Need some inspiration for arranging your living room furniture? Discover Twelve functional living room layout options to maximize space and create a welcoming atmosphere at your home.
Space planning matters because if a place doesn’t have a good layout and doesn’t have a good flow and it looks weird, it looks off. It’s not going to be beautiful even if you buy the most gorgeous things in the world and it’s not going to be fun and interesting and great to actually be in.
Let’s get back to basics and talk about different layout options. Everything will be in order as the houses get bigger, so the beginning will cover smaller spaces and some bigger ones as you add in more furniture pieces. Adjust depending on the size of the space.
Basic Sofa Layout
To start, consider just a sofa. The basics include either a two-seater love seat or a three-seater sofa. You’re probably going to want to have a coffee table or an ottoman here. It is assumed for the rest of this article that there’s going to be a coffee table or ottoman option.
Yes, you’re probably going to want a coffee table. You might want a side table, little poofs in there, or side tables. This is mostly talking about seating here.
There are going to be other options. If you’re going to choose an ottoman for example, and it’s going to be say an upholstered ottoman, you’re probably going to want a flat surface to be able to use for drinks and food and things and that’s probably where a side table is going to come in handy.
If you have a coffee table, you might not need a side table, so feel free to adjust other areas of your plan accordingly. The most basic one that makes sense for a smaller space is going to just be having a plain sofa, probably going to be opposite of a fireplace or opposite a television. That’s going to be the most likely scenario, but that’s the basic first place that we need to start.
Sofa with Side Chair
Next up is if you have a space maybe that’s a little bit bigger or you’re going to want some additional seating beyond just having sort of the two or three-seater sofa. The next configuration would be to add a side chair or an accent chair across facing the sofa. Now, this one again is going to be a little bit space plan dependent.
The advantages of this one is it really creates kind of a very interactive space between the people on the sofa and the person in the accent chair. The accent chair over top of the sofa or across from the sofa is going to be really great for conversation.
Sometimes it can be a little bit too interviewy when it’s at an angle like that because the angle is such that the person in the accent chair is facing off against the person in the sofa, but it is nice to have that extra piece to be able to actually converse across from each other because sitting on the same sofa unless you’re watching TV together doesn’t always feel the most comfortable.
So having a space for an opportunity for people to sit across from each other is really helpful for conversation. A major drawback in this one though is that depending on the angle is that this person could have their back to the TV or could have the back to the fireplace which doesn’t make as much sense. If you can structure your home so that everyone has the best seat in the house, that’s usually the way to go rather than people having to sort of rotate their chairs if they’re going to watch television, which isn’t ideal.
Perpendicular Accent Chair
Another option, which is preferred by some, is to have the accent chair run completely perpendicular to the sofa across from it. This relaxes sort of the ability for people to converse kind of across from each other over top of that coffee table, but what you gain in functionality of being able to see the television or fireplace, which is probably going to be opposite the sofa, works really really well.
This is also a really fun way to get a little bit more creative because you’ve got an opportunity here to match style or color or shape or something with the sofa across and do something really cool with a funky accent chair. So aesthetically it looks really cool.
L-Shaped Sofa
Next configuration option is an L-shaped sofa. Now this is where you introduce now like a shay and you probably depending on your space because again we’re going smaller we’re assuming you don’t have enough space for an accent chair additionally but it is really cool to have an additional shay option. It gives people different ways to converse. People can also lie down using the shayes which is kind of nice when you’re relaxing in the evening.
Also the newer versions of these whether they’re from like cozy kraton barrel article gosh west even ikea like a lot of these newer ones that are coming out are very modular, so you’re actually able to scale up the size of this l-shaped sofa accordingly.
So you might have an extra corner seat or an extra side seat, so instead of having like the sofa plus three sectional pieces and then you can have another piece a side piece and then have a shade, so you can make it even bigger if you want. So there’s a lot of opportunity here to sort of play cuz a lot of these are super modular right now which is really really cool.
