Building Your Living Room Layout Efficiently And Fast

If you are like me you are probably never happy with how your living room looks. You've probably looked at its layout and imagined a number of different ways it can be redone, and you don't want to keep repeating the same old tired layout with only new furniture pieces. So lets talk about a simple method to create a efficient layout for your living room.

Before we begin lets consider a few points, a living room is a transition space. What this means is that it is the gateway to the rest of your house. Other rooms, the bedrooms, dinning rooms, kitchen etc. are all accessed through this room. That is why you always want a sufficient amount of circulation space to exist, to allow family members to get through the house.

Here are some simple steps that you can follow to create an efficient layout for your future living room:

A) Take a plane white paper. A4 size is also an option.

B) Draw a sketch plan of your living room on this paper. While drawing this plan it is important to show the following things in it:

1) Entrance door

2) Entrance doors to other rooms

3) Window positions

4) Minor column projections (if any)

5) Swing of the doors (inside or outside the living room)

6) Presence of staircase

7) Fireplace (if any)

C) Take a pencil and draw lines starting from your front door to all of the other doors and window positions. These lines are the natural travel lines for any person using the living room. If the room were to be empty, without any furniture, these lines show how any person would get to all of the other points in the living room.

D) Now begin placing any type of furniture you can imagine or your budget will allow.

When placing these pieced you an easily see were the furniture will obstruct the pencil lines that have been drawn in step C. But this is ok for now. Try to make as many combinations as possible. Think out of the box, make it a goal to try something different.

If you can come up with at least 10 layouts for your living room you will have a good grasp on what can be done. Make sure to also try to keep in mind future pieces that may replace existing furniture.

Your goal here obviously is to keep you movement lines as unobstructed as possible. We are trying to keep it as efficient as possible for anybody traveling through this room.
After this exercise you will most likely have 5 solid layouts on paper. Select one that meets these points of interest:

1) Travel line lengths are shortest.

2) Travel lines do not pass trough the furniture.

Aside from efficiency there is also another factor called visual balance while designing a furniture layout. When you are finished ask yourself if it looks good to YOU. Does this layout look comfortable to you.

By following this simple method from beginning to end you can be sure to end up with a beautiful living room in the shortest time possible.