A living room is designed according to its function in the apartment.
Living starts with a decision about how the room will be used. Will it be a place for formal entertaining, or will it be the center of family living? Will it be a hybrid of the two extremes, possibly including an office nook, quiet reading corner or dining area? Once you decide what functions you expect your living room to fulfill, you will be on your way to its design. The room's interior decoration is a separate issue altogether, truly a matter of taste. The room's design, however, involves a sort of logic and a sense of balance.
Instructions
Designing Your Apartment Living Room
1. Decide how you're going to use the room. Will you only formally entertain adult guests? Will the room be the magnet for the family as a hybrid living room and TV room? Will you need to have a children's play area? Will the room also need to serve as a dining room or office? These are all questions that need to be addressed before drawing up a plan for the space.
2. Draw the room to scale on graph paper, noting its windows, doors, fireplace and the room's relationship to the rest of the apartment. Decide the room's focal point. Is it a dominant wall where you will hang a large painting, or is it the fireplace? Mark the layout accordingly.
3. Consider the traffic pattern possibilities. You should never have to walk through a furniture arrangement. That is, make certain the route from the front room to the kitchen, for example, avoids your having to take a circuitous route around chairs and sofas. This is a safety consideration, as well as a matter of livable design.
4. Cut scale-sized pieces of paper to represent the key furnishings you'll be using. You will be able to slide them around the scale drawing of the living room, making it easy to envision how different groupings may fit in the room. You can experiment with ease, trying out myriad arrangements until you arrive at one that's pleasing to you.
5. Imagining a room from overhead may spark creative design ideas.
Arrange the paper cut-outs starting with the largest furnishings, perhaps the sofa or the dining table. Experiment with unconventional placements, perhaps angling a sofa instead of placing it parallel to a wall. If you don't like the effect, you can just slide the cut-out into a new position instead of straining with a heavy sofa. Pay attention to the traffic pattern.
6. Set the cut-outs for secondary furniture pieces, like tables, lamps and bookcases, where they will be needed. Remember your need for a functional room. Even the most expensive fabrics and furniture pieces will not make up for a nonfunctional design. The room is first to be lived in, not just looked at.
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