Living room layout: corner fireplace and floor to ceiling windows

last year

I have a living room layout dilemma.

One long side is open to the dining room. There's a corner fireplace and lots of floor to ceiling windows. The wall of three windows faces south-southwest. Sliding door to the left of the fireplace.

We will watch TV in here but I don't want the furniture to ignore the fireplace. It's a rental so I cannot mount the TV above the fireplace.

Here are 4 photos of how previous families have oriented the furniture. One with gold drapes and one with black drapes. One put the TV stand in front of the fireplace and has a big sectional and one put the TV on the only bit of small space with sofa and loveseat but the furniture ignores the fireplace....help!

I have a large persian rug mainly white/cream with pastels - Impractical, I know, inherited from my parents so I may as well use it. I have 2 Queen Anne chairs with cream botanical slipcovers and a round inlayed table about 30 inches across.

I need to get a TV stand and a sofa or sectional - I am flexible on what to get once I have the room layout figured out.

Help with room layout as well as what furniture, what colors, what style. I'm basically clueless and I want this to look as good as it can.

Thank you!

Featured Answer

PRO

Celery. Visualization, Rendering images

last year

last modified: last year

You have two options

1. You have one focal point with FP and TV above.

Then you place all sitting furniture facing focal point.

2. You have two focal points with FP and apposite TV .

Good solution is to go with double sided modular sofas.

https://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Ashton-Grey-Fabric-Double-Sided-Down-Feather-Extra-long-Sofa-by-iNSPIRE-Q-Artisan/27803412/product.html

Or you go with sofa and two swiverl chairs and sofa table.

https://michaelhelwiginteriors.com/2017-blog/2020/12/11/got-a-room-with-opposite-focal-points-heres-how-to-arrange-it

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (12)

tracefloyd
last year
last modified: last year
The TV in the photo where the clock is situated is the obvious choice. Rooms that have a fireplace and a separate TV have two focal points, right? I think a configuration for watching TV is fine. But if you place a small chair or two for the fireplace, even a stool, it won't feel abandoned.
PRO
Mae Day Organizing and Interior Design
last year
Hello Alison,

Are you in the rental yet? If not do you have access and can you give us some measurements. That would help a lot. Otherwise, it is hard to know what will actually fit and where. This is indeed a difficult room to furnish. How many people will be using the room daily and how many guests do you want to accommodate?

Also, what is a higher priority for you, the TV or the fireplace? In a perfect world for this room you could have both but you may have to choose between them in this case.
Alison Visokay thanked Mae Day Organizing and Interior Design
Related Discussions
Awkward corner fireplace! How to plan around it in an MCM living room
Q
Comments (5)
Offset fireplaces aren't really planned to be main focal points or centers of furniture arrangement for all of the furniture in the room. Particularly if you are going to use midcentury furniture, you can ignore the fireplace to some extent. Not completely but you don't have to center the room on it.
...See More
60's Corner Fireplace is Throwing off Room Layout - NEED HELP PLEASE!
Q
Comments (33)
Partim had it above...... embellished below You decorate/arrange for MOST of the time....... four chairs will easiiy go around the table. Float and forget the rest. Go get a big pouf cocktail table, or a round glass top to fight all the rectangles in the room. Get an inexpensive 5 x 7 rug, or a great faux hide rug! Snug the table to the wall...... add a great big piece of art or even a mirror !It is what it is. When you can lose the loveseat? Lose it.! And you will lose a " visual wall" : ) You can angle those for conversation and walk right through. Doesn't matter...this is what you have now. And it fits. Just make it work . If it is two of you dining MOST of the time......you don't worry on the rest of the time where you might want six. This is why god invented "buffet style". Bottom line is you are both "over " and under furnished. For the moment. lol
...See More
Living room furniture layout with corner fireplace help!
Q
Comments (14)
The door is to the backyard yes. I am definitely debating between the last two. The sofa facing the tv is comfortable for viewing but the fireplace looks best with the two chairs framing and everything fits. May move the sofa table behind the couch when we get an actual tv stand. You guys have been a great help. Side note how close can things go to the fireplace. Example can there be drapes on those windows or would that be too close?
...See More
Furniture Layout in a Living Room with a Corner Fireplace
Q
Comments (5)
I often ignore corner fireplaces in my furniture layouts the fireplace can still be used but it is almost always impossible to layout furniture in angles all over the space .You do need to post a to scale floor plan with pictures of the items you want to use in the space it is really irratating to have to go hunting for all the things that are described. Art noveau and framhouse will be a bit of a trick so post pics of the DR table and the lights I think you need to get a better idea of your actual style . Also what you mean when you say farmhouse because things like those lights and gold picture frames are not in my head farmhouse. Just because it is an actual farmhouse really doesnot mean everything inside has to be farmhouse.
...See More
PRO
RL Relocation LLC
last year
I feel like this is the den, and not the main living room is that true?
decoenthusiaste
last year
last modified: last year
You definitely don't want to crowd this space with a sectional. You didn't show us pix of your QA chairs, which could be helpful. Generally, the easiest seating to arrange is a sofa and two chairs, so you may have a start. What size is your rug? I think the first thing to do is to lay out the rug. Here's a thought for the fireplace if your chairs are not too bulky for it. Leggy chairs look best when entirely on a rug, not half on half off. Looking at the gold drape photos, I think I would put a 3-seat sofa where they have the love, in front of the windows. Depending on the size of your TV, I might get a corner mount and put it on the wall right of where they have the TV. You can get a corner TV cabinet for the gear and to hold a modest size TV, but a larger one can wall mount. Then see if you have space for another armchair. If the rug is too large to work, try it as a grounding element in the master bedroom if it isn't carpeted.

