narrow living room

[INeedToBuyaZoo]

Excuse the mess, I'm still mid-declutter and packing boxing's to take to the charity shop/tip

Every now and then I get major "must move all my furniture around" syndrome.

For the last two years the sofa has been at the patio door end of the living room and the dining table at the front of the house. I have too much furniture, I have Billy bookcases behind my sofa which makes the room feel narrower and I have this HUGE but beautiful sideboard that is really quite impractical.

Any ideas on how I can scratch the itch? Excluding chuck all the crap out as that's the plan today!

Do you use the dining table? Could it be changed for a smaller one or one with folding sides?
Would you be happy to replace the huge sideboard for a smaller one?
It’s hard when you love things and when you’ve had things for years to see a room without the furniture in

Can you draw a floor plan with dimensions? It’s hard to tell anything from those photos.

I was going to ask about dimensions too. We had a sitting room that was a PITA at 10.5’x22’

I spent a LOT of time working out what to do with it.

Apparently I draw like a child

Oh crap measurements! 20ft long 13ft across I think

Following - I have a 7.5x21 room and have zero idea what to do with it either

Get rid of the tv unit and sit your tv on the sideboard (which is lovely and should stay). Swap table and chairs for a smaller round one. Did you like having the sofa at the window instead of patio end better, or does it fit better like this?

Ditch tv unit, use the lovely sideboard as tv unit instead.

Get a different dining table set. I would get a dining sofa under window with table and chairs the other side. So the dining bench/sofa faces the garden and table long ways to it

Declutter underneath furniture, it gives a sense of space as you can see more of the floor space.

The radiator is where the dining table currently is, I'm sat on the sofa right now by the patio doors and I am bloody freezing!

Ok so I had thought about using sideboard, but what do I do with the dvd player, Xbox and PS4. They can't go in the sideboard (air circulation). Do people have things on top of units?

I've always hidden everything away

Is this your only reception room?
It’s not a bad size room at all ( and your drawing is fine!)....does the cat thing have to be in this room? I agree with getting rid of tv unit...it’s taking up loads of room

You have a LOT of stuff. New photos after you've got rid of the boxes?

Can you stand the Xbox etc on something underneath the sideboard?

Cat tower elsewhere or get rid, TV on sideboard get rid of TV unit, you can either put the Virgin/sky box/x box on top or on a wall mounted shelf move the Xbox to another room if possible. Do you need so many lamps? A drop leaf or extending table with slimmer chairs would be less intrusive , also turn it the other way so it doesn't come out into the room so much. Get rid of clutter, things under sideboard, random watering can etc. There are lots of things on the walls too which add to the busy feel. I'm not into sleek modern minimalist, I like art, candles and old furniture etc but your losing the impact of individual things because there's just so much stuff. If it's cold the way it is, swap ends so dining by the patio doors

Can the sofa face the patio doors instead, is there enough width in the room?

What about -

1. Put the sofa where the sideboard and tv units are
2. Get rid of the tv unit and put the sideboard on the wall where the sofa currently is, but central to that wall. Tv can stand on that
3. Turn the table round the other way so it takes up room width ways instead of the length of the room
4. Move the dresser further down the wall, away from the window wall and put the lamp in the corner

Will that work?

At dining end, get a smaller table with leaves for 4 seats daily, extendable to 6 with short end on the window. The dresser can stay. If it's not valuable paint it same colour as walls so that the beautiful sideboard draws the attention past the dining room as you walk into the room.

At the living end put the back of the sofa where sideboard is, put the sideboard where the sofa is. Get rid of TV unit altogether. Put the TV on the wall above the sideboard. Use the sideboard as tech storage, replacing the rear boards with lightweight panels that are grilled/well ventilated like pegboard. Decimate/rationalise everything on the Billys and split them to fit either side of the door before you re fill them. Therefore they'll be behind you as soon as you walk in. All this so when you look straight into the room you see a well dressed dining room and dresser. When you walk past the dining you look across the top of the sofa to the garden and focal point of TV/sideboard. Anchor the sitting room with a nice rug. You need an end table with lamp between sofa and patio doors, cat tree between sideboard & patio doors, a storage coffee table in front of sofa, a floor lamp between door and corner of sofa in front of Billy. Conduits & extension leads are worth the investment! Wish I could post a diagram. And good luck, well done on the declutter. I once brought a 3000 book habit down to my current 130 and thinking it might be time for another cull!

Right I have ideas I shall report back once I've turned my living room upside down

Oh and in answer to do I need so many lamps.

I like lamps.

I used to have more, they l have hue bulbs in so I create mood lighting. It's obscene how many I have but I think I'll take them all out into the hallway and put back in as appropriate once furniture's sorted

First job is to dismantle the TV unit and speakers. I am downsizing my surround sound system to a generic one as I have big old speakers all over the place and they take up room. Like these

Here we go, better photo of the chaos

From second pictures I would definitely try turning dining table around, that way it won’t stick out into the room as much

You need to declutter. To much going on in the room and you definitely don’t need that tv stand. Do you need all those bookcases? Is there somewhere else you could store them? Maybe start scaling it all back and just have one bookcase, sofa, coffee table, table and chairs and sideboard with tv on. Scale back on the lamps too only one or two needed.

@Ivalueloyaltyaboveallelse

You need to declutter. To much going on in the room and you definitely don’t need that tv stand. Do you need all those bookcases? Is there somewhere else you could store them? Maybe start scaling it all back and just have one bookcase, sofa, coffee table, table and chairs and sideboard with tv on. Scale back on the lamps too only one or two needed.

The bookcases house things you can't see behind the sofa like a homemade media server etc. If they're out from behind the sofa and I put the bottom shelves back on, I'll probably only need two and I've been given ideas to where to move them once I've relocated cat tower. Just have to face the mammoth task of taking everything off so I'm starting with TV stand first

Good luck OP, I hope you upload new pics once all done

I've always hidden everything away

In fairness, the photos tell a different story