Furniture placement in a rectangular room-the living room

I always think builders build homes without any regard for how furniture actually fits. I do a lot of home staging, and one thing that drives me crazy are long rooms! I thought I would share with you different ways for furniture placement in a rectangular room using my own home for example.

Over the last 8 1/2, that rooms has been moved around  A TON, and I’ve pretty much exhausted every option. This way you can learn from me with out breaking your back! A few years ago, I partnered with other bloggers in a One room,3 ways challenge. This of this as an amped up version of that! All of these furniture placements I actually like when I did them, but when you’re a DIY blogger, things get changed a lot! See part of our current living room here.

Furniture placement in a rectangular room can be challenging depending on doors and window placement, but not impossible!

Our living room is 11 x 17. It’s very long and narrow. 2 more feet would have made such a huge difference, but that’s just not how they built them in the 1950’s!

At one time, my living room furniture is moved more to the front of the space with the long couch floating a bit. I changed it up after the tree came down. I like it ok, it just closes off the room a bit, but it does give a nice walk through to our entry from the dining area. And, I can hide junk back there and you can’t see it from the front door. #Winning.

Before that, I had the chair floating. Which made it feel very open and airy, but there was no chance of junk hiding going on. #notsowinning.

This view has the buffet against the wall with the round table centered and the long couch against the window. It’s nice and stream-lined, but not super cozy.

This placement actually moved two couches to the other end of the room. The side against the wall  where the buffet is now had a dresser and a TV at the time.  That’s when we were renovation our downstairs and were living in about 600 square feet. I don’t know how those tiny house hunters do it. There might be a little crazy going on there. 600 square feet is not enough room for 5 people. EVER. The only thing I did like is it delineated a place from the entry to the rest of the room, but it also made it feel a bit more closed off.

I do like the set up this way,this was about 2012, but it left a lot of wasted space in the front of the room. It actually felt spacious, but with a smaller house I feel like every inch counts!

This was a time when the buffet was downstairs, and I had the faux mantle upstairs which is now downstairs. I know, confusing, right? This left the space feeling very open. I liked having the mantle there.

So this one I pulled from the waaaaay back machine from about 2010.This give the room a nice square feeling and cozy with the slightly angled coffee table.

So I hope if you are struggling with furniture placement and your room is a bit like mine, this gives you some ideas! You can find more posts here on decorating by the rules of 123, and here on home staging.