I need some help with furniture layout in living/family room (floor plan, fireplace)
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It looks as if you have about 12 x 16 feet of living room space. The first thing I'd do is to figure on the "halls" that border the room. You have to walk from entry to closet, and from entry to bath. Those areas needs to be kept clear. So I get about 16 feet in length for the living area. This is a nice size area.
I don't see a fireplace or a large central window, which would be natural focal points in a room. So you need to create a focal point to arrange your furniture around, or as a reference for furniture placement.
You haven't told us what you will do in the living area. Will you have a TV? A sound system? Would you put up bookshelves for a book collection? How do you imagine yourself in the space?
Off the top of my head, I'd think that you can have a TV or book area, and a conversation area. Where you might want the TV might be influenced by the natural light. Where is north in the room? Again, off the top of my head, you could put a bookcase/entertainment unit between the windows on the long wall, arranging seating around that. In the area that is more sheltered, you could arrange a small conversation area with coffee and side tables.
If you need a home office, then you could probably put it in either place in the room, placing the furniture to create two smaller rooms within the larger space. For better input, you need to give us more information about how you imagine using the space.
We plan to to use the area as a family room. It will include a TV and we plan on installing in-ceiling speakers.
In regards to a second area, a home office space or bookshelf space is what we're thinking (if there is sufficient space, but, not required.)
Our home faces south.
My concern with the "halls" approach, which I agree with, is will it look odd facing the back of a sofa as soon as you walk into the space (3-5 ft from the front entrance). Also, with a sofa, love seat, side tables and sofa table, will there be sufficient space to walk around the furniture and halls?
Last edited by michael152; 01-13-2014 at 08:13 AM..
We plan to to use the area as a family room. It will include a TV and we plan on installing in-ceiling speakers.
In regards to a second area, a home office space or bookshelf space is what we're thinking (if there is sufficient space, but, not required.)
Our home faces south.
My concern with the "halls" approach, which I agree with, is will it look odd facing the back of a sofa as soon as you walk into the space (3-5 ft from the front entrance). Also, with a sofa, love seat, side tables and sofa table, will there be sufficient space to walk around the furniture and halls?
I don't think it is odd at all to have a sofa back to the entrance, or maybe the love seat since it is not so long. That is assuming that they are not particularly tall so you can easily see over them to the table and the TV across from them. So I might do it with a 72" sofa but agree with a 90"+ it might be a bit much.
In our family room we have done something like this and I think it looks much better than the arrangement the previous owner had where the soda was against the wall and the large floor-standing TV was partially blocking the doorway. That seemed like a possible danger to the TV, anyone who walked into the room then blocked the TV, and you could not see the TV from the adjoining breakfast nook. (Not sure if that last part applies to you, can you see through those staircases at all?)
One other thing you didn't mention, how big of a TV do you plan on putting in? The distance from the TV to the sofa will vary with the size as well as personal preference and may impact just how close to that doorway it would need to go.
Alternate plan, I would consider putting the TV on the 8' wall adjoining the bathroom, put the sofa under the window (with good light-filtering shades on it) and the love seat across. Then take the front area and create a separate seating area out of it. I really lean towards the first arrangement though as the latter seems like it could create a lot of dead space.
Can you move windows around or is this house already built? That closet in the corner creates issues with the current layout too. What is the main purpose of the room--to watch tv or to sit and read or converge?
What is with all of the wasted floor space in the kitchen area? I guess I would move the living room to where the bay window it and create an office and/or bedroom where you have the living room/bath right now.
Can you build the coat closet into the stairway. That would at least allow you do put your TV on the wall between the 2 windows on the right wall and center a couch or sectional there for TV watching. You could add in some oversized chairs in the nook by the bathroom for a reading area and maybe a game table or something toward the front of the house--or flip those spaces, build in some bookshelves where ever you do a reading corner.
Can you move windows around or is this house already built? That closet in the corner creates issues with the current layout too. What is the main purpose of the room--to watch tv or to sit and read or converge?
Windows cannot be moved. The main purpose is to watch TV/converge. Thank you.
The sofa back will define the perimeter of the room, but make sure to allow plenty of walking space to enter the "room" you have defined. I've done this myself. I created a "hall" where where was none by adding tile around a doorway, and placing the sofa so that its back faced the space I had designated as hall space. This was in a large multi purpose great room.
I think the halls with their expanses of walls are a great luxury in an open plan home. You can treat them as art or photo galleries. Done right, they could be a source of great visual enjoyment.
If you want a home office then you need to decide where you want it. I myself am not sure what the best place would be, but if it were in the area defined by the bath room wall, then people would not walk through it to get to the living area. However that area is what I would choose for the living area!
I think lighting would be OK there for a TV, since it seems to be on the north side. And perhaps the acoustics would be better there for a sound system? I'm not sure about that. But I think you should take those things into account in your planning. Ask yourself where you would want the sound system, and where would you be most comfortable in a home office. Of course, you can enjoy the sound system as you work too.
Imagine people tramping past and through the home office if it were placed between the two windows on the long wall? Would that be a problem? Is there a window or windows with better views? If so, you might want the living area there.
If the need for the home office is simply for a smaller space to pay bills or do small amounts of work, then I think you could probably accommodate that in a smaller space, but if you work from home, I think I would want the office to be in that far area face by the bathroom wall.
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