Create The Perfect Furniture Plan For Your Living Room
If you’ve just moved into a new home or feel your current living room floor plan just isn’t working anymore, it’s time to re-examine your furniture arrangement.
A good furniture plan will make all the difference when creating a balanced, functional and harmonised home.
Step 1. Clear out The Mess
It sounds boring but clearing out the room and de-cluttering anything that isn’t working for you, not your style or you were given furniture you don’t want any more (pass it on, it served you well and you don’t need to feel guilty).
This step alone will let you see what you have to work with.
Step 2. The Shopping List
Make a list of everything you need and don’t be swayed by assistants in furniture shops, it’s better to stick to the plan you made, you know your space and your family’s needs better than anyone.
Shopping for furniture items in the sales is a great saving but don’t make the classic mistake of buying the wrong size furniture just because it’s on sale and you love it. Furniture never looks that big until you get it home, only to discover you’re trying to fit everything around it because it’s eaten into your space. Yes, it happens.
If you already know you need a new sofa and have budgeted for this, as a big ticket item it is worth doing a little homework first, ask questions, does it have a solid frame, get cosy and curl up in it, chances are you want it to last as long as the last one.
Step 3. The Plan
Creating a floor plan also means less heavy lifting as you will know exactly where everything is going.
Tip: Use masking tape on the floor to mark out the exact size of the furniture going into your living room.
This helps you see instantly how these pieces will fit in your space. You can walk around to make sure there is a good flow of traffic i.e. you’re not bumping into anything or squeezing past the coffee table to sit on the sofa.
When creating a floor plan your drawing doesn’t have to be fancy. Simply draw a rough idea of the size of the room.
TIP- Remember you have to get the new furniture into the room, so you need to make sure it's getting through the door.
Add in the measurements of windows, doors or any built-in furniture and don’t forget radiator placement. Take a photo of this on your phone so that you always have it with you when you go shopping for furniture pieces.
Step 4. The Focal Point
Image source: Pinterest
Determine a focal point when creating a furniture plan. Usually this is the fireplace or a large focal window with a view. Sometimes in smaller rooms you have to create one, this can be a sideboard with a t.v. which you can build around with artwork, plants etc., to create a balanced furniture arrangement.
Alternatively this could also be a large mirror in the centre of the wall and design your room around it.
Occasionally your living room can have more than one focal point, which can make planning furniture arrangements a little tricky.
T.V. Focal Point or Conversational Focal Point
Image source: Pinterest
To help you decide, think about how you want to use the room and what the main focal point will be. Do you want to create a cosy, conversational layout? In which case having your sofa and arm chairs facing each other will help achieve this. Or will your living room be centred around the t.v.?
