Filed under: Your Home, Living Room, Projects, Design, etc, Experts
Don't know how to start decorating an empty room? From buying furniture to arranging it, here's what you need to know to get started.
Let's say that you're staring at an empty living room or family room, and you're ready to buy furniture. You're probably wondering where to begin. Choosing furniture can be an overwhelming experience: What types of seating will fit the room best, and how do you balance that with how often you entertain? What style fits your home? Should you go with two sofas or two sofas and a chair?
For answers, I spoke with Austin, Texas interior design guru Robin Callan of Room Fu "Knockout Interiors" (isn't that a great name?).
She says that most people's tastes can be placed in one of two categories: urban sophisticate or casual eclectic. So, before we begin, figure out which category you fall into:
If you're casual and eclectic, you tend to like...
1. Bold or high-contrast colors and patterns
2. Asymmetrical arrangements
3. Mixing wood tones and colors
4. Dramatic, diagonal arrangements
If you're urban and sophisticated, you tend to like...
1. Everything lined up on the square
2. Matching lamps and/or side tables
3. Low contrast, neutral colors
4. Fewer prints and patterns
5. Symmetrical arrangements
Have you chosen? Good, that's a great start. Now you should have a better idea of your basic style, along with how you'd prefer that the pieces will be laid out in the room.
If you find this room more appealing, then maybe you're urban and sophisticated. Photo: Room Fu
Ready to go shopping? Not so fast. Here are a few of Robin's rules when it comes to buying and arranging furniture:
1. Measure, measure, measure. Before you even step into a furniture showroom, you must measure your room. It's impossible to understand the real proportion of any piece of furniture when it is in a wide open store with 20-foot ceilings. Often times, people will choose a living room set and have it delivered only to find that it is way too large for their room. "It's always best to map everything out before hand," says Robin. "If you do this first, you can also be more efficient while shopping, instantly rejecting items that are too big or too small."
2. Know your level of entertaining. Are you often the host? Or, do you never use your living room? Figure out how often you'll use the room since that will help you figure out how to arrange the furniture. See the following tip.
3. If you plan to entertain in the space, decide if it's going to be a formal room or a casual one. If casual, you may want to position your seats for entertaining. In other words, position seats so guests can easily access them. "Immediate access to a seat cushion says, 'Come sit here,'" says Robin, "whereas seat backs and arrangements that force you to walk all the way around a room say, 'Wait for your host to invite you in.'"
If your seating area isn't incorporated into the natural flow of the house, it will take a huge commitment on your guests' part to leave the safety of "Small Talk Land" (read: kitchen) and move into the seating area. Consequently, they end up standing around waiting for your cue to get comfortable. If, however, your seating area is easily accessible to the entry, it will feel more natural for guests to waltz in and sit down.
4. Know the comfort level of your guests. Be realistic about guests' habits. Sofas may be able to accommodate three people, but have you noticed that most average-sized couches end up only having two people on them? If given the opportunity to sit elsewhere, the third person will do so. Therefore, a sofa and two chairs is a more versatile seating arrangement, especially if you often socialize with couples.
5. Create conversational areas. Place your seating in a way that makes for great and easy conversation. You don't want to be rearranging furniture while your guests are present. Robin recommends avoiding making the TV or fireplace the center of attention. Instead, create an L or U shape with your furnishings. If you place chairs opposite a sofa, then you allow those seated in the room to see and speak to each other easily. Many designers will orient seating toward the fireplace, but I prefer to encourage conversation by facing seating toward each other.
This conversation-friendly seating arrangement is easily accessible from all points of entry to the room. Photo by Chris Sackett/Twist Tours, courtesy of Room Fu
6. Should you match? Well, according to Robin, "If you use a pair of chairs or sofas and they're positioned next to each other, there's less visual clutter if they're identical. If your chairs are on opposite sides of the room, feel free to mix them up. Ideally, chairs would never be an exact match to the sofa."
More tips from Robin:
- Furniture with rounded arms takes up more real estate than square arms, so if you're in a smaller space, be sure to look for smaller, squared arms.
- Armed seating and higher seatbacks are more conducive to comfortable TV-watching.
- Consider lighting. Robin says, "Overhead lighting in a seating area is only good for two things: highlighting art or architectural features, and looking for lost contacts. To create less glaring and more natural ambient light in your seating area, distribute table and floor lamps throughout the space, preferably through all four points of the compass."
- Buy occasional tables. Every seat needs access to a table to set a drink on, and (in an ideal world), the coffee table doesn't count toward this quota.
- You need rugs. Yes, they're generally necessary, even if you have carpet. Why? Robin explains that because most living areas these days are part of an open concept or open floorplan, they aren't partitioned off by walls. Rugs can be used to define specific rooms or seating areas.
More living room ideas: try decorating with yellow or hide that unsightly TV!