Questions: How high is the window sill? Can you put a seat, sofa under it? If so, slide your console down the wall closer to the windows (move the little square piece out of the corner) and push your sofa back almost to where the question mark on your plan appears. Then try the chairs at opposite ends of the sofa, facing each other, one being under the windows. That would give you a more open seating area that you could circulate around. Looks like you'd even have room for a small table or something in the area between the storage space and courtyard railing.

I'm confused - there is a sofa in your diagram, and what look like two arm chairs. Are these pieces in addition to the chairs you posted the pictures of?

I think you are on the right track centering the console table on the large wall, assuming there will be a tv on the console and a sofa facing it. But I'd pull the sofa back a bit, and have 2 sets of chairs on either side of it, facing each other. With your rug in the middle. Then I would do another seating area in front of the window - with 2 chairs and a small table. That leaves kind of a large, box-y area between that railing and the door to your deck. What that area needs is a round table with four chairs, like a game table, with another area rug underneath it.

Bottom line, it's not a matter of just arranging the furniture you have. You need more furniture.

Your current setup probably makes it uncomfortable to sit. People generally like to sit with their backs protected and visual contact with doors etc. And volumes larger than 4x4 meters end to be experienced as to open en unprotected.

I would use cabinets (high or low, depending on how open you want toe leave it) to structure the volumes in the room. You could move the console table toward the question mark, which leaves an open corridor between the two bedroom doors. Then place the sofa against the wall where the console table is now, and the chairs on either side facing each other.

The upper left hand corner seams ideal for a corner couch with a sofa table. Combined with a bookcase on the question mark instead of the console table, to put the TV less central. Where to watch TV then? Well the area between the railings and the utility door in the left bottom corner also seems ideal for a smaller reading/TV nook. Console tabel against the right railing, sofa against the wall opposite, and box it in with a cabinet or screen protruding from the left wall toward the corner of the railings.

I am assuming the actual furniture piece is the conversation chair, and you've used the sofa image in the diagram because they didn't have an option for the actual piece. If this is true, I think the problem is trying to treat it as if it was a sofa. What if you separated the room into two separate seating areas, with the convo chair at something of a diagonal out from the corner by the large window, with the side table and a lamp, and then used the two separate chairs with the console over by the railings with a view down to the room below.

I can't say specifically where to put your pieces, as I can't tell if that dark double line by the passageway is supposed to be a window, or if it is just a wall. Also, you don't say whether TV watching is happening in this room, or not.

But some general ideas - first, you need to set up your seating area to take views into account. Assuming your window to the deck is the only window, you want to have some of the seating face it - either the couch, or the two chairs, if they are across from the couch (which they should be for conversation - either side by side (with some space inbetween, obviously, perhaps for a little table) facing the couch, or flanking the couch on either side facing each other, as suggested above, though I much prefer the openness of having them not flanking the sides of the couch, but rather directly across from and facing the couch. I think in this room, the couch facing out the window by the deck might be best.

Second main principle - you need to not be afraid to put the seating area out there in the center of the room - furniture groupings do not have to be anchored to walls, and should not be in this large room. If you move the couch and chairs out there to the center, you can then play with what looks best. You could have the couch face that wall, further out by the question mark, as suggested above, with chairs across, but it may seem odd to have your back to the stairs on the couch. It all depends on what you want your conversation area here to be focused on - a conversation area focused on the view out to the deck, or seating that will allow you to view the comings and goings on the steps and from the bedrooms. Mainly, this will depend on how nice each view is...I'm guessing the deck is the better view. Whatever you do, pull seating away from the walls. You can then put consoles along the walls. You can also use a console as a sofa table behind the sofa, whether the sofa is in the center of the room, or backing up to that wall where the console is now.

Thirdly, in this big room, you need to define your seating area with a big rug (I hope your floors are not thickly carpeted.) I see something like 9 by 12, large enough to go under your couch and chairs - this will help to break up the space in the room to usuable chunks visually. Get a rug that compliments the color and style of your 5 X 8 - I can see you using the 5 x 8 one in the area between the storage room and railing, with whatever small furniture pieces you put there.

If by converstion chair, you are referring to that double sided chair with the seats facing opposite directions, the only possible space I could see using it here is directly in front of that window by the deck - far enough out so that one could sit facing out the window if one wanted to, or one could sit facing the seating area - it is mainly decorative - you don't actually sit two people in it and have converstions, do you?