Beach Style Living Room · More Info

https://www.houzz.com/products/query/corner-tv-stand/nqrwns
PRO
RL Relocation LLC
last year
https://a.co/d/1M7UaJ6 I assume you can hang up pictures, this mount only uses little finishing nails, so maybe you could mount the tv?
palimpsest
last year
I think with a corner or offset fireplace you don't have to make them a focal point. You can decorate around them and outfit them appropriately with the right accessories, but I don't think you have to arrange furniture facing them, in particular. If you look at some Victorian rooms and how they were originally arranged, you can see they were treated like heat sources rather than the focus of the room, particularly when they were placed in corners between doorways (kind of like yours) or when there was more than one fireplace in the room. I lived in a house where a number of rooms had double fireplaces and on the higher floors they were not even directly across from each other, depending upon the fireplaces on floors below and the flues coming up. And one house I lived in had a fireplace in a hallway where the stairs and an exterior door were.

Same with midcentury modern houses, the fireplaces are sometimes placed so peripherally that they don't make for good furniture groupings.

If you need to place furniture for optimal TV watching and conversation, do that and don't feel that you have to have an entire grouping centered on the FP just because it's there. On the other hand I would not cover it like the one family did.
PRO
RappArchitecture
last year
That first photo is a great arrangement, but only if you don't use the fireplace of course. Otherwise you will have two focal points. Think about whether you will spend more time watching TV or looking at the fireplace, then arrange the furniture accordingly. Most people will prioritize the TV.
PRO
Mae Day Organizing and Interior Design
last year
I would really love to be able to put together a rendition for you, a 3-D rendition of the room. I’m sorry for saying this but I just can’t do it without measurements. We might find some other suggestions but it’s not a good thing to do if we don’t know if the furniture we are suggesting would actually fit in the room. We have seen that happen in the past only because we didn’t know that the furniture would not fit the room. We have thoughts but again hesitate because it may not fit This particular room. Sorry for asking again for measurements but it sure does help a lot.
Alison Visokay
Original Author
last year
I don't have measurements yet but we move in next week. I'll have them then.

Thank you everyone.
PRO
Mae Day Organizing and Interior Design
last year
We look forward to hearing from you. Hope all goes well with the move. Best wishes, MAE
PRO
ballonSTUDIO interiors & remodeling
last year
It looks like the TV might work best on the wall opposite the fireplace. You could always have to sitting areas, one near the fireplace and one near the TV. Below is a little inspiration which might help you more. Please take note of the furniture used and it's positions.
Greenwich - Russian Hill · More Info

Geometer · More Info

Geometer · More Info

Ashbury Heights · More Info