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Furniture Design Dilemma Living Rooms

Help on where to put tv and position sofas in new extension please!

Annabel Mulcahy

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

Hi- we currently have the builders in just finishing a garage conversion where we have knocked through from kitchen and also through to a playroom (to give more width than a classic garage conversion) to create a family room. We need help and ideas on sofa arrangements and where best to put the tv in this unusually shaped room please.. We have no sofas yet and as a family of 4 would like a seat for everyone eg 3 seater and armchair or corner sofa and armchair. We need a piano around 140cm to fit in and I would love a large bookcase with storage cupboards underneath. If anyone can come up with a plan even if only for part of it - that would be an incredible help as I am at a loss! We installed 3 tv points shown on the plan as we didn’t know quite how to position furniture! Also as the family room runs into the kitchen the flooring changes to signify different areas (carpet on playroom and oak flooring in kitchen (shaded area is oak flooring). Thank you and look forward to any ideas!!

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PRO

User

5 years ago

I see why i couldn't make it add up................The 4630mm on the left includes the 1600mm at the top.

I have to say just as a tiny criticism.............thinking about furniture placement is key to a build and should be done at the same time as deciding upon size and position of windows and doors. The large window at the bottom has no wall to the right of it, which in turn leads to difficulty in placing any furniture on those two walls. The French doors i'm not sure are wide enough, 1350mm including a frame is quite narrow to walk through, if you're only using the one, which in our house happens a lot.

You could put the bookcase in the entrance with the piano, this gives you a nice lounge area and you can use the end of the bookcase as a wall to put in a small sofa and a cuddle chair. I would still remove that small window next to the large window as it's not great looking towards a T.V and a window .

If you would prefer to not have the Piano in the entrance then I think amending the big window would help.

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Comments (8)

PRO
User
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Planning furniture is always useful when you draw up the initial plans, as you will see, if you leave it until afterwards it does make life difficult.

Just one criticism, I think you have too many windows. You have left yourself with only the one wall without, and I would remove the bottom window in favour of a wall / corner to place the T.V.

I think this is right, I couldn't quite make your measurements add up on the left, so that bit was guess work.
Annabel Mulcahy thanked User
Annabel Mulcahy
Original Author
5 years ago
Hi, Thanks for the pointers - I have now hopefully made the plan clearer by marking down what is windows/doors - everything else with measurements is wall.
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Annabel Mulcahy
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
sorry for the multiple floorplans (all the same) - just realised the others had poor resolution
Annabel Mulcahy
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank you so much for taking the time to do these detailed plans. You have certainly come up with some ideas that we had not thought about. In particular we wouldn't have thought about having a small sofa against that wall (we had thought the tv would be good here) but actually I think it feels nice to be facing the other way. I also like the piano and the bookcase being at the entrance and feels this would help separate the kitchen from the family room area and also be that I can hear my daughter play whilst I cook and pop round the corner to see her. We have only just created that large opening for the window as wanted as much sun in as possible (and in fact have just had it amended to make it larger so it didn't look so obviously like a garage conversion to us) - so I wouldn't be keen on the second idea of reducing the window size for the piano - but yes you are absolutely correct and we should have thought about furniture placement more than we did as the 15cm of wall to the left of the window has prevented me from running a nice long floor to ceiling bookcase along that wall which is disappointing - but still other areas to put it in. Luckily I can carry out your furniture arrangement as I placed 3 tv points so will see how it feels when we finally get finished. Thank you so much for these plans and the effort to achieve them!
Annabel Mulcahy
Original Author
5 years ago
I also really liked the openness of the corner sofa idea in the middle of the room (somehow I had missed this and only just saw it now).
PRO
User
5 years ago
You are more than welcome.........keeps the old grey matter from stagnating! The comments I make on here aren't always necessarily for the home owner with the problem, but also as a general rule of thumb for other people in the same position, that might be interested.

So, I hope you didn't think i was being to harsh. The 15cm wall also has problems with soft furnishings as you can't really put curtains up as there's not quite enough room to push them to the left. Obviously you can have nothing and look at a great window, or you could have blinds, but they sit at the top of the window and can often block light levels.

I guess my point is, that being able to see a space finished is very important right at planning stage and there are many points to consider before you build.

I wish you well with your project and look forward to seeing the finished pictures.
Annabel Mulcahy thanked User
Annabel Mulcahy
Original Author
5 years ago
luckily we had decided on blinds for that window (without having noticed the curtain problem). I didn't at all think you were being harsh - I like advice and ideas on how I can improve the design stage next time (as I'm sure we'll be doing other bits). I remembered last night that we had requested getting as large a window in there as possible (as it is south facing and feeds light to our dark north facing kitchen now) and as cheaply as possible which is why I am guessing it was designed with a 15cm wall (as that is where the garage opening was) and the window couldn't have been moved to the right as hidden in the walls are steel posts supporting that new steel. But we could have sacrificed a smaller window for more wall - and actually putting a large bookcase along that wall would have also been a possibility then and perhaps a nice feature to see from the hall through the double doors. I'll post pictures when we are finished and see what you think. Thanks again for your clever designs!

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