Design Ideas | September 2, 20081 Comment

Space Planning for Living Spaces

Don’t you admire those people who can arrange furniture in their minds? They just know how things should be put together. “Hey Suzie, drag that old arm chair down from the attic, move the table from the back porch next to it at a 32 degree angle from the sofa and then you can fit your new TV in the room and have space for Bob’s recliner!“

This is a very useful skill to have, especially if, like me, you get paid to do it. Some of it you’re born with or I guess you wouldn’t want to be a designer. But you can learn the rest and not just through trial and error. For me it all started in 7th grade Home Economics when we were taught how to arrange bedrooms. The bed could never be against a wall (or you can’t make the bed) or in front of a window (you can’t pull down the shade). That’s all I remember and I break those rules all the time. We also learned that you have to let the phone ring 7 times before deciding that no one’s home.

Confused? Well, here are a few rules that in my experience I’ve found to be useful.

• Major Traffic: You need 3 feet of space for any major traffic path through a room. This keeps people from bumping into the furniture. For example, if you have to walk through the living room to get to the dining room, allow 3 feet of open space to allow for access.
• Minor Traffic: Allow 2 feet of space for small traffic, such as walking around a dining room table. Get can get by with 18-inches, but it will be tight. This is based on how wide the average person is, believe it or not.
• Furniture to furniture placement: You need to allow for 15 to 18 inches of space between a sofa and a cocktail table. Any more will be too far, any less will be too tight.
• Side table height: This is not a hard and fast rule, but if you‚Äôre buying new furniture pay attention to the relation between the arm height of the sofa and the height of the table next to it. The table height should be a little higher or a little lower than the arm. Too low or high will not only look weird but it makes the table hard to use.
• Cocktail table height: The average seat height is about 19-inches. The cocktail table should be a little higher. Again, too high or low will look funny.
• Scale: Make sure the scale of the furniture you use matches. This is a hard one to get right because it‚Äôs a rule that‚Äôs meant to be broken. But generally, if you pair a dainty dining chair and a big club chair with a table between them it won‚Äôt look right. There are lots of ways to work within this rule to add balance to small pieces so they work. But if you‚Äôre new to this it‚Äôs best to stay within the same scale for each piece.
• Vary your heights: If all your furniture is the same height it looks boring. Create some movement by varying heights. For example, use a tall bookshelf or a floor lamp in your room. Artwork can help out here.

I hope this is helpful to anyone new to arranging furniture. If you know the basic rules you can always break them. But now you’ll know what you’re risking. Still scared? Then try out this site I found for online room arranging. It’s called Floor Planner. I haven’t used it (AutoCad is my thing), but it looks like fun.