Arranging Your Living Room Furniture for Great Conversation

October 29, 2020

Do you have a living room full of great leather furniture but somehow the room doesn’t seem all that… comfortable? The problem might stem from the layout of your furniture. Even an otherwise wonderful living room can suffer from a poor layout that lacks coziness and makes conversations difficult. Fortunately, a simple rearrangement of the furniture is usually all that’s needed to turn that formerly uncomfortable living room into an inviting space that everyone gravitates toward.

Creating a Conversational Hotspot

In order to encourage conversations, you’ll need ample seating. Providing a variety of comfortable seating options encourages lingering, especially if there are also places nearby to set a drink! If you have a favorite public venue where you love to sit and visit, try using it as inspiration for creating an inviting conversational area in your home. You’ll probably have to scale it down quite a bit so try to figure out what draws you to it and concentrate on replicating just those parts in your home.

The mathematics of seating area design:

Conversationalists should sit close enough together so that their heads are only about 8′ apart at the most. Much farther than that and it becomes difficult to read facial cues and voices tend to become raised. This is for a large group seated in a circle or square made up of several large furniture pieces.
For a smaller conversation area with only 2 – 4 people, you’ll need much less space. This creates a cozier, more intimate place to sit and visit.
When choosing furniture, allow 2′ of sofa length for each average-size adult.

Keeping these measurements in mind will help ensure that people will feel comfortable in the amount of space you’ve allotted them.

Follow these steps for proper furniture layout:

Whenever possible, group furniture pieces to create at least a couple of conversation areas.
A few movable pieces of furniture such as small chairs or ottomans provide flexible conversation possibilities.
Pull furniture away from the walls. This is especially important in large rooms where you’ll end up shouting at each other if you don’t!
Arrange the seating so that nobody has to twist or turn to talk with anyone else in the group.
Facing furniture pieces toward each other encourages conversations. Circles, squares, rectangles, L and U-shapes all create inviting places to sit and converse.
Anchoring a conversation area with an area rug creates a cozier, more intimate space that practically begs for the conversation to begin!
Table lamps that focus light downward (toward the seats) are a subtle invitation to sit down, relax, and enjoy the company.

Preparing for a Gathering

If you’re expecting guests, whether it’s for a book club meeting or a large party, you’ll almost certainly need additional seating. This is where small, movable pieces of furniture come in handy. Although clear circulation areas and pathways are essential for everyday living, they’re great places to add temporary seating during a gathering.

Dining room chairs are generally small enough to easily move into the living room long enough for a meeting. Other options include ottomans and small benches. How about small footstools stashed under side tables that can be pressed into service when needed? Even sturdy side tables can offer additional seating as long as the sitter doesn’t mind sharing the space with a drink or two!

Are You in Search of More Ideas for Conversational Seating?

Let our designers help! They have years of experience in creating exceptional Tampa living room furniture layouts. They can help you design a living room that accommodates comfortable gatherings and encourages conversations. Visit one of our five convenient locations to experience different layouts for yourself or contact us for more information. We would love to help you design the living room of your dreams!