One of the hardest parts about designing a space is deciding on the perfect furniture arrangement. This can be a pretty daunting task [more for the person who has to move everything while the other one points ;)] So we wanted to share with you guys our foolproof way to pre-arrange furniture without breaking a sweat.

First, draw out your floor plan to scale. Then draw every piece of furniture for the space to scale, label them and cut them out. We made everything the color of the actual pieces to help differentiate and really help us visualize the spaces.

Then comes the fun part! Playing with all the different furniture arrangements until you settle on the one you love.

Here is the breakdown of all of the combinations I came up with, and why they did or didn’t work. It’s important to consider the conversation areas of spaces [shown in yellow] as well as the traffic patterns [shown in red]. They can really make or break a room.

Option 1: the same layout I’ve had for the past 2 years

This layout is okay, but because the living room of the new apartment is much larger the TV seemed annoyingly far away. Also, the person sitting in the wing chair couldn’t see the TV or reach the coffee table which would make them feel secluded from the conversation area. plus I’ve grown pretty tired of this arrangement and I wanted a whole new look!

Option 2: The reverse of option 1

This layout was no bueno. The pathway to the patio from the living room was completely interrupted, and the wing chair didn’t have access to the coffee table again and couldn’t see the TV. It seemed kind of secluded from the rest of the conversation area in the living room, which is nice if you want to read a book or something, but if there were a lot of people over it would seem awkward. In the bedroom, the bench at the foot of my bed hardly left me any room to open my dresser drawers.

Option 3: the galley arrangement

This layout seemed like the best layout out of the three. It offers optimum seating, a small conversation radius, and all seats could view the TV. Also there are several ways to access the patio and seating area. Placing the bench behind the sofa would also aide in covering up the ugliness of the back of a sofa.

Option 4: the winner!!!

This ended up being an extremely open floor plan allowing easy access to the seating area and patio without having to squirm around furniture. I have room to add seating if necessary, while still keeping the openness I wanted. I originally intended on going with option 3, but once I got my furniture into the space I realized that I wanted to have the sofa up against the window wall so that I could still see into the kitchen as well as the front door. However, the space I thought I had room for my desk, only left me 54″ to work with so that was a no go. Now if only I could find a desk small enough to fit between the sofa and the wall. Challenge accepted! [Barney Stinson voice]

Although I still had to play with ideas once I got my furniture into the space, I had still eliminated a lot of moving and rearranging by mapping everything out in advance. I hope this helps you with your furniture arranging dilemmas!

Until next time!

cfs