How to make a large sitting room feel cosy/ welcoming?

[parrotonmyshoulder]

It’s a ridiculous problem to have - a room that’s too big! Feels very open - stairs going up and down, large window, patio doors, faux fireplace. Very little wall space for more furniture.
Terrible description. Any ideas!

Where you place your sofas / arm chairs and maybe rugs to define areas. - so e.g. a cosy sitting area - with lamps / sofas / armchairs and a rug there and then in a different bit maybe a chair with a side table and lamp for reading etc. Also picture / paintings and depending on windows curtains ( especially in winter ) make a room cosy.

Rubbish idea probably - without photograph hard to tell - but lovely to have such a big room - I am sure you will make it work

Yes, I think positioning and more furniture would help. We’ve just got a very functional l-shaped sofa arrangement that nobody uses and isn’t really focused on anything (works at Christmas when it ‘looks’ at the tree. That’s when we moved in a long time ago!). Need a music area and a play/ tv area I think. And rugs!

Placement of furniture will help. Sofas and Armchairs should never be pushed close to walls .
Think a out sectioning off a seating area , maybe placing a console table behind the sofa with lamps . Use matching side tables and a rug to define your seating area.

Lamps, yes. I like lamps.
Probably ought to get curtains too..!
I’m not good at this. The room is just a massive corridor really. House too big for us (stupid first world problem)

Can you put on a floor plan? Even just a sketch one?

Definitely think about areas. 'Aim' your sofa at the fireplace, maybe consider having a little writing desk and chair, music area and as you say, rugs! Get some big house plants (Ikea are great for this) and consider ones on the floor and also ones hanging down from up high to fill in empty corners. Don't be afraid to move the furniture round summer / winter to make the most of French windows / fireplace. (And if it was my house piles of books everywhere, that quickly fills space )

All great ideas, thanks. I’ll put on a floor plan this evening.

stairs going up and down

Missing the point here but don’t all stairs go up and down?!

Or do you mean there are two separate staircases coming off one room (down to a lower floor?)? Do they both come off your lounge rather than a hall? I think a floor plan would be really useful.

I’d go for rugs and also thick curtains at the windows/patio doors.

Silly explanation! Yes, 2 separate staircases - so take up one whole wall. Definitely a floor plan later!
Stairs do, as you say, go both up and down!

I’ve had this — moved into a big flat in Edinburgh with huge rooms and high ceilings.

We found adding height helped break the room up a bit. So that for us meant bookcases, a couple of floor-standing lamps and two massive six-foot Kentia palms.

We have a huge living room with lots of windows, double doors and a fireplace and hardly any wall space too. It's really tricky to place furniture in as I don't like the idea of chairs and sofas blocking the big windows. I've got loads of big footstools which help fill the space

We have ( it isn't big because our house is small , but front to back sitting room ) We have done sofa to divide it in two which with one more sofa and a armchair and a coffee table and a rug makes is cosy, Behind the dividng sofa we have a console table with lamps & then at the other end we have bookshelves and a desk . May not work for you - but gives us more usable areas

@parrotonmyshoulder when you do your floorplan make sure you mark
doors
staircases with direction i.e. the side you approach the tread
windows
radiators
fireplace
position of sockets and switches
any none negotiable or immoveables

We have a large sitting room and have L shaped sofa arrangement by the fire with a coffee table and rug, a desk and chair, an easy chair and side table, a console table and another oval table in a corner with heaps of books. There's also a very large footstool, plenty of large lamps, cushions and a couple of throws.