The main room of the house is the living room. This is where guests gather on weekends, and where the whole family meets on weekdays. Your daily comfort will depend on how well the living room layout is designed.
What to consider when planning?
Before you start decorating the main room, you should determine the starting point – says designer Gennady Yagupov. The following inputs will be needed:
- It is logical to assume that the layout of a large living room will be different from a small one: the amount of furniture, its dimensions for spacious, compact rooms are also different. In the layout of the hall, the width of the walls, the height of the ceilings are important.
- The space can be a regular different shape (square, rectangle, pentagon, etc.)
- Windows, doors. More precisely – their number, size, location. Often it is the openings that dictate the arrangement of furniture on the layout.
- Sometimes it is “imposed” – such as in studios, where rooms are combined with kitchens. Or implied – when the owner or designer decides to combine the living room with a dining room, study or bedroom.
- In apartments, living rooms are often made pass-through, which affects interior design. In houses, the location of items may be influenced by elements such as a fireplace, staircase, mansard roof, and access to the yard.
Features on the size and shape of the living room
According to the area are distinguished
Large
The average values of a spacious living room start from 20 m2: enough to divide the space into functional zones, to accommodate all the necessary furniture, to leave room for free movement.
Small
It is logical to assume that anything less than 20 m2 is considered small, but living rooms 14-20 m2 can be called average, but anything less than 12-14 m2 – already small. A small room, on the one hand, is easier to make cozy.
On the other hand, it is more difficult to accommodate everything necessary in it, especially if in addition to the sofa, table and television is planned for a dining, sleeping and work area. To make the room comfortable, the plan should be carefully thought out from the start: improvisation in this case is inappropriate.
Shape variations
Square
It is traditionally accepted that square rooms are the most convenient for planning. This is true if the entire room is a relaxation zone. Then it is appropriate to place a coffee table in the center, a sofa and armchairs beside it, a TV or a projector screen opposite, and on the sides of the media area there is enough space for shelving with books or decorative elements or indoor flowers.
Lighting is central enough, but it is better to make several scenarios: bright, muted, decorative.
Rectangular
In the planning of such a living room there is an unspoken rule: the narrower the room, the more you need the techniques of visual expansion. On the plus side, rectangles are ideal for zoning.
Spacious living rooms from 16 square meters can be divided by physical partitions, screens, curtains, furniture (closet, shelving, sofa), literally dividing one elongated room into 2 square meters.
If the area is small or you do not want to divide the narrow living room, use visual techniques: highlight the zone can be color, light, texture accents.
You can expand the room with the help of transverse laying of the floor or carpet with a geometric pattern, photo wallpaper with 3D-effect, painting short walls in dark colors (and long in light colors), lighting across the room.
Incorrect
Anything that does not fit the description of a square and rectangle is considered an irregular shape. The most common are:
5-6-cornered. Squares or rectangles with beveled corners on the one hand, take all the pluses / minuses of the basic shape. But on the other, require special attention in the place of the extra corner. It is easier to reconcile with the peculiarity than to fight: we emphasize the “fifth corner” with a fireplace, an arm-chair, pictures, decorative posters or framed photos.
L-shaped. On the one hand, the letter L – not the most convenient option for the layout of the living room. On the other hand – a ready-made solution for dividing the hall into zones. In one part decorate the space for recreation, in the other – the bedroom, dining room, study or whatever.
Often there are passageway rooms, which make it physically impossible to draw according to all the rules – at a minimum, will interfere with additional doors. It is their location that must be taken into account in the design of the living room. For example, 2 exits opposite each other in the center of the living room literally divide it in half. Exits diagonally in the plan are also taken into account: the arrangement of furniture will be diagonal.
The main differences in room functionality
In the previous section, we already mentioned in passing what other functions the room can perform. Let’s walk through them in more detail.
Kitchen-Living Room
Usually, the largest living room is combined exactly with the kitchen. You can initially buy an apartment with such a layout (studio or euro), or to make a redevelopment in the existing housing (the exception – gasified houses, in which the kitchen must necessarily be closed).
The most popular idea for the layout of the living room, combined with the kitchen is the division of the sofa. It is he who acts as a boundary between the cooking area, rest. But this role can also be performed by an island, a peninsula, a bar counter, or a dining table.
Dining room
Unfortunately, in most kitchens there is very little space, to gather all family members at one table is not possible. Therefore, modern homeowners prefer to transfer the dining space to the living room: look at the photo options for the location of the table with chairs.
Cabinet
During the heyday of remote work, having a workspace at home is not a whim, but rather a necessity. If there is no separate room to work in the apartment, it can be organized in the hall: a straight or corner table can be placed in an empty corner, or install a console behind the back of the sofa, standing in the center of the living room.
Bedroom
Not everyone likes to sleep on the sofa, in a one-room apartment, there is often the question of the placement of the sleeping area. Use horizontal or vertical zoning. The second is more suitable for apartments with high ceilings – the sleeping place is placed under the ceiling on a special platform.
Nuances for living rooms in the house
The purpose of the hall in a country house does not differ from the same room in the apartment. But there are certain architectural features that should be taken into account in the planning:
A fireplace or stove. While in apartments they often make an imitation, the houses usually have real hearths. They have a lot of advantages, including the creation of a cozy atmosphere. But it should be understood that the layout with a fireplace starts with it (and not with the sofa, as you would do in its absence). It is the hearth that sets the style, the layout.
Stairs. Ignore such an architectural element is not possible: firstly, the stairs eat up a lot of space. Secondly, they require a free approach to them. But there is a plus: under the steps is formed a lot of free space for storage in the living room.
Mansard roof. Sloped ceilings, the height of which decreases closer to the walls, always look atmospheric. But require careful planning: consider the height at the lowest point, so it did not turn out that getting up from the couch, people will bang their heads against the roof.
Summing up, we want to reiterate the main thing: always begin the planning rooms with the largest element. In halls – a sofa or a fireplace.
