Furniture for asymmetric living room

Greetings! Reading all your thoughts here has been tremendously helpful in the past, and I am back seeking your guidance with a new space to furnish.

Our living room (see attached) serves as a pass-through from the foyer (top) to the dining room (bottom right). There is a fireplace on the right wall. What seating pieces and arrangements would you use in this asymmetric space? It is suited to be a formal living room, but we would like to use it as a dressy/tailored/traditional second living room.

We already have the relatively low back leather H&M Sanctuary Sofa in the den, which has an open floor plan (not pictured). In contrast, we’re leaning toward a (Taylor King?) fabric sofa for the living room but haven’t chosen a location, size, or fabric.

Attachment 7405

Easy! Your room is going to determine that one because there are not many options. A loveseat or small-scale sofa on the 10' + wall, then two chairs flanking the fireplace. That's about the most you can do in that room, I think.

Thank you, Duane! That was one of my thoughts, but now I am more confident that I am not overlooking a better arrangement. And this has me on a roll, excited to keep moving forward, one decision/ idea at a time....

For the sofa, do you think we could go wider than 78"-83" or so, or should we limit ourselves to around that size?

There are 4 Taylor King models that I have identified as possibilities. The Taylor Made Standard, Hedley, Drayton, and Holmes models. I am thinking that the Hedley and Holmes are going to be too long at 88.5 and 92 inches, respectively. That leaves a choice of lengths on the Taylor Made Standard or the Drayton at 77.5", possibly. Have not looked into any promotional pieces yet but hope not to overlook those.

I am thinking once we select a sofa, we can use its height, etc. to select a particular pair of compatible chairs.

For a pair of chairs at the fireplace, I like high- backed winged chairs such as these:

1. Mac Arthur

http://www.taylorking.com/product.asp?PID=5429&CID=5

2. Degaulle
http://www.taylorking.com/product.asp?PID=5439&CID=5

3.Hornhill
http://www.taylorking.com/product.asp?PID=5440&CID=5

4. Edison
http://www.hancockandmoore.com/produ...productid=1974

5. George III wing chair
http://www.hancockandmoore.com/produ...productid=1010

6. baron wing chair
http://www.hancockandmoore.com/produ...productid=2469

We are aiming to choose sizes and pieces pretty soon then get going on upholstery selections so that we are ready to jump the next time a promotion of any sort rolls around! :)

A good tool you can use that doesn't take much time to do is to get some ordinary graph paper and lay out your room in it - to scale. Then, another sheet of graph paper and make sofas, loveseats, chairs, tables, etc in various sizes using the dimensions off the web site of the pieces. Now you can lay them out to scale in a room prior to ordering. I actually like the old-fashioned graph paper better than the digital ones you can get on the web, its faster to use and you can play around with it more. Maintaining space is the key, don't overfill the room with furniture that is too large, or too many pieces. Preserve walkways and views.

I'd like to give you an alternative, just for the sake of exploring the possibilities.

Consider a small sectional that wraps the 10' and 7' wall. with a large coffee table or ottoman in front, and two small standing lamps at either end. Then two chairs on either side of the fireplace. You could have wing chairs, but you have to be very careful of the scale-- if the ceilings are 8' high, a very tall wing chair can make it look even lower. I know our Colonial ancestors lived like that, but they would have had the wing chairs facing the fireplace, with the wings "collecting" heat so they wouldn't freeze to death!

With a small sectional, traffic will be directed around the main seating area and out to the next room. You will need fewer pieces of furniture, but still have a lot of seating for guests. The pieces of the sectional can also be rearranged if you move. It can be a more cohesive look than a love seat, two small matching chairs, two matching end tables, and two matching lamps. Plus the two matching wing chairs at the fireplace! All that matchy-matchy can end up looking like a hotel lobby.

You can get the effect of formality with smaller scale wing chairs, Georgian "library chairs," or French chairs. Doing that also gives some room for very small cocktail tables next to the fireplace chairs, so people can put down a drink, book, or handbag. If the chair is sitting by itself with no table at all, it's very awkward for guests, who either have to hang on to their drinks, or reach across the room to a coffee table.

Then again, the "formal" look comes from your fabrics and accessories, as much as the style of the furniture. If you use velvets and silks, for example, you get an effect of richness. Just don't use polyester fakes-- the eye and sense of touch will not be easily fooled. If you can't afford the real thing, use simple cottons on the main pieces, and a couple of rich looking pillows. Keep the window treatments very simple-- simple pinch pleat draperies will look fine.

A master of this type of sophisticated formality is Vicente Wolf, who did a wonderful apartment with a velvet sectional on an amazing rug, with interesting modern art. The whole slide show is well worth your time:

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/d...deshow_item3_4