Since I was old enough to push a bed, I have been arranging and rearranging rooms in my offices, dorms, studios, condos, whatever...if given the freedom I will configure a room or closet as many ways as possible until I am satisfied. I'll never forget the night in our first apartment when he came home very late and woke me up exclaiming, "Where's the bed??!!!"
Though my husband thinks I have a compulsive furniture arranging disorder, and would never in a million years bother and/or care to move anything (unless it is the TV) in his lifetime, he admits than when I move things it is always an improvement.
I am convinced that there is one optimal layout of furniture for every space given your needs and the existing structure of the room. This tiny living room in our condo needed just the right layout in order to feel cozy and open, yet meet our needs to house our office supplies, files and computer and still look good.
This layout was the third of three layouts I had in a two year period in this room. But this one was the best.
Here are some tips for rearranging your furniture:
1) Measure!! Make sure you measure your room and your big furniture items before you think something will fit someplace. Things don't look as big as they really are. Before you move something, measure it.
2) Make a rough sketch. This takes the pressure off of starting a big project. We're talking lines and rectangles. They also have these websites like Room planner, but I think those are more work than they are worth. Plus make the drawing when you are in the room so you can see it. Sometimes I use two tape measure and lay them out on the floor to see how much space something will take up before I move it.
3) Identify limitations. If there is no outlet in a certain location, you can't put something that plugs in there. Our house was built in the fifties and apparently in the fifties people sat in the dark a lot, because we have very few plugs in the bedrooms. So, as much as I may want to put a floor lamp in that corner, it isn't going to happen.
4) Consider functionality. Room arranging isn't just about looks, it also has to make sense for you or your family. In an office, you want to keep all the supplies handy near the desk. You wouldn't put the supplies across the room. In a living room, you want the furniture arranged so you can sit and talk. Identify what you need from the room, and that can help you figure out where to put things.
5) Show off focal points. Fireplaces and windows are focal points. TV's are not. In real life, people have TV's, unlike most magazine ads. In my above photo the TV is not the the focal point, when you walk in, the window and the art are. We had the Verizon Guy move the TV cable outlet to make this work when he came to install it, and he didn't charge us any extra.
6) Flow. Generally I begin with where you enter the room- I try not to put big chunky items right at the entry point of a room- it makes it feel smaller.
7) Balance- if you have something tall on one side, you have to have something of a similar height on the other, to keep things looking balanced. Don't put all your stuff on one side of the room, and nothing on the other. You can achieve this with art, or wall shelving, it doesn't have to be two large pieces of furniture.
8) Trial and error. No matter how lovely your drawing looks, sometimes you don't really know until you see it. So give yourself some time when you do decide to move things, as you could end up with a solution you didn't expect. And you can always put things back where they were if you don't like it!
So how is all a metaphor for life? Here's the thing: In life, we have to work with what we've been given. So many times, we fail to see the possibilities because we get stuck a in rut. But when we make one change, even small, it opens up a world of possibilities we didn't know existed. When you move furniture, you open up a while other way of looking at your space, and guess what? It doesn't cost a thing.
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