Why Decorators Arrange Living Room Furniture That Way

If I were to name one issue that jumps out as I look at online forums and discussions about decor, it’s furniture arrangement. This isn’t always what commenters are explicitly asking about. A lot of times, the questions are about what to do with walls, or what color to paint something. But what jumps out at me is how the furniture is arranged. The average DIY home decorator shoves their furniture against the walls, leaving the middle of the room empty. Why is that a problem? Keep reading!

This article walks through my basic philosophy of furniture arrangement. You can see my related video here. Furniture arrangement doesn’t start where you think. When you look at most successful interior designs, they don’t start with the walls. They start with the people.

What’s that supposed to mean?

Start with the People

What I mean is that the purpose of most living rooms is to get together with friends and family. Many living rooms include a TV, and we won’t ignore that. But the most successful designs are put together with people and conversation in mind.

When you watch groups of people interact in public, you see a pattern emerge. They naturally form a circle to talk to each other. It’s not rigid and geometrical. It’s loose and fluid. People who are in closer relationships might stand closer together. Maybe someone not as familiar with the group stands a little farther away. People come and go from the group, and the size and shape of the circle adjusts. Most people don’t stand in such a closed circle that no one can join.

Another example: When people congregate at a food court or school cafeteria, they naturally find a center point of conversation and arrange themselves around that. So even if the tables and chairs are all arranged in a linear fashion, circles of conversation form, sometimes in the aisles rather than at the tables. And as different groups arrive and leave, those conversation circles move around the food court tables and aisles. What does this have to do with arranging your home furniture? Start with where people like to congregate and talk, and arrange your furniture around these natural conversation circles. Don’t force people to be where your furniture is.

How We Treat an Empty Room

In any given empty seating room, the first thing most DIY decorators will do (if the movers didn’t already do it) is put the sofa again the wall. A couple of chairs go against the other wall.

Look familiar? You or someone you know probably has a room like this. But is this what the room in your favorite decor magazine looks like? Probably not.

What if you can only put the sofa against the wall? What do you do then? Have a look at this video.

Now think about the same room, empty again. If you walked in and were talking with a group of friends, where would you stand? Would you all line up against the walls? Most likely not. You’d stand in something of a circle, probably toward the middle of the space.

If there’s a television or a view to the backyard in the room, you might stand in more of a U-shape to take in those views.

Start in the Center

So instead of letting the walls dictate where your furniture goes, start in the center of the room and arrange the furniture in a circle or square with the pieces spaced at a comfortable distance from one another.

The size of the circle depends on the amount of furniture you’re trying to include and the scale of that furniture. A standard recommendation would be a circle with a 12-foot diameter. If your room can’t fit this size, the furniture will obviously need to be closer. If your room is bigger than this size, you can float the furniture out a little farther, but I wouldn’t try to make one conversation circle go beyond about 18 feet in diameter. (That’s really big!)

If you have sofas, they don’t work too well making a circle. Upholstered furniture pieces more naturally form squares or a rectangles. You can place your sofas at right angles or facing toward each other to make those shapes.

Another easy trick is to arrange your furniture around a rug. An 8′ x 10′ up to a 12′ x 15′ rug is great for arranging furniture.

So can a sectional sofa and a coffee table accomplish a conversation circle? They do, in effect. However, for reasons I’ll go into later, a sectional sofa isn’t my first choice for furniture. Take a look at this video for some alternative furniture selection ideas.

Where to Focus

Let’s return to the concept of the conversation circle. A new person who wants to join the group might feel a little awkward if no one is leaving an opening. Similarly, try to open up your furniture arrangement toward the entrance of the room so that people are invited in. If you can, also leave openings for focal points of the room, which might be a TV, a fireplace, or a window view. Some furniture will likely face away from one or more focal points. Here’s the hierarchy I recommend:

1. Television – If the intended use of the room is for TV viewing, don’t make someone crane their neck to view it.
2. Fireplace – Placing furniture adjacent to a fireplace without a full view of it is acceptable. One doesn’t need to face a fireplace in order to experience it, unlike a television. Placing a sofa where it blocks the fireplace is almost always a bad idea.
3. Windows – Enjoying a view is nice, but not always necessary. A sofa can sit in front of a window if either (a) the back is not higher than the window bottom ledge or (b) you’re able to leave a couple of feet between the back of the sofa and the window.

What if you want more seating in a room, but can’t do it without blocking one of the focal points? Consider using an ottoman, stool, bench, or pouf. These can allow for seating without blocking the view. They are also easily shifted around if you want more temporary seating around the TV for something like a football game.

Here are some other benefits to a conversation circle:

• A conversation circle helps improve badly proportioned spaces. In a small space, arranging in a circle can pull your furniture away from the walls so that it feels less cramped. Alternatively, in a space that feels too large, a conversation circle brings it back to a human scale and helps it to feel cozy.
• A conversation circle is the primary way to create a sense of space in your living areas. Whenever possible, try to arrange your furniture in a way that pushes foot traffic out of the conversation. This creates a more intimate gathering experience.

A conversation circle is my basic philosophy for layout of a seating room, but it’s not a complete decor plan. If you want to know more about planning your decor from start to finish, you can see my overview of the entire decor process here.

Try This At Home!

I hope this article helped you understand the how and why of furniture arrangement. If you’d like to see more examples, you can also check out my ebook Guide to Attractive Furniture Arrangement, in which I’ve designed furniture arrangements for six real-life apartment floor plans.