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Furniture Design Dilemma Living Rooms

Help with furnishing a good sized lounge but with two doorways

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

Hi,

We moved into our house about there years ago and due to a leak have had to remodel most of the downstairs. The last room in the house that we haven’t been able to quite finalise is our lounge. Although it is a good size it has two doorways (one into the hall and one into our kitchen/diner), which is nice but makes furnishing the room quite tricky.

We currently have two sofas in the room – both are pretty old and need replacing somehow but we are struggling to find the best solution to give us sufficient seating but not take up too much space. We also would like the room to have a nice cosy feeling; at the moment we don’t think it is a particularly welcoming space. We are a family of four and this is our only lounge area so we need a good amount of seating ideally. We have two young children so we also need to bear in mind storage for toys etc.

We have installed new blinds but think we have made a mistake with these as they feel quite bland and are considering Venetian blinds or shutters as an alternative in the big window – which faces out onto the road.

We would consider moving the TV if it would help things but we can’t figure out a better way of arranging everything!

I’m attaching a floorplan and pictures of how it looks at the moment. Any suggestions, both in terms of furniture and/or decorating would be very gratefully received!

Thanks for your help,

Tim

Comments (4)

PRO
User
4 years ago
I think one of the biggest problems in your lounge is where the radiator has been positioned. Ordinarily they would sit in the bay, and yours has been moved to the internal wall fairly opposite the fireplace.

Can you move that? Also, the door is not in a great place as it too hinders sofa placement. The rad and the door are both in the way. Although it seems like a radical move, it is really essential to move both of them for an optimum layout as the room is not wide enough to place sofas across like this:-

I like the blinds, and the rug and you could certainly work with those colours. If you want added plushness at the windows to make it more cosy, then put up curtains with a nice chunky wooden pole too.

The mirror is a bit large for the fireplace, so I would change that. I'd probably also change the shelving system to the left of the fireplace. It dominates the room, and doesn't match so well with the one on the right.

Swapping the T.V to the left hand side makes it shielded from the windows and is a slightly better place for it.
Tim Pearson
Original Author
4 years ago
Thanks very much for taking the time to write such a detailed post!

We had thought the radiator might benefit from being moved but hadn't thought of putting it under the radiator - and it looks like that's probably the best place like you say. Again we had considered moving the doorway but hadn't thought of where you suggested so very helpful! We are a bit reluctant to move the doorway - mainly because of the disruption and cost (it is a supporting wall which I wonder if will up the cost). But definitely won't rule it out. Would you have even a rough idea of what it would cost? We'd need to move a light switch too I think.

Looking at the room again last night your suggestions ref the mirror and furniture make a lot of sense. We just need to make sure we have enough storage for toys as well!!

Thanks again for all the suggestions - it's given us some really helpful ideas and some impetus to get cracking on finally finishing the room off!!
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Tim Pearson
Original Author
4 years ago
Also we agree the TV would probably work better in the other corner so thank you!
PRO
User
4 years ago
I hear what you're saying about bricking up the doorway and moving it, but if you're going to do it right, do it right. The doorway I think is a lot nearer to the middle of the room than the hand drawn plan. This is it with your measurements:-

So you still don't get a good layout without moving it. The fact that it's in a supporting wall won't make a difference. You're blocking one hole up and moving it along, same load. I'm guessing two days work tops and some plastering. Unfortunately, i'm not the best at what other people charge, as I do everything myself. However, if you go on to a website called https://www.mybuilder.com , you can post a job on there, and invite quotes. It's great, and i've used it several times in the past on large jobs where i needed help.

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