The living room is a room that needs to be made not only aesthetic and comfortable, but also functional, and often multifunctional. There are no universal recipes, but there are general principles for planning a living room that will help to organize the space of the room, to make it attractive and unique. Let’s figure out what to start from and what to pay attention to when planning the arrangement of furniture and design.
What affects the layout
Following fashionable trends when furnishing the living room is a commendable, but dangerous path. Planning will be successful, and you won’t make fatal mistakes, if you start by determining the purpose of the living room.
Usually the living room has two important functions: it’s where the family relaxes, and it’s also where guests are received. In between, the room can serve as a study or dressing room, and occasionally turn into a bedroom or dining room.
Therefore, the arrangement of furniture and the allocation of zones is planned based on the lifestyle of the family, what they will be doing in the living room. A competent and rational move – to think about how often the whole family watching TV, having parties, staying overnight guests. It is important to consider if any family member will read, do yoga or a favorite hobby, work on the computer.
The layout will be influenced by factors such as the size of the living room, the size and location of windows, the relative positioning of windows and doors, the presence of adjacent rooms. Tastes and budget will affect the choice of furniture and interior filling.
Acting on the plan: features of a successful layout
Do not rush to order from a catalog favorite seating: the purchase of furniture – this is the final (and most enjoyable) stage of planning. You should start by preparing a plan for the arrangement of furniture, because moving the cabinet and sofa on paper is much easier. The plan should be as detailed as possible, taking into account every item, regardless of size.
The plan of the living room is convenient to draw on a piece of paper, or prepare it in a specialized application. You can also plan the arrangement of furniture with the help of an online program. The following tips will help to orient the work:
- It is necessary to determine the dimensions of the living room (width, length, as well as height), as well as the size of window and door openings.
- Convenient for the construction of the plan is considered a scale of 1:20. Usually draw a top view, but it is also useful to depict each wall with furniture separately.
- Do not forget to mark where the interior door opens and, especially, to what depth. For its free opening and closing, it is necessary to provide space.
- Indicate the location of outlets, switches, radiators.
- Planning begins with the arrangement of the largest items: sofa, closet, table, chairs.
- Upholstered furniture, the basis of the seating area, arrange in several ways: in the form of a letter “U” (for example, around a coffee table), opposite each other or in a corner. Corner arrangement can be done in any part of the room.
- Facilitate the arrangement of the semantic center; it could be a home theater, a fireplace or a painting. Composition center will be the reference point for the sofa and chairs, the place for the rest of the furniture chosen, guided by their position.
When developing the layout of the living room, it is useful to keep in mind the following recommendations:
- Keep a balance between free and occupied by furniture space; this determines how comfortable your stay in the living room will be. Ideally they should be equal (and even better if there is more free space), in reality we should strive for this.
- Sufficient (at least 60 cm) passage between furniture is important: the movement should be free, and corners of objects should not leave bruises with their corners.
- Highlight areas of the room with good and insufficient light. This will help to properly identify functional areas, as well as prompt at what points will need an additional source of light.
- In the living room, you cannot do without technology (TV, computer, music center). Arranging the screen and speakers on the plan, remember about the safe distance between them and the viewers; check whether there are enough outlets.
- To make the room more individual, you will need an accent. It can be a textile, a picture or a collection of photographs, which will need a place on the wall and the appropriate arrangement of furniture.
The subtleties of planning a small living room
A small living room is considered a living room of up to 18-20 square meters. If you are not going to combine the living room with the kitchen, then the main task of the layout will be the maximum preservation of free space. To solve this problem you will need to choose the right furniture and, most likely, to resort to tricks that visually expand the space. The following tips will be useful:
- The basic rule requires avoiding massive furniture, stucco on the ceiling, and bulky decor. In particular, replace heavy textile curtains with Roman blinds or light portieres.
- In order that the living room did not look overloaded, choose a built-in or compact modular furniture, objects-transformers. The usual blank wall is better replaced by an open-type shelving unit.
- The light decoration of the walls and ceiling works to visually expand the space. In this case, choose the base color and one or two additional colors, different by a couple of tones. Contrasting design looks creative, but it seems less cozy.
- Mirrored surfaces perfectly cope with the task of increasing the volume. An ordinary mirror (can be in a mirrored frame), as well as a variety of wall mirror decorations, inserts in the furniture, mirror tiles, panels.
- To support the sense of spaciousness will help diversified lighting. Pay attention to spotlights for the ceiling, supplemented with sconces and floor lamps in a suitable style.
- In a rectangular narrow room, it is important to arrange the furniture correctly: to create a semantic center, a large sofa to replace a pair of small sofas and try not to clutter the corners.
Planning a large-sized living room
When planning a small living room, you have to carefully select pieces of furniture, so as not to allow the space to be cluttered. During the planning of a large living room (from 20 squares), the owners are faced with another difficulty – how to make the room cozy. The problem is solved with the help of the following ideas:
- Composition center decorate in any convenient place: both near the wall (for example, by the fireplace), and in the center of the room.
- If the living room has an elongated rectangular shape, to smooth out the proportions will help the correct selection of finishing materials. To make the room seem broader, trim shorter walls do a darker color; for long walls are chosen lighter colors. Also on one of the long walls, you can glue photo wallpaper with a volume effect.
- Choose the television set carefully. Its diagonal size should match the area of the living room (or the area of the zone where it is located) and the distance from the screen to the sofa.
- In a spacious living room is much easier to satisfy the needs of all family members, regardless of habits and tastes. To do this, zoning techniques are used.
Zoning
You can’t do without zoning if you plan to use the room as a place to work, eat or have the occasional sleepover. Dividing the living room into zones allows you to improve its functionality, as well as properly select and place pieces of furniture on the plan.
For zoning, the most important thing is to maintain the stylistic or color unity of the individual zones; otherwise the space will be perceived as incomplete. The following techniques will help to beautifully distribute the space:
- The use of finishing materials, different in color and texture.
- The space is conveniently zoned with furniture.
- Separating zones with light serves as an additional way, because it works only in the dark.
- Elegantly delineate the territory will help textiles: curtains and carpets.
Briefly about the main things
The arrangement of the living room begins with the creation of a plan. Proper planning makes the room aesthetic and comfortable, and also helps to solve the issue of functionality. The layout will be successful if it will take into account the tastes of the owners, as well as the features of the room: its size, ceiling height, the location of window and door openings.
The final plan of arrangement of furniture should be balanced; upholstered furniture is placed in several ways, depending on the shape and size of the room. For a small living room is relevant light decoration, light drapes and compact furniture. A large living room is easier to divide into comfortable functional zones, and this can be done in different ways, with the help of furniture, decorations or light.
