Hi
My wife, two young kids (4 and 2) and I are going to be moving into a center hall colonial house that doesn't have separate family and formal living rooms - just one decent sized room (26'*15') for both with a small space (14'*10') off to the side. I've attached a floor plan of the space as a reference. Since I think the room will be used as a "family room" 80% of the time, I'd like to furnish it less formally. We're also moving from a small apartment so we're basically starting with a clean slate with respect to furniture. The room will have two large entry points - one at the top left which leads to the kitchen and one on the bottom left which leads to the hallway/front door.
I'd like a little help on furniture layout to see if I am thinking about things the right way or if I am missing anything.
My initial thought is to:
* Concentrate furniture in the center (vertically in the image) of the room so that nothing blocks the flow of the house
* Have a large comfy leather sofa against the wall facing the fireplace (which will have the TV mounted above)
* Have a matching love seat on the left side of the sofa (nearer to the kitchen)
* Have two matching armchairs on the right side of the sofa (nearer to the hallway/front door)
* Have a large coffee table in the middle of the U formed by the loveseat / sofa / armchairs
* Have two (slightly more formal) chairs and a coffee table in the smaller room off to the right
* Have some kind of storage unit (sideboard etc.) in the room - probably in the top right corner of the image
Some specific questions that I have
1. Is there a better layout that I'm not thinking about?
2. Is seating for 7 (sofa = 3; loveseat = 2; 2 armchairs = 2) appropriate for this size room? Too much? Too little? Should I be considering a different combination of seating e.g., sofa and 4 chairs? As mentioned, 80% of the time it will just be the 4 of us
3. Should all the leather furniture in the room match (i.e., be the same style/color)? Will it look weird to mix/match? (I assume the answer to this is yes?) We're looking at H&M sofa/chair options but not every sofa appears to have matching pieces.
4. Are there any suggestions for H&M style options that can do double duty in a family/living room? Should I be avoiding any particular styles because the room will need to function as a "living room" some small % of the time?
Thanks in advance for any advice / critiques!
Now THIS is how you ask for assistance! Well thought out and a schematic. We can work with this. Based solely on your comments and drawing, I made up some pieces on 1/4" graph paper that are reasonably to scale and moved them around to come up with three different possible layouts. What you want to be careful of is to not over-furniture the room. In only one layout is there room for a pair of chairs, try to make 2' of walkspace clear from one to another. Coffee tables are a little bit passe', so I have used a 38" Square cocktail ottoman in my layouts, which is perfect for a footrest for movies and Super Bowls, and also double as two seats during a party if pushed up by the fireplace.
You do not have to have everything matching, in fact I think its more visually interesting when things don't. Best way to approach this is as you are - get your scale down and number of pieces, then once you decide on the layout move to model selections. From there colors and textures - based on the room colors.
FYI on 1/4" Graph paper to your room, 1 square is 10" should you want to play around some more and make some cutouts of your own.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Thanks for the quick reply Duane! Much appreciated! I like Options 1 or 2 a little better than Option 3 (which is similar to what I was thinking except that you switched the chairs and loveseat and added a bench - which I like). Will discuss with the wife tonight and will revert via PM. Thanks again and happy new year!
Also, based on your markup, I think I've got to go with a more "normal" size sofa and not something oversized like the settlement sofa (which is probably going to dwarf the room). Would you agree with that? Thanks!
Yes, don't forget that the layout I did does not allow for end tables, lamps, etc....I would probably signets you stay in 90" or less on the sofa.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.