How to Arrange Your Furniture — The Right Way
If you’ve ever tried rearranging your living room, you know that getting your furniture placement right can be tricky. You want enough room for everyone to move freely, but not too much that it feels awkward and way too spacious. Babe, let us tell you, we’ve been there.
It can be overwhelming to look at the space you have and the furniture you have and try to figure out how it all goes together. Not to mention the actual moving of furniture, am I right?!
But that’s where we come in. Your residential design gang here at ASR is going to save the day, because we’re diving into how to get your furniture arrangement right with some simple tips. (And here’s a secret…if you don’t feel like doing it yourself, then we can do the hard work for you. More on that later.)
Why is it important to get furniture arrangement right?
As much as we love the pretty side of interior design (seriously, who doesn’t?!), we’re also here for the practical side of things. While you can fall in love with an armchair, if it’s too bulky and gets in the way, it won’t be the right piece for your space.
Your home has to look good and serve the practical purpose of being used every single day. And here’s the super fun part: if you can get your furniture arrangement right, you can easily swap in furnishings and accessories to update your styling without having to do a whole room overhaul.
So how do you get the furniture arrangement right in every room?
It’s the big question that stumps everyone. Yes, even the seasoned pros sometimes. But we’ve worked through many different spaces and arrangements, so read on for our best tips.
Function
First up is function. This is the biggest, most important thing to look at when arranging your furniture. Function in interior design is all about how you live in your space and use various areas and pieces of furniture.
To create a functional space, you have to understand what the purpose of the space is. What do you do while you’re in your living room? Are you a Netflix series binge-watching family? Or more of a chat around the coffee table type of fam? You’ll want to arrange your space around this purpose. Whichever type of family you are, you have to consider things like TV placement. While a symmetrical living room looks divine, you don’t want to have to turn your head to watch the TV.
Work with what you’ve got
Once you’ve got purpose and function down pat, it’s time to start putting everything together. Now the fun really begins. To do this part of the process, you can tackle it in one of two ways.
Number 1: You can leave everything in the space and shift furniture using the good ol’ trial and error method.
Number 2: Or, you can take everything out of the room you’re working in and start with a blank canvas.
Whichever method you use, get ready for a bit of back and forth along the way. Either way, you’ll want to start with your key pieces of furniture, like your sofa and the TV (while not a key piece of furniture, it is something that often functions as a focal point, so work it into the room sooner rather than later). From there, bring in secondary pieces, like end tables and floor lamps. As you do this with the pieces you already have, you’ll soon see what’s missing that you’ll need to purchase or just bring in from another room.
Insider Tip: Don’t be afraid to rearrange your furniture. And then do it again. And again. Have fun with it, experiment, and find something that works for you and your home. There is no shame in trying something new!
Create a focal point
We touched on this a bit above, but it’s important enough to go over again. In interior design, creating a focal point is powerful. It’s what can influence people to gather around your couch or sit in a seating nook. It’s how you draw traffic around your space in an intentional and intuitive way.
What you’ll want to do is decide on your focal piece of furniture, such as your sofa, and then build around it. As you do this, make sure to leave enough walking room around each piece of furniture.
If you’re struggling to figure out what your focal point is, go back to the purpose of the space. If it’s your living room, it may be your sofa and TV. If it’s your home office, it will likely be your desk and chair.
Allow space for flow
Those of you who are pushing couches and desks against walls, we’re watching you! This is one of the biggest problems we see people do. Either that or they’re shoving chairs into corners. We get it, it seems like a way to get more space to move around in the center of the room. But it’s not the best way to arrange things.
Instead, focus on moving throughout the space. Place your furniture throughout the room, according to its purpose, and leave room between things for moving about. This will allow for flow around your furniture, rather than a bunch of empty space in the middle of the room.
Enlist Help
When you’ve tried rearranging your furniture over and over again, but still can’t put your finger on what’s not working or why it’s not flowing, then it might be time to enlist some help. Now this doesn’t mean you need us to rip out walls or completely remodel your living room. Instead, let us style your space — it’s our jam! Here are some ways we can help:
Residential design
Commercial interior design
Short-term rentals (need some help rearranging your Vrbo or Airbnb for better reviews? We gotchu covered!)
E-design (perfect if you’re not in the San Diego area!)
Our team will help you with custom decorating, furnishing, and styling. We’ll rearrange furniture until our heart’s content and we’ve created a room we know you’ll obsess over. Our custom home decorating service is more than just picking pillows for your sofa. When we furnish and style your house, you’ll be so proud to call it your home. With the tricks we have up our sleeve, you may not even believe that it’s your own house! If this sounds like what you need, book your free consultation.
What’s next?
Who’s ready to rearrange some furniture! Although it may seem like a daunting task, we know you can do it. Before we let you dive in, here are a few diagrams to help you envision how your space can turn out.
For the bedroom
For the living room
A few final tips
Can’t quite get your sofa and TV placement right? Consider placing the TV on a swivel!
If your bedroom doesn’t have much space to walk around in, consider a smaller bed.
If you’re adding a conversation nook into your living room, dining room, or office, make sure the furniture pieces face each other.
If you’ve got a large room, use rugs to ground different sections and create zones.
Alright friend, you’ve officially got all the tools you need to create the perfect furniture arrangement. We can’t wait to see how your space turns out. Come show us on the ‘gram: we’re @asrdesignstudio.
