The 5 Best Living Room Layouts We Saw All Year Long
You’re looking at rearranging your living room and just staring at the standard pieces: a sofa, a couple of chairs, and maybe a coffee table. How many ways are there to lay those out within a space? It turns out, quite a few.
In the small, funky, and, occasionally, challenging spaces featured in AT’s House Tours, there are countless creative takes on living room layouts that all start with generally the same pieces but evolve in wildly different directions. From bypassing a sofa altogether in favor of a cozy pair of chairs to adding a bistro table where you might otherwise see an accent chair, these five living room layouts were favorites in 2025.
Utilize Two Chairs Instead of a Sofa in a Small Space
Put a sofa in a studio apartment, and you inevitably will end up with a space that’s all seating and not much else. In Natasha Badger’s New York apartment, she had 400 square feet to work with as well as a narrow footprint. Instead of trying to squeeze a sofa in, she embraced a living room layout centered on two cozy bouclé barrel chairs. The pair sits across from a narrow mid-century coffee table, perhaps a nod to her Danish roots, and it gives her a cozy spot to sit with a friend without overwhelming the small studio.
At the end of the room, a bench sits against the wall, giving one more comfortable spot to land without taking away from the sense of breathing room within the petite studio.
Go for a Classic Layout on a Petite Scale
In Salli Mandel’s 550-square-foot Washington, D.C., apartment, she was given the challenge of creating zones to live, eat, and work — all within a single (and small!) open space. But she didn’t let this multi-purpose goal detract from a proper living room. Instead she opted for a classic living room layout, but did it on a petite scale.
Two small chairs sit across from a loveseat — each slipcovered in a breezy off-white to give the space a sense of cohesiveness that also lessens their visual weight. In between the seating, a light wood coffee table is long but narrow, allowing plenty of room to walk around. Off to the side, two ottomans provide additional seating or an additional surface, depending on what’s needed that day. The living area is anchored by a rug that defines it from the rest of the open room. It’s a standard layout you’ve seen before, but executed in a way that works in a cozy spot.
Add a Bistro Nook
There might not be a proper dining room in the 606-square-foot Brooklyn apartment of designer Hollis Loudoun Puig, but she created a layout that serves both living and dining without creating a totally separate space or having it feel like an open concept afterthought.
In the living room, vibrant, singular pieces add life to a standard living room floor plan. A menswear houndstooth-inspired sofa sits across from a sleek red lacquer coffee table, and the duo is flanked by technicolor modern chairs. Red chinoiserie side tables ground the space with a touch of patina, while a burlwood credenza adds a touch of vintage-inspired dark wood. At first glance, it’s the normal sofa plus two chairs and a coffee table living room layout, but it’s the bistro table that elevates it.
Sitting alongside a side chair, a charming table and two chinoiserie chairs feels both like a place to sit down with a cup of coffee and additional seating when entertaining. The table feels integrated into the room — like an added element in the eclectic design.
Create a Lounge-Worthy Layout
When presented with a loft layout, you could try to make the living room feel like its own cozy enclave or you could embrace the soaring space and, instead, lean into the sense of openness. That’s what Eric Goldie and Jeremy Batoff did in their 700-square-foot New York loft.
Rather than cut the living room off at any end, they placed a rug right in the middle of the open living space. A lounge-worthy sectional and two coffee tables invite guests to come right in and take a seat, which wouldn’t be the case if there was another chair or sofa creating borders around the living room. Because the sofa and coffee table have low profiles, they created height using a tall cabinet on one side and a credenza with bold art above on the right. These pieces border the living area and help give the space a more approachable, human scale.
Create Zones in a Long, Narrow Rowhome Living Room
A long, narrow living room can present a design challenge — particularly when the furniture layout is limited by the spaces around the room. In my Washington, D.C., rowhouse, the main floor room was both too big for just a sofa and chairs while also being too small for a large sofa. The go-to placement of a sofa across from the fireplace didn’t make sense, given the space restrictions of the room.
The workaround? Creating one zone that allows for a sofa, coffee table, and chair in the front of the living room, where there is a slightly more width to place a TV across from the sofa. I set up a second zone for a desk and chair to create a WFH space, then designating a third zone — a cute spot for conversation — with two chairs placed just across from the fireplace. The space feels inviting and open rather than narrow and cramped, and it greets guests with an invitation to sit rather than a view of the back of a sofa.
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