This one does not have an accent chair option, so sometimes it can feel a little bit sy because everything’s obviously going to be in the same upholstery and everything’s going to kind of look the same, but it is super functional because you’ve got that corner and the majority of the people three people are most likely going to be able to sit across the television or the fireplace, but the other people there can still see the fireplace or still see the television, but they’re also able to converse on an angle with the people sitting on the other end of the sofa. So this configuration also works really well.
Sofa with Two Seats Opposite
Next up, the next option available to you now we’re starting to get a little bit more into kind of a, moving away from smaller spaces, we’re starting to get a little bit bigger now and that is where you’d have a sofa and it’s going to be perpendicular to something like a television or a fireplace, but opposite them parallel to the sofa is going to be two seats or two accent chairs. This one is super super cool.
What is cool here is that they’re very balanced because the sofa is quite heavy. You got the same visual weight on one side and on the opposite side you got two accent chairs or two side chairs sitting opposite it. It still feels balanced even though it’s really interesting cuz you got asymmetry going on in the space.
So if you’re a lover of asymmetry which is a little bit more modern a little bit more eclectic then you might really love that style as well. Also, it is recommended that if you do have two side chairs there’s an opportunity there for you to play with a little side table between them and they can sort of share a side table that can also be really cute.
Being able to have a really asymmetrical space, so it does feel a little bit different and interesting, but also well balanced. This style prioritizes conversation more than the television. If you are watching TV you are going to have to look over. That might be awesome for some in say like a living room setting, but if it’s your main family room or main TV watching room that might not be as relaxing for you in the evening.
Sofa with Two Perpendicular Armchairs
Next up is the same furniture, but just configured a little bit differently and that is a sofa plus two armchairs, but this time instead of sitting opposite the sofa the two side chairs or accent chairs are going to be perpendicular. So now we’re going right back to what was mentioned earlier where you’ve got the sofa and it sits across from the television, so you are prioritizing TV watching this way, which a lot of people love to do.
You’re still getting the benefits of having those accent chairs on the side of the living room, so those are going to probably be used a little bit less frequently and those ones are going to be used for when guests come over to be able to converse while with the people that are sitting on the sofa. This works really well.
This is very asymmetrical, so you really want to make sure that the room is balanced, but that usually comes from other furniture pieces that you have in the space, but overall this one is really cool. You’re getting probably space for four to five people plus, which is really really cool. You’re getting starting to get into kind of more of a mid-size living room. There’s lots of opportunity to play with the fireplace and the TV there, but still lots of opportunity to converse as well.
Sofa Plus Two Opposite Armchairs
Next up is going to be a sofa plus two armchairs, but this time instead of the two armchairs sitting together, they’re going to be opposite each other. This one is cool because you’re getting all the advantages like mentioned you’re prioritizing TV watching.
You also have an opportunity when people come over that you can have people sitting in these chairs and you’re able to use them for conversation. These chairs typically don’t actually really get used all that much except for when guests come over which is what they’re there for and that’s perfect.
It’s great if you like having two different side chairs. If you love to have lots of different options for side chairs, this is a great way to find the whole like sisters not twins thing, right, where they look like they belong together, they feel really cohesive, they’re similar in style maybe in color palette whatever texture fab whatever, but they’re different and it gives you an opportunity to sort of have different side chairs in the same space. It’s great to be able to play with two different style side chairs.
When you’ve got them opposite the side chairs you’re able to play around with different chairs a little bit easier that way.
Sofa Plus Three Armchairs
Next up, this is a combination of what was just mentioned a little bit of best of both worlds, but again we’re getting with a little bit of a bigger living room here and that is going to be a sofa plus three armchairs, three side chairs and that is going to be where you have the sofa prioritized to watch the television across from or the fireplace whatever your case may be then having the two chairs like mentioned before but then adding in that extra third chair.
