I found these words years ago in a furniture ad. Little did I know then that I’d be using them on my own website all these years later (at least 8-10 years ago in Utah!). They still give me pause.
What Do Visitors See?
What do your visitors see when they visit your home? Do they find things throughout your rooms that reflect your personality, your individuality, your passions? Have your interests or style changed in the last few years? How can you take the same old things that you own and make them more reflective of your style as it is today, not when you bought the furnishings?
Currently I’m faced with this exact dilemma. I have the same furniture I’ve had for the last 12 years though this is the 5th house we’ve been in. Frankly I’m a little bored with the look and the furniture. But, it’s what we have for now. Not even a new lamp. So how do I mix things up to infuse some new life into these old furnishings and show that my style is evolving?
Rearrange Furniture
By far the easiest thing to do when there’s no budget for new is to rearrange the old. Cindy wrote a series last year with some great tips on arranging furniture and since she’s the master of redesign – using what you already have – I decided to test her suggestions.
I have a fairly standard great room arrangement with the family room (no formal living room), dining (no breakfast room) and kitchen all one big rectangular space. I originally squared everything up to the fireplace as the focal point.
Floor plan by Cindy.
Her suggestion is to try placing furnishings on the angle – it opens up the room, often making it feel larger. It creates a more vibrant, interesting viewpoint into the room. It pulls furniture away from the walls. I’ve always had my furnishings squared up but I’m ready for a change.
My current family room
Though this might not be the best angle, you can see that my sofa is squarely across from the fireplace, I have 2 club chairs side by side at right angles to the sofa and lined up with the area rug. I have a recliner (the caramel chair on the left) at a slight angle toward the TV with a narrow walkway into the room between the recliner and bookcases. On the 2 chair side you have to kind of squeeze between the end table and chair – definitely a tight fit so not a convenient access point into the room. It looks nice but doesn’t function really well.
Trying it on an angle.
I chose to leave the area rug straight and just move the furniture. I angled the sofa and pushed the recliner down closer to the fireplace. As you can see it really opened up the room and created a much better access point from the right. However, the recliner is now so close to the bookcases, hubby can’t fully recline and now it’s difficult to enter the room from that side.
Better traffic pattern.
Just by switching around two chairs I improved the traffic pattern immensely. You can see I have more room between the bookshelves and purple chair and you can easily pass between the recliner and end table. The room is still balanced by the purple chairs flanking the fireplace.
Here I’m standing square to the fireplace so you can see how the angles make for a strong conversational grouping yet TV viewing isn’t ignored. A win-win arrangement.
The room from a different viewpoint.
This is the view of the room as you view it from the entry hall. The angled sofa makes a more interesting viewpoint and doesn’t close the room off so much.
Try a New Arrangement
I encourage you to spend a rainy/snowy afternoon rearranging your furniture. Try it on an angle. Try using pieces from other rooms in the house. And I’ve discovered over the years that planning it or visualizing it doesn’t have the same accuracy as actually doing it. And the bonus? It forces you to dust and clean under the furniture pieces as you move them!
Let us know how your rearranging goes. As always, we love hearing successes and dilemmas from our readers.
And, a quick reminder. If you haven’t voted for us yet on Apartment Therapy’s “Best Homies” home decorating blog contest, we’d sure appreciate your vote (tomorrow is the last day). Just click through on this link, scroll to the very bottom of the page and add your comment in this format:
Name: Your Decorating Hotline
URL: http://yourdecoratinghotline.com
Thanks for the vote of confidence!
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I wanted to say thanks for posting all the photos of your rearranging. It was really helpful to see how each change made a difference. I’m going to try a version of your (Cindy’s) angled-to-the-fireplace layout for my new L-shaped LRDR tonight. It’s a tough one because of the awkward layout – I keep changing it and so far it has not gelled! We’ll see how it goes. Thanks for the tips (and also for the L-shaped room arrangement floorplans in August’s posts).
Hi! I live in a 99 yr old home and have struggled with how to arrange the main room of the house. I would love to maximize seating for vewing the tv and to entertain guests. The room is open to the entryway, the kitchen and there is a small den to the south (open to it also through an arched wall). It has a doorway to the porch on the west, a doorway up the steps, and a doorway to the bedroom! I just can’t seem to get it right because after all of the traffic patterns are considered there isn’t much space to work with! The ceilings are 9 ft and there is a large window/ with window seat that is oddly placed on the north wall.
At one time we had a sectional in the space but I felt like it closed the room off too much from the den to the south. I would love to be able to incorporate a small table and chairs for extra seating for snacking, game playing etc. Also I do not really have a “style” but the family likes comfy and there is some nice old woodwork in the room. Love your website and am voting for it!!!!
Lisa –
Thanks so much for reading YDH and we’re glad you’re enjoying it. It’s tough to make any specific suggestions about furniture placement from your comment – room size would be very helpful and while I understand there are LOTS of openings in the room, I don’t have a clear idea where they are.
Generally, it sounds like a good idea to do without the sectional – in a busy space like that it does tend to take up too much dedicated space. I would suggest keeping to smaller scale, mobile pieces that can serve double duty and be easily moved to accommodate an activity. For example a coffee table with ottomans tucked under for extra seating for eating or playing.
If you want more specific info, drop me an email and include some dimensions or photos to help me “see” the space.
Thanks for the vote!