How much furniture is in your sitting room?

[user1477282676]

The reason I'm asking is because we've just moved house...we've left a small house and moved into a large one. The new house has two sitting rooms in addition to a large kitchen and a dining room.

I've realised that the two sitting rooms look empty even though they're quite small rooms.

One has a large sofa in it, a big, heavy bookshelf...tall one. It also has a desk and chair.

The other sitting room has a small sofa, a coffee table, a middle sized bookshelf....and that's all!

I don't go for a lot of ornaments but feel that perhaps this is why the rooms look sort of empty? What am I missing?

They both have open fireplaces and I'm planning to get nice rugs for both rooms...I also have some nice paintings to hang...will it look better then?

Totally agree on the two sitting rooms. 😃

You just need your eye to get used to it, plus also you will find they fill up as time goes on, you might need a coffee table in the one without.

Ours - large one , two three seater sofas, side board, coffee table, two side tables, two foot stools. Tv unit, tv, speaker stand, large speaker.
Smaller one - two two seater sofas, a recliner and a coffee table, three side tables, large ornate chest used to store gaming stuff, tv unit, tv and PlayStation, X box etc,

Both have rugs, and other assorted bits of stuff, like tall plants in corners etc and both have fire places, both are fairly large rooms to be fair.

I have the opposite problem, we live in a beautiful house thanks to my LL's generosity with low rents and will have to downsize when we move. No idea how to squeeze our furniture into somewhere smaller but for now;

Four full height bookshelves
A sofa
Two armchairs
Two toyboxes
Two half height bookcases (for DVDs and CDs)
Tv unit & tv
Lovely rug in the middle so the floor doesn't look too bare!

Ours is long. Dining table and lamp at the back end, PC on desk and bookcase in the middle, and then two two-seater sofas, coffee table, sideboard (with tv on) and a computer chair for the PS4 at the front end

3 seater sofa
Chair
Coffee table
2 'lamp tables' small cupboards bought to put speakers on.
Nest of tables
Buffet unit with tv and stereo
Floor standing speakers
Two cd racks

Our sitting room has 3 piece suite (3 seater sofa, and 2 armchairs), a nest of 3 tables, pouffe, (2 large bookcases, drinks cabinet, tv unit and small unit holding CDs). Those in brackets are going to be replaced by a built in unit this spring.

In our kitchen/diner/living room, in the living room part, we have 2 single chairs, a dresser, small desk for DD's homework, chair on wheels, small side table, set of steps (which also gets used as a side table), tall side table with a plant, the tv is wall mounted.

I have four although one is my home office. It is entirely up to you what you want and what style you like. I like a lot of space. One of ours has a very large round table which fills most of it and two units with drawers either side of the fire place but nothing much else except pictures. Another has a 2 sided sofa and the TV (used really just by one of the teenagers - lucky him). The fourth is biggest and is a cinema come music room with grand piano (two of the boys have a music scholarship at school so it is genuinely a music room and I play the piano and sing every day too)m, projector, screen, two large sofas, 2 chairs. I took out the coffee table which is upstairs in a cupboard as it took up too much space and I like a lot of space on the floor. There are two side tables in there too.

Oh yes the TV room has a unit (200 year old unit) which houses x box, nintendo wii stuff and used to have hundreds of VHS videos but I got rid of the letter).

Our sitting room is not large and is considerably smaller than our last one, so we have the opposite problem to you in that it is a bit overfull! We have 2 sofas, a snuggler chair and a small armchair, a TV stand (and a small TV), 2 tall bookcases, 1 medium bookcase, a coffee table, a nest of tables and my display cabinet filled with porcelain (no, I'm not 80). I second those who say lighting is what makes a difference to the feel of a room - ours is still not right...

melj - Do you have all your furniture against the walls? no, I'm deliberately avoiding that! But we have basically sofas/tv etc almost in one half of the room, nicely zoned. But then we don't know what to do with the rest of the room.
Those pictures were really handy, I love that desk behind the sofa. One day when I'm brave enough and have tidied up I'll have to post photos and see if anyone can help. Me and DH are utterly hopeless with home decor.

Mu living room is quite small but I still manage to have a 3 seater sofa and chair, bookcase, chest of drawers (DVDs and exercise equipment in it), music centre (shelving with hi-fi and turntable on it), TV on stand, standard lamp, small stool, larger stool, side table, 2 big floor-standing plants, 2 medium sized plants on chest of drawers, globe on stand, two cat teepees. Rug on wooden floor. My parents had two sitting rooms, one was a family/TV room, and one a more formal sitting room/music room. They filled them with sideboards, music-related furniture, tables (side tables, coffee table in the formal sitting room), bookcases and chests of drawers. Maybe rather than 'his and hers' rooms, you might think of activity-related themes, depending on what you each usually choose to do? Then the furniture might suggest itself.

