After-Plus: Sometimes the Best Improvement to Your Home is the Easiest: Room Arrangement.
These proud After photos shows an older home with freshly painted walls, floors refinished and gleaming, woodwork stripped of old paint and varnish, a large mirror above the mantelpiece and personal treasures and artwork on display. This After photo shows a room that is amazingly light and airy for an older house. The owners are rightfully proud of their work. But….some simple tweaks to the room arrangement makes a huge improvement.
After-Plus Challenges
These After photos shows a room with several doorways and openings. There is no solid wall to anchor a sofa. The sofa is placed under the window, but the several plants in the window suggests there is a unattractive view or privacy issue here.
Looking though the doorway in the back, there is a leather sofa suggesting this room is the family/TV room. The glass doors reveal the table and chairs of a dining room. With all the doorways and other gathering spaces this room may end-up being a pass-through space that is rarely used.
This room may be intended for quieter activities such as reading or intimate conversation, but the current layout works against that. Let’s use room arrangement to create some intimate spaces within this larger room.
This room is lucky to have a fireplace. Even though it’s not a working fireplace it is the the focus of the room and gives it soul. Fireplaces are natural gathering places. Take advantage of them.
After-Plus Solutions
There is a gap of about ten feet between the sofa and the fireplace. Too big for an intimate arrangement. The solution, as you have already guessed, is room arrangement: move the sofa closer to the fireplace. This will create a cozy sitting area for reading and quiet conversation. To complete the arrangement and anchor the sofa, add a console table behind the sofa. This will also provide additional display space for plants and personal treasures. Lighting is very important – a trick is to run the electrical cord from the outlet below photo to the right of the fireplace, along the baseboard and under the area rug. Now this would not work in a high traffic area, but I think it will work here.
Furniture does Not Need to be Placed Against a Wall.
“Floating” a sofa in the middle of the room can successfully create a cozier room if anchored with the right-sized area rug and a console table or short bookcase.
An optional touch for this room would be to place a small round table in front of the window with a chair or two for crafts or a romantic dinner a deux.
Your Own After-Plus
If you are challenged by a room that is not working for you contact me today for a collaborative consultation. Sometimes a fresh set of experienced eyes will see the solution that has been eluding you. You deserve to love and enjoy your home.
See More Furniture Arrangement Ideas:
“Furniture Arrangement for Conversation is the Secret to Happiness”
“How to Avoid Furniture Sprawl”