We have recently moved into a house with a large L shaped living room / dining room / orangery (see attached image) and are struggling to decide how to layout the room. We would ideally like to incorporate a 3 seater L shaped sofa somewhere in the room. Houzz community ideas more than welcome!

Holly, not a bad dialema and what great spaces you have to play with! There are so many options for you here. I have worked on these type of properties for over 9 years and I always provide the same advice to a client. You will need to consider how you want to use the space/the environment that you want to create in order to determine where you will place the furniture. Key elements such as how you intend to travel through the property, what is practical for you, how your family spend their time at home etc. will all dictate the interior configuration. For example, some of my clients would look to create a formal reception room at the front of the property, introducing a door from the hallway. They would then utilise the second reception room as a play/TV area, library, piano space or even insert the kitchen within this zone and create a very large open plan dining/entertainment space (large sofa/TV area) at the rear, directly connected to the garden. As you can see there are so many points to consider. Have you thought about appointing a team to assist you with the space planning/visualising how it could look?

Hi A quick 3D to help you....I suggest putting the double bed (standard double 137cm W 187 L) against the wall as shown (not ideal but fine for one person who has the occasional sleepover!) which would allow for a 50cm robe beside the bed, run the storage over the bed with up and over doors Put a shelf/headboard behind the bed 15/20cm instead of lockers (make sure you get power to it for charging phones) Ikea wall lights or similar behind the bed would not require rewiring as they can be plugged in. This leaves room for a small desk or dressing table & chair at the end of the bed. If I have calculated correctly there should be enough room for both doors to swing open. Also if you can buy an ottoman storage bed that would really help sell the space. Congratulations & Good Luck!

Thank you Jonathan, i really like your design, especially the ‘his and hers’ wardrobes! We would have hoped to have the master bedroom at the back of the house overlooking the garden rather than the street, but realise it would be tricky to place the door given the location of the stairs and landing. Can’t have everything! It has been suggested to us to extend at the back 2 stories. I’m really torn, I know it’s a very sensible idea (and realistically I think we are not going to be fitting 4 beds and 2 bathrooms in the space on my floor plan) but I’m worried it will impose too much on our garden. The length of the garden is 12.36m from the original rear wall of the house, and 10.83m from the rear wall of a small double storey extension that was done before we moved in (next to the side access) A 3m double storey extension at the back would reduce it to 9.36m in length. Garden is 8.56m wide so essentially it would turn into a square garden. Only other option to increase bedroom space is going up into the loft but that would mean raising the roof which is v pricey) Also we were keen for the 1st storey to be a little ‘longer’ than the 2nd storey so to allow some roof lights or something like that - south facing garden so plenty of sunshine (when the weather allows!) - but if we do 4m rear extension for the first storey this would mean reducing garden size even more. I think we wouldn’t be able to have the downstairs toilet door where you’ve suggested as it would mean moving the location of the front door, which is currently directly opposite the stairs and opens onto the wall where you’ve put the toilet door. But we could have the toilet accessible from the utility instead, and move the washer and dryer to under the stairs - I think there’s a good 2m of space before the height under the stairs would get down to 1m so probably fine to pop that in there. I’m glad you suggested scaling down the side extension, I think I was just wanting maximum space as possible but then it created that awkward corner in the open plan which I didn’t know what to do with! Plus could then fit some Garden storage in the side access without having to take up more garden space! Thank you for your suggestion it’s very helpful