Awkward living room layout / blocked off bits - which furniture?

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

Our living room is a really awkward layout to work with, so far we've got away with having a single sofa from our old place, but it's so old and too big for the room so we need to sort it eventually. The problem is that there are so many "fixed" things in the living room I'm struggling to come up with a seating plan/layout that works.

I'm thinking a big 2-seater or small 3-seater sofa against the east wall, maybe with a couple of chairs opposite on the east wall? (There's no space to put a sofa on the west wall because of the way the wall juts out, and it also blocks access to the curtains which is a pain - to keep standing on the sofa to draw the curtains every night!)

No room for putting anything on the south wall due to the fire, and the big bay window dominates the north so that's out too.

Thoughts?

I've repeatedly seen the 1 sofa 2 chairs thing on interior design blogs but suspect it won't be enough seating, but not sure how to manage it all so well without having key stuff blocked off in the room.

Floorplan: https://ibb.co/y6R62Zf

Featured Answer

Victoria

3 years ago

I’m only commenting to say I love your user name 😂

Comments (12)

Carolina
3 years ago
Hi, is the room 5.04 into the bay? Could you post more dimensions and photos of the room so we can get a better idea of it? How many people need a seat on a daily basis?
factbasedbadgerinatutu thanked Carolina
factbasedbadgerinatutu
Original Author
3 years ago
Hi Carolina, yes it's 5.04m into the far end of the bay, so a good metre less in reality for using the room itself. It's a tall room, 3m high. On a daily basis it needs to seat 3 people (so absolute minimum would be a 2 seater sofa & a chair), but often up to 6 when famiy visit.

Also to note there is a radiator which I forgot to mark on the floorplan on the south west corner, rendering that bit a bit odd for furniture too! (To add to the restrictions!) So - main big radaitor to the left of the door as you walk in, plus a small shallow short raditor under the bay window centre.
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factbasedbadgerinatutu
Original Author
3 years ago
I've removed the old, incomplete floor plan and created a better one marking the radiators too, here: https://ibb.co/y6R62Zf

Looking at the south wall (fireplace), when you're in the room: https://ibb.co/fGgTFyj

Looking north west, when you're in the room: https://ibb.co/FHLHVcK

Looking north east, when you're in the room: https://ibb.co/R3tV8MF
factbasedbadgerinatutu
Original Author
3 years ago
(and thank you, Victoria - I was listening to The Smiths as I created the account here, it seemed unusual enough that the username wouldn't already be taken...!)
annabellaamy
3 years ago
You've got a lovely room !!.... It seems a really odd place to have a radiator especially next to stove - had you thought about having it moved ? Can you have TV on west wall, a single comfy tub type chair either side of sofa and then a sofa with small return on east wall...?
factbasedbadgerinatutu thanked annabellaamy
factbasedbadgerinatutu
Original Author
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Thank you. Unfortunately no capacity to move the radiators, they were there originally but we've just had the new carpets cut to accommodate them - they also work really well there. Intersting suggestion about moving the TV to the west wall rather than having it in the corner. Not sure how that would work with power sockets/ethernet all being set up in the corner, but might be doable!

By tub chair, is this the sort of thing you mean? https://www.tubchairs.com/pub/media/catalog/product/cache/0fb31935622070ae012ad0164583eb38/m/o/morris-grey-tartan-tub-chair-front_2.jpg
Carolina
3 years ago
Maybe?
factbasedbadgerinatutu thanked Carolina
CWD
3 years ago
Any option of moving the door down towards the window? That'll make the fire/TV side the seating end and window end will be circulation.
factbasedbadgerinatutu thanked CWD
factbasedbadgerinatutu
Original Author
3 years ago
I hadn't thought about trying to fit the seats into the bay window (Carolina's 2nd suggestion), that could work depending on the size of the seats. I'll have a think and see what might fit in with whatever sofa we're planning.

Unfortunately, there's no ability to move the door into the room, it runs on the main supporting structure of the house and it's about 2 and a half feet thick. It's like the type of wall you'd expect at the Hohenwerfen Castle! (they're not all like this one, but that one's virtually impenetrable, the sturdy Hilti gun used to cut in additional power sockets during the re-wire was having a hell of a time getting through it, and that was just a couple of inches into the wall!!)
Jane Hinde
3 years ago
have you considered a corner sofa running from east wall and across northwall
factbasedbadgerinatutu thanked Jane Hinde
factbasedbadgerinatutu
Original Author
3 years ago
A suitably sized l shaped sofa is definitely viable, if we could find one to fit (I'm sure there's one out there but we haven't looked yet). Maybe that plus a couple of the tub chairs that were suggested would work together well. I'm also thinking of a couple of cube chairs/foot stool/table with tray if they fit under the west window, because it's dead space under there just now.

Thank you all for the inspiration, extremely glad I posted!!

Awkward living room layout / blocked off bits - which furniture?

Victoria

Comments (12)

Carolina

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Awkward living room layout / blocked off bits - which furniture?

Victoria

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Carolina

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