You can learn how to arrange the furniture in any room to make it look bigger. The placement of furniture is key to making a room look larger.
If you live in a small home or have a few small rooms in your home, then use the interior designer inside tips for arranging your furniture to make any room look larger.
Interior Designer Tips for Arranging Furniture #1: Place the Large Furniture First
Tip: Placing furniture flat against the wall does not make a room look larger in all cases. Try some of these ideas by pulling the larger pieces of furniture away from the wall.
Sorry, but I had to start with that tip first. Now, on to the placement. Start with your couch, bed, or whichever piece of furniture eyes largest.
To minimize the look of any large piece you can always place it in front of the wall you see first in the room. In the case of a living room though, you have a few options.
Try placing the couch so that it creates a great negative space or path on the floor. Visually look when you walk in a room. Where do you feel a natural tendency to walk? Straight to a window? Through the room to a hall?
Place your furniture so you have easy access walking through the natural paths needed for the room.
Interior Designer Tips for Arranging Furniture #2: Fill in With Smaller Pieces
Once you have the main large pieces in place creating the and following the natural pathway, then start to fill in with the smaller pieces. The rug is included in the smaller pieces.
In fact, I prefer to place the rug immediately after placing the couch and main chairs. If your rug is to be used in front of the couch area, then make sure it defines and holds this area together. Line the edge of the rug up with the front of the couch and slide it under a little to hold the two pieces together and ground it.
Now, fill in with the end tables. Place them as they are needed around the chairs and couch. Finally, add the smaller items like lamps.
Interior Designer Tips for Arranging Furniture #3: Addressing Negative Space and Accessories
Finally, you have had a guide to which order to get your furniture into a room, but there are a few other factors to consider when arranging yoru furniture. Most important is negative space in a room.
Negative space can be found on the floor as well as the walls. Negative space is open area that exposes the floor or wall. Negative space is somewhere for your eyes to rest. It is important to have negative space so a room does not feel crowded.
When placing framed art on the wall it is a great idea to place it in conjunction with a piece of furniture. For example, if you have a chair and side table near a wall. Hang the art so that it is part of the grouping. This means, think of a triangle. The chair and table are the bottom points. The art will be the top. Hang it low enough so it is tied to the furniture, but high enough to be visually pleasing. In general, this is about 14 to 18 inches above the furniture.
