How would you set up this living room?

[Sleepdeprived42long]

wondering if anyone can give me some ideas so that I can stop hating my living room in my house!

It needs painted, new flooring and new furniture. I don’t like it at the moment because it is north facing so quite dark, the furniture doesn’t seem to ‘fit’ well because of the doors / bay windows (green are couches, grey are side tables) and the room feels long! I like colour and light but also cosy. I need 3 separate seating areas ideally. New build so ceilings are low and only one light in middle.

I’m terrible at visualising how something will look so any suggestions very much appreciated!

Personally I would ditch all the side tables. They can give a cluttered feel to a room.

Should have said grey is TV table (left) and ottoman seat (left), 2 side tables (right) and bookcase (top right). But I’d happily get rid of all of them as they are dark wood and just not my taste.

@Netflixmad sorry i confused things by saying they were all side table! See my post above!

Do you use the dining room as one? Do you have a fireplace that needs to be taken into account?

Are there walls / archway into the dining room? If there's a door [but also one from the hallway] can you pull the sofa all the way back to the doorway making the entrance way to the living room feel more spacious.

My observation would be that lining up storage on the left wall is making a 12 ft wide room feel a bit more tunnel like? I'd probably put the large sofa on the wall that backs onto the hallway so as you enter the room the narrow pieces of furniture are opposite.

I'd put an arm chair in the bay, or the small sofa but arm chair will be visually create a feeling of more space.

After that, declutter, new flooring and furnishings but most especially lighting. You can buy smart plugs which go between your side lamps and the socket and programme them to come on, turn them on with an Alexa or other cheap and cheerful solutions. Overhead lights are usually quite a cold feature.

It IS a long room, and by lining up most of the furniture along the left and right walls, you have accentuated that distance.

Do you need the double doors at the back? I'd get rid of those, put the bookcase (plus more of the grey furniture) on the back wall, then bring the sofa forward a bit more once you have something else on the back wall.

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams no we don’t use the dining room to eat-it’s a study and dog bed area. No fireplace in the living room. There’s a set of double doors from living room to dining room which open into the living room. The issue with moving the sofa back to the double doors is that is makes the room feel even longer. We’ve tried the small sofa in the bay before but found it blocked out light and it was so dark during the day.

@SnowsFalling not sure if we need the double doors to the dining room but not sure if I’d want to remove either! I think we could get rid of some of the grey furniture and just have side tables/tv table.

You could consider blocking either the door or the opening to the dining room. This would give you more wall space to play with so you can move the sofa against a wall.

I’d get rid of the wall between the dining and living room (may need RSJ)

Move the sofa to the opposite wall with two tables either side. Get rid of all the other stuff and build in shelving on the right hand wall around or on either side of TV.

Replace the sofa i. front of the dining room, with 2 arm chairs to open up the space.

If knocking wall down too expensive, I’d still do the rest of the above.

I think knocking down wall might be a bit out of budget. I did think about shelving unit on right hand wall with tv but was worried something full height like that would make room even narrower. It’s just not a great design of room because of the shape, the doors and the bay window 🙈

You don’t have to do shelving full height, if it’s Edwardian terrace the ceilings will be quite high. If you have shelving either side of the TV rather than building the TV in, it will break the space up.

Dont worry about the shape there are 1000s of houses like that in London, everyone has the same problem!

It’s a new build @Mirabai so ceilings are low unfortunately :(

OP do you need that access point to the dining room?

If not, one option is to screen off that entrance and out shelving units there.

You say you'd like three seating areas. What kind of seating? Can you ditch one sofa entirely and replace with smaller comfy chairs? Do you want a work table or a coffee table? How many people are using the room?

You could have 2 x small curved sofas with a round coffee table in front of them, and if you remove one sofa, you have a few choices where to put them, especially if your storage goes to the dining room entrance.

I'm incredibly tempted to say "so now you know!" in a cheery way 😂 (see Dear Modern on Youtube) but he mostly looks at tiny rooms so not sure he'll be any use to you. Also, Feng Shui often clashes with the most practical use of a room. Well, I only know this from watching his videos, but he likes to create zones so it might help, I dunno....

Mine is very similar dimensions, but with a straight patio doors rather than a bay.

I've got 2 long sofas facing each other on the long wall and a chair in front of the patio doors (picture taken between the patio doors & chair) with 1m x 1m cabinet/bookcases on either side (you can't see them in the picture).

I think the layout works really well.

We are similar. South facing front of the house. The dinning room (front) and living room (back) are knocked through with glass doors to separate in winter and open up in summer.

In terms of furniture layout, our sofas are in U formation along the garden, back wall and glass door side. Facing fireplace if that makes sense.

Block off opening to dining room -hang door to open door into room so you can put book case behind door and big sofa along in front. Keep curtains back from window so it is a feature.

And this is the picture from the other end of the room, I'm standing just inside the adjoining room.

I vary the chair position between as pictured, and central in the same space. Either works, usually have it off-centre in summer for easier access to the patio doors.

I've got pocket doors between the 2 rooms which works really well.

I probably don’t need the access point to the dining room. We use the living room for family film nights and when we have guests round for entertaining. We have two growing boys so I think at least one sofa and two large chairs. When we have people round there are usually 4 adults and the smaller sofa just feels very cramped. For conversation, I can see that sofa opposite sofa would be good but then would need moved when TV needed to be focal point.

thanks for all the comments everyone-I’m reading them all and has been really great to get me thinking!

I should have also added that there are two radiators in the room which would be tricky to move-one is behind the door into the room on the back wall (other underneath window)

For conversation, I can see that sofa opposite sofa would be good but then would need moved when TV needed to be focal point.

Mine actually works really well for the TV.
Sofa diagonally opposite is a 3 seater but with 2 cushions, both have a good view of the TV.
Chair has a good view of the TV.
Sofa along the same wall as the TV - has 1 person and they sit on the sofa with legs up, so they are facing the TV.

Wouldn't work as well with 5.

Thanks @Chasingsquirrels the space next to the dining room opening probably wouldn’t be big enough for our tv but if I blocked the opening, I could possibly build in the TV to the new wall at the same time which might work quite well. That would leave the rest of the room for a sofa and 2 chairs or 2 sofas and 1 chair.

Could you get an ottoman storage seat to fit into the bay window? Then get rid of the long one.

Lots of good suggestions, to which I would add standard lamps. And maybe a couple of table lamps. Lots of lighting in layers will do wonders.

I'd put the tv on the other wall, with an armchair that doesn't obstruct the door or the doors to dining area with a standard lamp behind it.

If you want 2 sofas them on has to go in front of the window but that could be lower, smaller, or a snuggler seat.

Lamps on tables in each corner, coffee table in middle.