Selecting Furniture for the Living Room
The key furniture pieces that create a balanced living room are a pair of armchairs, a sofa (or a pair if you have the space), a coffee table, a console table, a few occasional chairs and a pair of side tables. Combine these pieces and they will provide function, comfort, structure and a timeless appeal to your interiors’ scheme and allow you to build your accessories and textiles around them. It is advisable to choose a handful of useful and attractive pieces to anchor the look that you are achieving, whether it is contemporary or traditional. However, if you overfill the space or choose pieces of furniture that have awkward shapes or are too large then, you run the risk of reducing the space you have and it will look and feel crammed.
This collection of furniture is an appropriate amount and will serve you well for the future but try and purchase pieces that are different and not ‘sets’, thereby creating a thoughtful, ‘collected look’. When considering pieces from a branded retailer, feel free to furnish the whole room, from one retailer but ensure that it is built up layer upon layer with well chosen pieces. The end result of armchairs and sofa(s) with side tables for additional lighting and drinks, surrounding a perfect coffee table should be luxuriously comfortable but relaxed and have interesting focal points in the form of cushions, throws, pictures and ornaments.
Even though, this area is largely for unwinding at the end of a day, ensure that it can be adapted by leaving sufficient space to move furniture around and add floor cushions. For variety, move round the ornaments on the shelves and side tables and textiles on the armchairs and sofa(s) so, there is change which stimulates variety and difference. It shows you that this area can be versatile for other uses, such as calm reading, having interesting telephone conversations, playing games, watching films and entertaining at the weekend with drinks before supper.
The most important aspect to the living room is the area that you relax in and it is essential that it is comfortable. Try to build “an island of comfort” that is separate from areas such as the dining area, window seats or draft from large windows or the children’s play area. The sofa(s) will probably be the largest, most expensive and most used piece of furniture that you will buy. This item does not have to be the same style or period, as the other pieces of furniture in the room. However, it is sensible to choose it first, so that you calculate the size of it and the colour, before you purchase the other pieces such as the upholstered armchair(s), the coffee table, side tables, lighting and rug(s). Normally, these areas are a corner or part of the room but if it is the centre then, try to create a room within the room so, it separates the other areas. Be inspired by BTCbyDESIGN’s: 'Designer Roomsets' section.
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