Lastly, that area on the right labelled passageway by the stairs - whether the wall is a wall or a window, needs to be broken up by a small piece of furniture. A narrow console or bookcase, or a small end table. If small enough in depth, you won't feel like you are walking around it when walking from one bedroom to the other, or from the one further from the staris to the stairs. You can't leave this wall blank, any more than you can the opposite wall across from it. Just think narrow depth - not seating furniture. I agree you will need more furniture - just figure out your seating first, then where to put the TV if you want one it here so it is visible from the couch, and then fill in with other smaller peices.

If it were me, I would put a large table with chairs in the big question mark space. use it as a desk, a dining space, or a place to put your favorite collection of objects.

I really don't like the sofa placement here... I'd rotate it 90 degrees clockwise and put it with it's back towards the railing. Then I would set the 2 chairs opposite it with the 2 side tables in the middle as a coffee table. The console stays where it is, maybe slides down a bit towards the storage room door.

Up front by the window could be a separate zone. A bench with plants if you like plants. Your turntable and some floor pillows if you like music...

Oh, if it wasn't clear from the above, I see your room being divided, by rugs and furniture placement, into two different areas for two purposes - a larger seating area out there in the middle, from where the question mark is over to the wall on the left, and a second, smaller area in that squarish space that will be left in the lower left between the storage room and the railing. What you use this for will depend on what you do - it could be a play area for kids toys, space for a desk, game table as suggested above, yoga/stretching area, music playing area, space for a comfy reading chair and lamp and small table - whatever you want to do in your home.

Ppl, the sofa is a conversation chair, so there's no default back. I think an interesting round-up idea for AT would be the use of conversation chairs (and, hm, double-sided sofas) in real spaces... or staged spaces, if there aren't enough examples in the house tours or whatever. I doubt there are all that many, actually!

Back to the topic, if you did have a sofa in addition to your current seating, you could do something with the conversation chair in that empty space, I think. Just float it in that area on maybe a rug with a couple of side tables.

(Does this console have a TV on it?)

Thank you for all your comments and suggestions. I guess a few clarifications are in order:
1. There is no TV over the console. It most probably will hold a Stained Glass Mural. So the entire area is for seating alone.
2. The windows opening to the deck are floor to ceiling(upto 7 ft from ground).
3. The furniture pieces in the pictures are similar to the ones I have, so it will be a 2 Chairs + 1 Conversation chair only. I could not find an icon to represent the conversation chair in the picture.

I guess it is the conversation chair that is making the arrangement difficult, but I just find it unique in that space :)

Well, in that case, your current arrangement does not make sense. Like I said above, it's really not enough furniture for that room. The conversation chair should be used like a bench in an open area - like what you've labeled "passageway" on the right hand side. Have it run parallel to the walk way between the railing and the deck door. Please do not try to incorporate the conversation chair into a seating arrangement with the other chairs - that will lead to the spectacle of one person having to sit there with his back to the rest of the group. I would still put the two other chairs in front of the window with a small table. Leave the rest of the room open for something LARGE you can score down the road.

I just wanted to say thanks for including a detailed floor plan, reference images, and follow-up clarifications. Most room arrangement questions come with an irritating lack of information. Future questioners, use this as an example!

I'm with BABYFISHMOUTH on the conversation chair. It doesn't seem like it was meant to be placed in a seating arrangement with other chairs.

I would want to arrange the seating area so that it takes advantage of your view to the deck and garden. Shift the focus away from the console/artwork and to the large windows.

Well, if you don't want to also get a couch, I still think you should put the convo chair in the ? area, and then maybe put the chairs closer together, basically where you have the couch/convo chair now. Angled towards each other. Though then you basically have 2 anemic seating areas... still, the convo chair is a self-contained item.

This space is too large not to have a couch. I would set up a sitting area by that large window and then try to frame the areas in around it with another rug by the STORE area that matches the one you have and maybe some plants or a see through shelving unit behind the occasional chairs.
a drawing here: [IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/24ez608.jpg[/IMG]

It's an awkward space, I would put the 'Console' in the passage way, put the sofa and both chairs up against the wall where the console is in the picture. Then build a free standing partition in line with the left railing with space walk all the way around it, then you can put the TV up against that.

I think the convo chair would be perfect beside the railings in the far corner, so you can look down the stairs or into the room, and it would be great alone in that area with a small table/plant/lamp. Take it out of the other conversation areas. I would love a table, perhaps round in the ? area, either for dining, games, or just display.