How to Work With an Awkwardly Shaped Living Room
There’s nothing like a handful of tricky angles or funny features to test your design skills. Luckily, inspiration is at hand…
Perfectly symmetrical living rooms with long, clear walls to park a sofa against may make decorating straightforward, but an awkwardly shaped space is much more of a challenge. All living rooms need some seating, perhaps a coffee table and even a shelf or two, but how can you shoehorn all that into your room when its dimensions don’t follow the straight and narrow?
The answer is to get creative with corners, colours, storage and vertical, as well as horizontal, space. These ideas demonstrate how even the most frustratingly wonky or woefully open-plan rooms can be both functional and fantastic.
The answer is to get creative with corners, colours, storage and vertical, as well as horizontal, space. These ideas demonstrate how even the most frustratingly wonky or woefully open-plan rooms can be both functional and fantastic.
Take a step
Steps give this knocked-through living space two distinct zones (there is further seating and shelving in the lower section). The all-white colour scheme helps the two spaces flow together, but the area for relaxing is zoned by a rug in a warm shade, and an elegant chaise defines the boundary of the upper floor.
Steps give this knocked-through living space two distinct zones (there is further seating and shelving in the lower section). The all-white colour scheme helps the two spaces flow together, but the area for relaxing is zoned by a rug in a warm shade, and an elegant chaise defines the boundary of the upper floor.
Make seating multitask
Where space is limited and there is only one corner in the room that can take a sofa, make sure this crucial piece of furniture works hard. Here, the sofa fits around the corner, so a table can be pulled up for meals or work, and pushed against the wall when relaxing is the order of the day.
Where space is limited and there is only one corner in the room that can take a sofa, make sure this crucial piece of furniture works hard. Here, the sofa fits around the corner, so a table can be pulled up for meals or work, and pushed against the wall when relaxing is the order of the day.
Tuck in storage
This wall of built-in storage accessed by a ladder turns the corner into a useful area with a distinct purpose. In a non-square room like this, stick to one key colour to unite the spaces, then add just a few key pieces of furniture to keep it uncluttered.
This wall of built-in storage accessed by a ladder turns the corner into a useful area with a distinct purpose. In a non-square room like this, stick to one key colour to unite the spaces, then add just a few key pieces of furniture to keep it uncluttered.
Think thin
In a narrow living space, choose slimline, non-fussy furniture. A blind with vertical stripes over the door and a skylight above help draw the eye up, increasing the feeling of height and making the room feel more airy.
In a narrow living space, choose slimline, non-fussy furniture. A blind with vertical stripes over the door and a skylight above help draw the eye up, increasing the feeling of height and making the room feel more airy.
Decorate in one shade
This large, interesting home has a living room that is accessed and passed through from numerous points. Painting the entire apartment in white helps each space flow into the next, making the open nature of this living space seem natural, rather than awkward.
Explore crisp white design schemes
This large, interesting home has a living room that is accessed and passed through from numerous points. Painting the entire apartment in white helps each space flow into the next, making the open nature of this living space seem natural, rather than awkward.
Explore crisp white design schemes
Get down
In a large, open-plan living room with little wall space (here, the back wall has a run of doors), vary the floor height to create a natural, cosy home for seating. This house demonstrates how the rather 1970s notion of a sunken living space can be radically rethought to work beautifully in a chic, modern home.
In a large, open-plan living room with little wall space (here, the back wall has a run of doors), vary the floor height to create a natural, cosy home for seating. This house demonstrates how the rather 1970s notion of a sunken living space can be radically rethought to work beautifully in a chic, modern home.
Impose symmetry
In a room with funny angles and no soothing symmetry, impose your own. It can be as simple as hanging two identical mirrors and using matching tables and lamps to flank a fresh white sofa.
In a room with funny angles and no soothing symmetry, impose your own. It can be as simple as hanging two identical mirrors and using matching tables and lamps to flank a fresh white sofa.
Work your wall space
In a living room with little usable wall space, get creative and employ any available patch for display or storage. Here, a picture is hung low and books piled way up high on a Ptolomeo book stand to work round the wall of windows.
Do you have an awkwardly shaped room? Share your styling tips in the Comments below.
In a living room with little usable wall space, get creative and employ any available patch for display or storage. Here, a picture is hung low and books piled way up high on a Ptolomeo book stand to work round the wall of windows.
Do you have an awkwardly shaped room? Share your styling tips in the Comments below.
In a living room that opens right off the front door, position a large sofa so it creates a focused living area and, behind it, a corridor effect to lead people into the rest of the house.
See 10 ways to bring order to your hallway