FIRE
If your room is a blank canvas and you can choose where to put a fireplace, establish which will be your focal wall. If your room is square, place the fireplace centrally on the wall. If you have a long thin room divided into a seating area and a dining area, place the fire centrally in one half of the room.
SOFA
If your living room has a fireplace, it’s natural to group the seating around it. In many modern homes, the fire as a focal point of the room has now been replaced by a TV, and sofas and chairs are usually gathered around it in the same way. Whichever is the case in your home, a single sofa is best placed opposite the focal wall in a central position. A pair of sofas look best adjacent to the focal wall at either side of the fireplace or TV, or at right angles to each other (in a square room, one sofa could sit opposite the focal wall and the other opposite the window). Ensure that the sofas are the correct proportions for the room and that there is enough space between them to maneuver around easily
COFFEE TABLE
Adding a coffee table to a living room does more than just create a surface to put things on: it makes a second focal point or zone for sociable relaxation. The best place for a coffee table is centrally in front of the most used seat in the room, whether a sofa or a pair of armchairs and within reach of any other seats. Don’t be tempted to squeeze in a large table that won’t let you move around comfortably.
TV/MEDIA UNIT
If there’s no fireplace in your living space, it’s likely that your TV will form the focal point of the room. If the room is small and there’s little space for a large TV, a wall-hung model is a good, if not particularly attractive, option. Before you choose which wall to put it on, decide how to group your seating. Then choose a spot where everyone can see the screen when seated. Don’t hang it too high, since you’ll be sitting or lying down to watch the TV. If you have enough space, or you have a fireplace in the room, the TV will fit better in a corner.
ARMCHAIR
Two sofas are preferable to a sofa and an armchair since they are more comfortable, but if you only have space for a sofa and an extra armchair or two, the trick is to position them correctly. Create a comfortable arrangement around your focal point so that when people are seated everyone else is visible. In a long, thin room, an armchair can also be positioned separately from this central grouping to create a reading zone in a corner or at the end of the room.