Our living room has a three-seater sofa, an armchair, a coffee table, a row of cupboards on one side of the chimney breast and a tv unit on the other. It will change soon though - we just moved and it's a bit of random hotch-potch in there at the moment; we're definitely using the space very well.

Our sitting room has
2x sofas
1 small coffee table
1 tv unit
1 bookcase
1 dog and dog bed

We have a large sitting room and have:
2 sofas
1 armchair
1 rocking chair
Bookcase
Coffee table
Sideboard
Two standard lamps
Two rugs
Fireplace
Large footstool

Two armchairs, sofa, coffee table, tv unit and tv, small bookcase, desk, lots of toys and a couple of toy boxes. There's loads of floor space still, but that's for DS to play and for me to do yoga.

I think some plants, rugs and a couple of floor lamps might make your room feel more cozy. Don't be tempted to buy loads of furniture just yet, you might find you don't need it.

Rugs will definitely help, and pictures.

In our front (big) living room we have two 3 seater sofas, a tall dresser (actually an old unit from a science lab sanded down!) with cupboards at the bottom and a drawer at the top, a smaller similar unit with our amp on top of it, two floor standing speakers and a metre square coffee table (actually a chest/blanket box) with a big rug under it.

In the small living room we have a 2 seater and a 3 seater, a normal sized coffee table and a corner unit for the TV to sit on.

We have a through lounge the sitting room end has a square bay,the largest sofa fits into, with side table/lamps on each side of sofa, sideboard with tv footstool & the smaller sofa, facing the larger sofa with the fireplace in between,the smaller sofa separates the dining end of the room has dining table(in the middle of roo)in the alcoves a desk & pretty cabinet/lamp on the door wall a wine/drinks cabinet with stereo/lamp these rooms then flow into kitchen/diner with table & chairs & sofa more side tables/lamps toy boxes.
When you have a fairly large space agree with pp that 'zoning ' the space helps & rugs/cushions/wall art & lamps helps soften rather than a corridor effect with furniture pushed against walls

have you heard of Pinterest?? have a look. its addictive great for getting ideas, just type in small cosy living room or similar and you will be lost for the evening

We moved from a small one bed flat into out house which has a through lounge/dining room and it was horribly empty at first. Our furniture from the flat was small scale and it showed in the larger room.

Now have a large L shape sofa, armchair, coffee table, two side tables, two high drawer units, dining table and six chairs. Plus paintings, mirrors and lots of side lights. Lighting makes a huge difference to a room.

If I had 2 rooms I would have one more relaxed with TVs and all kids stuff and the other a little more adult/smart but still relaxing for heading into in the evening and ignoring the kids debris!

Open living/dining room.
2 couches
1 recliner chair
Entertainment centre
Coffee table
Dining table
Sideboard
Drinks cabinet/drawer unit
Large potted plant
Small end table with lamp
2 standing IKEA paper lamps
One corner of the room has a wood burning stove thingie...

Our sitting room is quite small and ridiculously overstuffed with a (small) grand piano... We also have built-in bookshelves either side of the fireplace. They help with cosiness I think. But the key thing is wallpaper. Much much cosier than painted walls, and much more forgiving of the odd smudge. Also lamps on coffee tables.

Oh, I forgot the two big tripod standing lamps in the front room! We seem to have loads of furniture...

I have 2 sofas, tv table, sideboard, 2 side tables.,perhaps a nice standing lamp or small tables a nice lamp? Place for candles?

Are you sure it's not just your perception? When I moved from having a portable TV to a 32inch screen I felt it was oversized for my perfectly average sized living room. Likewise when I exchanged my normal fridge-freezer for a large American-style one. Now I barely even notice them. They just looked different to what I was used to.

One sofa, one chair, a large table, six dining chairs,a sideboard, a piano, stereo.

My reasonably-large living room is overcrowded.
3-seater sofa, rather large but useful coffee table with drawers, large flat TV on a TV table edging into the alcove on one side of the fireplace, all good.
Large Victorian fireplace which I adore.
Square footstool matches sofa, size of an extra place.

But the square bay has the radiator in it, and a too-big sofabed in front, because no-one on Freecycle will take the sofabed away now we don't need it. What should be there is a large beanbag and either a rocking chair or a small Chesterfield sofa, but the beanbag is squeezed round a floor lamp next to the main sofa.

Then we have an antique larder cupboard in the far corner alcove and tall bookshelves and cupboards all along the wall - the larder cupboard is just the wrong shape for the space, and the bookshelves are laden with all manner of crap. Trying to get rid of crap and then persuade MrNC the larder cupboard would be much better off being sold. All the visible stuff on a wall of shelves, and mismatched rugs on the floor, makes the room look much fuller than it is.

Some patterned rugs and a bookcase and a floor lamp or plant will make a room look much fuller.

Front room has table & chairs, tv on stand. Small
Sofa and desk with mac and printer etc.

Back room has sofa, chair, chest of drawers nest of tables, telescope on tripod and a tv on a stand.

Both rooms have fireplaces.