storage purposes it may make more sense.

Dierdre, this is exactly my issue. I'm going for cozy without claustrophobic. And yeah I rabidly scour the small cool submissions lol.

I'll take out the bar stool for sure, maybe get rid of the Poang chair, maybe just replace it with a smaller chair, and lose one of the side tables.

still haven't decided what to do with that mirrored nook. I think the current tenants' mini-bar in it is really classy but may not be practical for us. I'm just a sucker for mini-bars in the living room.

Hey Lisa!
Here's a quick little sketch I made of how I might furnish this room... but seeing as we don't really know where your doors or windows are, it might not work at al.
I hope you find a solution that works for you!

here's the pic: http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/172/7/e/blahjunk_by_pinkandfluffy-d3jkz8q.jpg

bennemans, my fault, I tried to include too many pics with the original post and they didn't all make it. The door is unfortunately right where you've got the TV. There are two windows, one on the short wall (where I have my couch and you have the bookshelves). The other is behind my current Poang chair.

An option might be keep the couch and circle chair where you've got them (some ppl hate this but I don't mind hiding windows), put the TV sort of where you have the glass desk, and the glass desk where you have bookshelves, only flank the desk with bookshelves instead of built-ins.

Get rid of the Poang Chair (they're ugly anyway) and the desk. You're trying to do too much in this space. I'd maybe get rid of the ottoman as well. If you need an additional chair for a guest, I'd rummage for something of a small scale on line.

Hey Lisa!
Ooh! You've got more pictures?! Those might be very helpful for giving you advise! Where could I find those?
I don't wanna sound cocky, but seeing as my job (well, 1 of my 2 jobs) actually is redesigning small/tiny spaces on a small budget, using the stuff people already own, I would love to give you some advise! Free of charge ofcourse ;)
Maybe we could Facebook or something?
http://www.facebook.com/bvanmiddendorp

Hey Bennemans,
I downloaded the pics from the craigslist ad of the apartment (we haven't moved in yet, I'm just obsessive about this stuff). I can email them to you if you shoot me an email at circleofkayless@yahoo.com (my public email for things like this) That'd be awesome!

My first thought was - where do you keep your books. My second thought, ask your self how many people live in the apartment and how often do you have guests? Do you really need seating for 7 people?

The first thing I'd do if you need to keep the desk in this room is move the desk to the other side of the TV area. That would separate the "office" a bit more.