Challenging Living Room Layout Tips (5 Tips to Find your Perfect Layout)
Tricky living room layouts are the number one thing I get asked about on my TikTok, and I wish I could help everyone! But since I can’t, I thought I’d try to get my thoughts and processes out into a blog post.
5 Tips for Challenging Living Room Layouts
TIP ONE: what layouts are possible?
The very first thing I do when planning out a layout is to look at the space and the needs of the space to determine what layouts definitely won’t work. For example: Does the room need a TV? Then it most likely needs to be on a wall with no windows/doors in the way and have an outlet nearby.
Eliminating possible layout options prevents me from wasting any time thinking about designs that won’t even work.
TIP TWO: consider the flow of traffic
The flow of traffic refers to how people will move around the space and between rooms. This is a BIG one! If your space isn’t set up efficiently, you’ll feel it right away. You want to make it as easy as possible to move throughout your home.
For example: if possible, try to avoid forcing people to walk in front of a TV or through a conversational area to get to another room.
TIP THREE: don’t be afraid to “float” your furniture
Most people naturally want to arrange their furniture against walls, which definitely works in a lot of spaces. BUT another option is to pull your furniture away from the wall, so it’s “floating” in the middle of your room. Using a large area rug will help “anchor” the furniture. You might be surprised to find that this option could even make your space look bigger and more open!
See the before/after photos of my parent’s living room below:
Before: all furniture was pushed against the walls
After: floating the furniture gives a cozier feel
TIP FOUR: split long living rooms into zones
Long, narrow living rooms can feel impossible to create a cozy environment. I always recommend trying to split long rooms up into different zones or areas. For example: half of the living room could be a sitting/conversational space and the other half could be set up as a kids play area or office.
TIP FIVE: utilize a room planning app/website
As a VERY visual person, I would be completely lost if I didn’t use a layout planner. I’ve been using a free website called RoomStyler for several years now and I love it. There are plenty of other options available though- I just don’t have much experience with them.
Being able to create a to scale mockup of your room is SO helpful, especially when you’re trying to figure out furniture sizing.
I created a short TikTok video showing how to use RoomStyler if you’re interested!
