I Took a Designer’s Advice on My Narrow Living Room, and Now It Looks 3x Bigger

A few months ago, I shared my struggles with my narrow rowhouse living room. I’d spent over a year trying to figure out how to fit a sofa and other seating into the space in a way that made sense for conversation, relaxing, and watching TV. 

My sofa was too big for the space, and almost every configuration I came up with would cut off the flow of traffic through the room to either the stairwell, the next room, or the entryway. Despite its long footprint, the space felt cramped towards the fireplace — it felt like I wasn’t making the best use of the rest of the room.

So I turned to Isfira Jensen, CEO and principal designer at Jensen & Co. Interiors in New York City, for guidance on how she’d handle the space. She proposed rearranging the room to shift the sofa away from the fireplace and instead creating a cozy seating nook there. The secretary desk would shift towards the entryway, which made me a little nervous when it came to spacing, but I was willing to give it a try.

Shortly after I chatted with Jensen, I took the plunge and started rearranging. Here’s what worked, what I tweaked, and how it’s going in terms of livability two months later.

For the redesign of this room, my first task was figuring out the seating in front of the fireplace. If I was going to make the bold move of relocating the sofa, I wanted to be sure I still had a cozy place to sit with a fire roaring. The 1970s chinoiserie chairs I previously had in the room are fabulous, but they’re not exactly the chairs you want when you’re curling up with a cozy book and a mug of hot tea. Instead, I swapped them with a pair of skirted swivel chairs that I had in the room just beyond the living room. 

I brought in a ceramic garden stool from my patio to put in between the chairs (I believe every seat needs a place to set a drink!), then I grabbed a small ottoman from Target to create a kick-up-your-feet vibe. Jensen’s suggestion here was perfection — I love how it turned out. 

Next up, I tackled the secretary. I was apprehensive about this antique piece working in the entryway, and I doubted it would actually fit comfortably between the closet and the vestibule door. I also wondered whether it would make the space feel cramped upon walking in. Much to my surprise, though, it fit beautifully. It makes a statement as you walk in, and it doesn’t impede on the flow through that space at all. I surrounded it with a gallery wall of prints and old photographs that I hadn’t found a home for yet, and I keep the chair that pairs with the occasionally used secretary on the wall adjacent to it. 

The last big shift was the sofa and TV placement. I slightly tweaked Jensen’s plan here because I didn’t want to walk into the back of the sofa when coming in the front door. But I did like the idea of placing it in the widest part of the room. Rather than floating the sofa, I situated it along the exterior wall. (Spoiler: I didn’t get a narrower sofa. I actually took advantage of the larger space and got a deep Pottery Barn sofa that’s far more comfortable!)

The TV is now on a small wall that’s between the window nook and the vestibule, and, while we had to go down from a 55” TV to a 50” TV, that’s still plenty of television square footage, if you ask me. Plus, the comfy leather chair in the window now has great sightlines to the TV, too, which is ideal for having friends over to watch sports or whatever else.

One more change made a huge impact in the flow of this room. Previously, I had two jute rugs anchoring the two sections of the room. With the shift in furniture, I decided the room needed a cohesive floor covering to make it feel like one space despite the multiple seating areas. I ordered a custom cut sisal rug from Sisal Rugs Direct, and had it fit to the oddly shaped space (I’m not sure the math side of my brain has ever been challenged quite like this for a design project before!).

The rug brings the entire space a sense of warmth and texture, and it solves for the disjointed feeling I had previously. I brought in a vintage rug from another room to give the fireplace seating area more definition. But the sense of connection the larger sisal rug creates is a game changer in the space.

Two months in, I’m actually enjoying spending time in my living room — which I couldn’t say for the first almost two years I lived here. Not walking into the back of a large sofa makes it a more welcoming experience, the chairs by the fireplace fit the space perfectly, and I can actually hang out in here and feel like it’s both cozy and open at the same time.