Typically what you see most common is that those two side chairs are going to be twins. You’re going to get that repetition coming through, but then that extra accent chair is giving you something different. It’s the best of both worlds. It can feel like there’s just a lot of furniture pieces cuz now you’re starting to get into one giant sofa, two accent chairs that are twins and another accent chair over here plus a coffee table plus side chairs plus whatever it can feel really busy and really heavy depending on the size, but if you have a large enough space it can work really well.
A lot of people will opt for say a sectional or something which is what we’ll get to further down the the list here, but this is another great option for you if you really love accent chairs and you want the best of the two worlds that mentioned before.
Two Sofas Sitting Parallel
Next up this is a super super common one. This is going to be two sofas sitting parallel to each other. This one is symmetrical, so this is out of kind of everything that we’ve seen since really the beginning, but this is actually where we start to really introduce the power of symmetry which is really going to make things feel really formal, it’s going to be really beautiful and it’s going to give you can give you that kind of wow factor cuz symmetry really does that.
When you’re in a living room if you’ve got those two sofas sort of flanking each other like that it’s really cool. It definitely includes makes great for great conversation. It’s a little bit more formal than the two accent chair plus sofa combo talked about earlier a little bit more formal. You are offset from the television, so the television most likely is going to go perpendicular to both of these sofas, but it’s really great for creating that wow moment. The sofas usually again if you want to go for that symmetrical look usually going to match each other and this typically fits a much more traditional style as well. So a little bit more a little bit less modern and funky and a little bit more kind of traditional and formal really beautiful look though.
L-Shaped Sofa Plus Accent Chair
Next on the list is going to be an l-shaped sofa plus an accent chair. This is going back to what was mentioned a long time ago which was introducing that l-shaped sofa, but now the space is starting to get a little bit bigger and not only do we have the modularity like mentioned about having the l-shaped sofa, so you can have different side pieces as much as you want. You’re also including a cute little accent chair on the side there.
This is a really neat one. It feels a little bit less piecy. You’re really getting down to just kind of two pieces. So if you want something really like sort of with cohesion really built in and it sort of just everything kind of feels like it’s a little bit simpler you want less furniture this is a really great option for you because you’re sort of taking those two accent chairs that mentioned in the previous example plus the sofa and you’re just combining it into one big l-shaped with an additional accent chair on the side. This works really really well again if you don’t have that accent chair addiction and you just want really keeping it you just want to keep it simple with that full l shape this is the way to go.
Two Sofas Plus An Armchair
Next on the list is going to be two sofas plus an armchair. This is where you are starting to add in some accent chairs or side chairs in addition to the kind of formality that you’re getting before with the two sofas, so this is building on that with additional seating.
This is really a great option if you love all the symmetry that we talked about a second ago with that example, but you want to introduce additional seating. Also this is going to come down to room configuration for you. If you have a really wide room but it’s not particularly deep then just having two sofas might make sense, but if you have enough room for it then by all means feel free to add another accent chair.
An armchair does provide a good example and it does provide some additional seating. It is sort of can feel a little interviewy. It’s a really formal option. It’s built for conversation. This again is going to be much more fitting in a formal living room as opposed to a casual TV watching room. If you want to go for more of the casual TV watching room something like an l-shaped sofa with a shay or something get in a modular style is probably going to fit you better than this one.
L-Shaped Plus Two Accent Chairs
Speaking of sort of TV watching spaces as opposed to the more formal living formal living room presidential style is an l-shaped plus two accent chairs. Now this is mostly for those bigger spaces most likely here. We’re kind of combining a different styles. You probably have seen there’s only so many ways you can build a living room, but they sort of start to build off of each other and give you options and sort of scale as the room gets larger. This one here combines sort of the advantages we talked about with the l-shaped plus one accent chair and then adding a second one which is going to give you additional seating and most likely those are going to match each other.
Conclusion
There are so many different ways to configure your living room depending on your size. For smaller rooms, you might want to go a little bit more in the sectional plus accent chair or even the plain old little sofa little love seat. As you get bigger, you got a lot more options here, but ultimately it’s the same in terms of how you want to configure it.
