Q: I recently moved into a new home and have absolutely no idea about how to arrange my living room furniture. I have three main pieces: a television on a large stand and two sofas. The problem is the area is a little long and there are really no walls to anchor from. I have a fireplace, an opening to dining room, a half-wall to the kitchen, an opening to the front door entry, alongside an opening to the hallway and up the stairs. I would really like for one of the sofas to face the TV directly, but I have no idea how to achieve this without blocking any of the walkways. The layout shows how I have it now, but it's absolutely horrible...
Sent by Aleana
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I would try putting the entertainment center where you've got a couch against the wall now (I'm going to call that sofa A). I would turn the second sofa (sofa B) toward the fireplace and make an L shape, with Sofa A floating in the room. If that doesn't fit, I'd consider floating both couches in the center of the room, one toward the fireplace, one toward the entertainment center. Or you could get rid of one of the couches. Whatever way you choose, I would put some sort of armchairs on either side of the fireplace
I'm agreeing with one...,
but I feel like if there was more info, I could have more answers.
Do you use the fireplace much? Is the Dining room formal or can you put the dining room where the sofa and tv currently are and then use the dining area better? Do you own, so that you can remove a small wall? Are those phallic looking things doors, or door ways. While it's not great you could put the TV on a console table and float it off of a wall, tricky to make it look good, but not completely impossible.
You didn't really mention your style or how casual/formal you prefer the space to be. So, I'm basing my response on a more casual usage. Your biggest issue is having two sofas. They are completely blocking the flow of the room and the only way they would work would be facing each other, floating in the center of the room, perpendicular to the fireplace. However, this will not work with your request for the sofa to face the TV. Unless they are keepsakes or were really expensive, your best bet is to consider selling them and buying 1 L-shaped sofa with the sofa portion facing the fireplace and the "L" portion on the left. Another option would be a regular sofa flanked by two arm chairs on either side, again with the sofa facing the fireplace. Then I would consider wall mounting the TV above the fireplace and potentially doing away with the entertainment unit and selecting a smaller cabinet for disguising the cable box, etc. If you own your new home, you may even consider working with a designer to eliminate free standing furniture and incorporate some custom built-ins as they are usually the best option for difficult spaces.
I agree with the two sofas thing. One L shaped sofa would open things up more and you could still have a couple of smaller armchairs that you could move around when more seating is needed.
Float both couches in the middle of the room with a console table between them & a pair of lamps i(if you can get electric too them) or you could use 2 large candle lanterns. One faces the fireplace and the other faces the tv. If you have the room you can then flank each side of the fireplace with a chair. And add a chair to the tv area.
Just get rid of the T.V.
I would flank the fireplace with the sofas. The dining opening will be reduced in size. If the protruding sofa bothers me, I would use a screen, draperies, or a table behind the sofa to emphasize the separation. I would add a chair and ottoman next to the sofa on the opposite wall from the dining room. (A table behind that sofa would be good as well.) The front door side of the chair and ottoman would be a good place for a foyer table.
Can you mount the TV over the fireplace? I'm not usually a big fan of that, but it would go a long way to solving your problems.
Then put one sofa facing the fireplace, and put the other sofa at a 90 degree angle to it, in front of the opening to the dining room, but with enough room to get by. You can put a console table behind that sofa, to make the view from the dining room nicer.
You would be left with some open space near the entry area. That's perfect for your landing pad, plus a small desk or a little reading nook or some sort of storage, if you need it.
But I really agree with previous posters that two sofas really don't work in that space. You'd have more options if you went with one sofa and two armchairs.
Another option, but I'm not sure there's enough space in your room for this, is to put both sofas in the center of the room, back to back, and leave the TV where it is. You would then have one sofa facing the TV directly, and one facing the fireplace, creating one TV watching area and one reading/sitting/conversation area. You'd probably need to buy a chair or two to pull this off and give additional seating space.
Since you said the room is long, I would recommend putting the couches back to back, one facing the fireplace, one facing the back wall, where you can put the tv. This arrangement means that both couches will be sitting in the middle of the room, not against any walls. You can make one area the "TV watching zone" and the other, facing the fireplace, into another seating area for when you have guests and don't want the tv as a focal point. Would that work? It's hard to tell the dimensions. I mean, at least that way you wouldn't block the pathway into the living rooom with the back of a couch. Eitherway, I would try to create two zones in the room since you have two couches and two potential focal points (fireplace and tv)....does that help any? Good luck with whatever you decide, I'm sure it will turn out well!
Do you need two couches? For an oddly shaped space like that you might do better with more modular furniture that could be rearranged as needed to provide you with multiple seating options. And I agree with xarcady above. You might consider mounting the TV over the fireplace if that's a possibility.