How To Arrange A Living Room With A Fireplace

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HOW TO ARRANGE A LIVING ROOM WITH A FIREPLACE NO MATTER WHAT SIZE OR SHAPE YOUR SPACE IS.

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When it comes to furniture arranging, I find living rooms to be the most difficult. Because it’s a room everyone spends time in, it has to be functional (often multifunctional) as well as extremely comfortable.

Additionally, it’s usually the first room people see when they come to your house so it also has to look good.

SMALL LIVING ROOM

While it is harder to fit lots of comfortable seating in a small living room, the lack of space does lend to an instantly cozy feel. In our small living room, I’ve learned to always buy sofas in the smallest width available.

This way you still have enough space for traffic flow around the room (as well as space to vacuum). You also need to pay attention to the size of your accent chairs. Overstuffed chairs are comfortable – but they take up valuable space.

Having a lot of end tables or small furniture pieces in a small living room is difficult and can make it look cluttered. I try to only use them where necessary. Small folding tray tables are useful, as they can be put away when you need more space.

You can also consider a large coffee table. One larger piece in a small space can actually help the room look larger and less cluttered than several small pieces of furniture scattered.

A large ottoman-style coffee table can also double as extra seating.

LARGE LIVING ROOM

With a large living room, you’ll have more furniture layout options. There’s plenty of room for a sectional or multiple sofas.

In any size living room, if there is a lack of wall space, using the back of the sofa is a great way to section the conversation area off on its own. A large area rug will also help define the space.

Of course, the front of the fireplace is the focal point of the room so you always want that to take center stage. From there, you can lay out your furniture arrangement according to the shape of the room.

For the square, symmetrical living room above, furniture that echos that looks very pleasing to the eye.

AWKWARD LIVING ROOM LAYOUT

There is one general rule in decorating that will help you figure out a layout in any room, even the most awkward-shaped ones.

Imagine the room is divided into four quadrants. You basically want all four of them to have equal visual weight. For example, you wouldn’t want a large entertainment center on one wall with a small, delicate piece of furniture across from it.

Here is a good example of an awkward L-shaped living room arrangement.

Or maybe you have a living room where you can’t have the furniture up against the walls due to doorways and windows.

Here’s a good example of how to handle that. If you need all your furniture pulled away from the walls it’s the same concept just pulled into the middle of the room.

LONG NARROW LIVING ROOM

Some people may think long, narrow living rooms are hard to arrange. I actually think a perfectly square room is harder.

Regardless of which you’re working with, or what your budget is, there are only so many living room furniture options for any living room. Sofa, loveseat, sectional, and side chairs.

Inevitably, you will have to mix and match those four options.

It becomes a simple method when you think of it that way!

The way of doing that is figuring out which combination looks and works best in your space. You can use an online tool such as floorplanner.com or make it super simple and draw it out on graph paper.

It’s always best to get some sort of to-scale visual before you buy furniture. Floorplanner is what I use online. It’s easy and it’s free. Sometimes I’ll use the graph paper method for elevations and wall layouts more so than furniture layouts.

That said, I do love two matching sofas for comfort. I also like symmetry so that combination looks visually pleasing to me.

However, I also like a sofa and two chairs for versatility. It’s easier to move those around when you want a change.

where to put the tv when you have a fireplace

When it comes to how to arrange a living room with a fireplace, the TV always becomes an issue. The frame TV is a popular solution and an option I like. These TVs look much prettier than standard TVs.

Using the frame TV hung above the fireplace gives you the option of displaying art on the TV when it’s not on. Much prettier than a big black square! However, I believe many other TVs now offer art images to display on the screen.

The problem with hanging the TV above the fireplace is often the TV is much higher up than is generally comfortable to watch.

Depending on the shape of your room, a second option is to place the TV on the opposite wall of the fireplace. With seating facing in on the two perpendicular walls. This way, you can easily view either side.

This is what we did in our living room because I didn’t want the TV over the mantel. The drawing above is exactly how my living room is laid out.

This is a great option if you don’t want the television to compete with the fireplace wall.

One last option would be placing a tv stand in one corner off to the side of the fireplace. However, that is not the most visually appealing way to go.

CORNER FIREPLACE

What if you have a corner fireplace? Those can be tricky to work with!

Here is a room that is done really well with a corner fireplace. They kept the fireplace center stage and created the seating area around it. The small media console is pretty and doesn’t compete with the large wood fireplace mantel, which immediately draws your eye in.

Even though it’s a big room, it looks like a cozy space to enjoy a crackling fire!

how to arrange a living room with a fireplace

To reiterate, here is a list of bullet points to consider when deciding how to arrange a living room with a fireplace.

• Which combination will fit best: sofa, side chairs, loveseat, or sectional
• Use that combination to create a conversation area that centers around the fireplace
• Consider a frame TV above the fireplace or a TV on the opposite wall
• Define the seating area in a large living room with an area rug
• Use fewer side tables in a small living room
• Use an online floor planner to get a visual before buying furniture

Happy decorating!

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