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Five Easy Steps for Arranging
your Living Room Furniture
by Pamela Cole Harris
If you are hopelessly lost when thinking beyond shoving your furniture
against a wall, or if you've recently bought a six-foot sofa for an
eight-foot room, you need help! Here are some easy tips for arranging
your living room furniture in ways that make the most of your space:
1. Measure your room. Draw it to scale on graph paper which you can find
at your local discount store. Use a ¼ in. equal 1 ft. scale. If you
can't figure out how to draw out scale, ask your know-it-all teenage
son!
2. Mark anything on your room drawing that will affect the arrangement
of the room. Outlets, telephone, cable, light switches, windows, doors
that open in, the space between windows, and the height of the window
sills are all things that should be measured and noted.
3. This is the fun part! Make scale paper cutouts of your furniture
(just like cutting out paper dolls!) Use the cutouts to arrange and
rearrange the furniture in your room until you are satisfied with the
result.
4. Select a focal point of the room. If you have a fireplace, it will
nearly always be the focal point. If you have large bookcases, you might
make those your focal point or you may choose a sofa with a special
painting hung above it. Orient the remaining furniture and the lighting
to highlight the focal point.
5. Think about your guests when you arrange the room. The room should
promote conversation. Set up cozy areas with a couple of chairs or a
loveseat. Ideally, there should be 4-10 ft. between your sofa or
loveseat and chairs so that the space doesn't seem cramped. If you move
the pieces too far apart, conversation will be difficult.
Other points to remember: leave 14 to 18 inches between the coffee table
and the sofa for comfortable leg room (Err on the side of more space!).
And make sure you have the traffic lane at least 3 ft. wide to move from
one area of the room to another.
Arranging your room on paper allows you to experiment with new looks,
new combinations, and new ideas before you move the furniture itself.
Not only when you come up with the perfect arrangement for your room,
but you'll also save a visit to the chiropractor for your husband or
furniture-moving friends!
About the author
Pamela Cole Harris is a writer, eco-decorator and author of "100+ Wildly
Imaginative Ways to Make Your Own Coffee Table - a Handbook for
Creatively Deficient Decorators." Visit her website,
www.homeandgardenmakeover.com for her unique decorating and
remodeling style (and a free newsletter!) Or for unique content for your
website, written especially for your keywords and audience, visit
www.pamelacoleharris.com.
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