Arrange furniture like a pro
Make a room work without spending money on more pieces
Sometimes the way to improve a room isn’t to buy new furniture — it’s to rearrange pieces you already own.
Interior designers can spend hours creating the best furniture plan for a room, balancing practical considerations and creative risk-taking.
“Changing up the placement of your furniture can make a massive difference,” says designer Brian Patrick Flynn, founder of Flynnside Out Productions.
Adding, subtracting or relocating furniture, he says, affects “how natural light plays in the space and also how frequently the room gets used. By simply adding a bench to a wall, a room can become more of a hangout.”
How do professionals map out a furniture plan? Flynn and two other interior designers — Dan Faires, host of HGTV’s Dan Made, and Betsy Burnham of the Californiabased design firm Burnham Design — share advice:
ANALYZE YOUR SPACE
Begin by deciding how the room will be used, Burnham says. In a new home, knowing the answer can take time.
“It’s important to live in a space for a few weeks or months before assigning it a space plan so that you truly get a sense for how you’ll use it,” Flynn says.
“Then decide on your seating capacity and find a way to maximize it without sacrificing visual balance.”
Flynn likes to choose one “standout feature” and then arrange furniture in a way that highlights it.
MEASURE AND DRAW
Even if you’ve got a general plan, Faires suggests measuring the space and creating a scaled drawing with exact measurements of every piece you’re planning to include.
Don’t skimp on empty space. “I always allow a minimum of 18 inches between sofas and coffee tables,” Faires says, “and three to five feet for walk spaces.
In very large spaces, rugs can help define small areas.
“To keep everything balanced while visually separating each zone, use area rugs in co-ordinating colours with slightly different textures and
patterns,” Flynn says.
RULES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN
Some rules are important, Flynn says. For instance, “leave at least 36 inches of open space between the back of a dining chair and a nearby sideboard to allow for proper traffic flow.”
But plenty of other rules can be broken or modernized.
“For example, it’s not ideal to enter a living room and be staring at the back of a sofa,” Flynn says. “But if you flank the back of the sofa with a console table and lamps, it instantly becomes more inviting and less closed off.”
And remember: You’re not obligated to use everything you’ve got.
“Curate and edit down your existing pieces,” Faires says, “keeping the items that work well and selling the items that don’t.”