A poorly designed room can have your guests awkwardly facing away from the conversation in bad seating arrangement or be left without a place to rest their food and drinks. The difference between a well-designed room and a design nightmare is the feeling, the synergy, and the statement that it makes.
Whether you have a roomy house or smaller apartment, here are a few dos and don’ts that will help bring your room together while still maintaining your unique style.
🏠 1. Entry Room
✖ DON’T let your entry room abruptly lead into the center of your living room without any buffer.
✔ DO separate the entry space from the conversation area in the living with furniture arrangement. For example, you can segment the living room with chairs that bracket a conversation area, thereby separating this area from the entry while maintaining workable foot traffic around the seating arrangement.
🏠 2. Entry Space
✖ DON’T clog up the entrance way with furniture like a couch, table, or chair.
✔ DO establish a clear path from the door to the living area. It’s also a good idea to place a table near the entrance to drop things off on after a long day in the city, as long as you’re keeping your walkway clear.
🏠 3. Communal Areas
✖ DON’T believe the myth that the living is the only communal area.
✔ DO consider another room, like a foyer, as a viable conversation area candidate.
🏠 4. Large Furniture
✖ DON’T close off the view of the entire room with large furniture standing in the way.
✔ DO keep the room open-concept with low-slung couches instead of high-back towering couches and chairs. Taller furniture should gravitate to the sides of the room. That said…
🏠 5. Furniture Placement
✖ DON’T feel the need to shove all furniture up against the walls or by windows.
✔ DO improve the flow of foot traffic around seating arrangement in the living room by keeping couches, chairs, and tables near the middle.
🏠 6. Seating Arrangement
✖ DON’T arrange your seating in your living area so that guests feel left out of a conversation – there’s nothing worse than awkwardly facing away from the group from poorly placed couches and chairs.
✔ DO arrange the furniture around a focal point like a warm fireplace or exciting television set facing each other so that everyone can enjoy a conversational setting.
🏠 7. Tables
✖ DON’T leave tables out of the picture – people are going to want to put down their glasses or plates at some point.
✔ DO take advantage of tables, whether it’s a central coffee table for people to put their food on or end tables next to the couches or chairs for added beverage leverage.
🏠 8. Furniture Sets
✖ DON’T keep furniture floating around without a set or pairing.
✔ DO match pieces of furniture together in different parts of the room.
🏠 9. Couches vs. Chairs
✖ DON’T feel the need to invest solely in couches.
✔ DO consider using chairs, especially in a smaller room.
🏠 10. Rugs
✖ DON’T get a rug that doesn’t fit your furniture arrangement.
✔ DO gather seating areas on a large enough rug to hold all chairs, tables, beds, couches, etc.
🏠 11. Colour Schemes
✖ DON’T overly match everything.
✔ DO combine different colour schemes and patterns to avoid monochromatic drab and excessive textile designs.
🏠 12. Ceilings
✖ DON’T leave high ceilings bare.
✔ DO use accessories like tall drapes to bring the ceiling down a bit and meet it halfway with tall, high-backed furniture.
🏠 13. Focal Point
✖ DON’T choose the colour scheme first and decorate around that.
✔ DO decorate around your room’s focal point or defining feature, notably your favourite or newest modern furniture.
🏠 14. Lighting
✖ DON’T skimp on lighting.
✔ DO set up a generous amount of light sources to give the room personality.
🏠 15. Decorations
✖ DON’T scatter knickknacks or decorations.
✔ DO group these items and consider changing them seasonally.
