Advices needed on laying out our livingroom

11 years ago

We recently bought a house with split level. The floor plan of the first floor is attached. We find it very difficult to arrange the furnitures around the living room for the following reason:

1. The wall with the fireplace is an accent wall, and it's not perpendicular to its two adjacent walls. I guess the original design point was that both the sunroom and the living room can share this fireplace?

2. There is no foyer. The entrance door opens directly to the living room.

3. There is a load-bearing column in the living room (shown as the small square).

And the living room is pretty big, but low ceiling at 8'. We hope to have your expert advices before we spend a lot of money buying our living room furniture. Thanks in advance.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

LuAnn_in_PA
11 years ago
What kind of furniture do you want in there?

Will there be a TV? a bookcase? other?
Sofa? chair? loveseat? sectional?

How will the room be used?
luckygal
11 years ago
Pictures would help.

Do you have any furniture now or are you buying all new?

Are you planning to have a TV in this room?

How many people will be using the room - that is how much seating is necessary? Are they all adults or are some children?

I would consider the foyer to be the entire hallway where the front door enters to the column and down to the kitchen.
Related Discussions
How do I lay out living room in the front of the house with staircase?
Q
Comments (1)
Just realized I posted this in the wrong thread...sorry! Just moved it to "home decorating"
...See More
How to should I approach this pentagon shaped living room lay out?
Q
Comments (1)
Can you sketch out a floor plan with some measurements? The photos help, but the distances seem to be distorted, for example the distance from the corner of the fireplace to the kitchen pass-through in the 1st and 2nd picture.
...See More
How should I lay out my combined dining + living room?
Q
Comments (2)
can you post a pic from the other direction? (stand next to fireplace) can the round dining table be placed closest to the kitchen? maybe off to the right in the foreground of your first picture as shown in your floor plan? are you putting a tv in there? where is the cable outlet? this layout is rather long and narrow. media cabinet lay out do you have an area rug? I like something like this to the left of the fireplace under the window or behind the sofa along one of the walls something like this would look cool. easy to hack w/Ikea Billy Bookcases.
...See More
Help with Laying Out Living Room
Q
Comments (5)
Instead of a sectional, you might consider doing a sofa and some chairs. It would make the layout easier to switch up and you would perhaps provide more comfortable seating for you and your loved ones. If you want a sectional though, you might consider looking into apartment sized sectionals. Included here are just a few images of our designs to aid you more with your current dilemma.
...See More
Annie Deighnaugh
11 years ago
Wow, that's a real "what were they thinking" room. I would ignore the fireplace as it's best not to be the focal point of the room. Instead, I would arrange a conversational cluster around the corner with the solid wall and the sun room...put a sofa against the solid wall, love seat facing the sun porch with a sofa table behind it and some lamps on it and a single chair with it's back to the sun porch and a coffee table in the middle.

Set up another single chair with a small table and lamp by the fireplace to create a separate reading nook by the fire.
mmzymxf
Original Author
11 years ago
To answer above questions:

We plan to use the living room as a living room: relaxing and socializing. Most of the time there will be all adults but occasionally there will be kids. The sitting area is expected to accomodate 6-8 people.

We will buy all the furnitures, and will have a carpenter do all necessary carpentry work including customized cabinetry if shelfing needed. In two or three years we will have a baby grand piano but not at the moment. We prefer not to have a tv in the room. Other than that, we don't have strong preference on what kind of sofa/love seat/chair/sectional to have.

Unfortunately, unlike Annie suggested, the fireplace has sort of already become the "focal point" of the room with a fairly delicated mantel. The carpentry work involved was quite pricy so we hope we don't have to destroy it...
Annie Deighnaugh
11 years ago
Well you would be able to still see it, but given the traffic patterns, I don't see how you could make it the center of your conversational seating.
slflaherty
11 years ago
I would put a sofa on an angle facing the fireplace with two arm chairs side by side placed perpendicular to the sofa with their backs facing where the column is. This would direct traffic away from the column and allow it to flow freely from the living room to the dining room. I think the sofa and chairs should be placed close to the fireplace and away from the walls. In the large corner space behind the sofa, I would create a separate seating area or reading nook by placing a bookcase on the wall and have two more arm chairs arranged in the corner, perhaps with a small table between them. I would also use an area rug to anchor the main seating area close to the fireplace.