How I Styled an Awkward Open-Concept Living Room Two Ways (I Can’t Pick a Fave!)

One of my biggest challenges when I used to work every week with clients, or now when we get questions in our Forum, is, “Is there a better way to arrange this room?” This is never easy to do quickly and with confidence, but I’m finding our new Room Plan (Sponsored) feature does the trick really nicely. For example, I was able to take this very satisfying layout and spin it around into two different versions, with a few additions, and make what I call a cold-weather climate arrangement and a warmer climate arrangement. 

While I enjoy moving furniture around in my head — and I think all good designers do this too — it’s not something everyone can do. And then, it’s hard — even for good designers — to explain what they see that someone else just can’t. But beyond that, there have been many times that I couldn’t explain what I envisioned and the only way to show it was to spend the next 30 to 40 minutes moving furniture around the room, kicking up dust and sometimes scaring my friend or client in the process. AND if it didn’t quite work … we had to put it all back again. Room Plan solves that problem!

It is very common to push furniture up against the walls facing each other when setting up a simple room, but this is usually a very un-energetic and visually un-stimulating way to go. Moving furniture off the walls and getting them into a good arrangement that allows a lot of flow through a room is a bit of an art, and with odd-shaped rooms it can take a while to find a good arrangement. 

Long living rooms with only a window at one end are a particular problem in cities as well. These require a lot of artistic skill in getting the flow through the room right, not blocking the windows and adding enough lighting so that it isn’t dark. There usually needs to be two different sub areas as well. Using Room Plan makes figuring it all out a lot easier. 

Here’s a quick starter room with some fine furniture, but it has no good point of view and makes a few fouls along the way by having the sofa block the window, so you can’t take in the view, not thinking of a rug, and having the room face a blank wall, as opposed to the lawn or fireplace.

As for wanting a rug — rugs do a few things really well: They help define the space you’re sitting in, they add more color and texture, AND they dampen sound — all of which adds to a cozier, more comfortable environment. Rugs are a MUST, even in a room like this with modular carpeting. 

A layout like this works best for warmer climates (or in spring and summer). Facing the sofa outward toward the lawn or windows will allow anyone in the space to take in the beauty of nature that waits outside the window. This sightline takes in the view, which is a really nice feature of this house. If you have great views outside your window, consider leaning into that with your living room layout.

Here’s a good winter fireside arrangement for when you’re indoors and want to sit in front of your fire at night. This backs the sofa up against the wall, keeps the living room wide open for easy flow, but really looks inward at the fireplace, and gets cozier with a rug and some warm lighting.

In addition to allowing for quick, in-scale rearrangements to help you visualize a move in your own home — without having to move anything until you’re sure — you can also experiment with some new design elements that will help to finish your room or give it an update. 

For this layout, I included a larger, more generous coffee table to gather around, more lighting, and wooden side tables to bring out the warmth in the sofas and chairs. And, of course, a rug to soften and anchor the space.

I used Apartment Therapy’s free Room Plan tool to create these designs. It allows you to design a room using real (and shoppable) furniture pieces and save your designs, which makes it easy to share them with a roommate, friend, or family member. How would you use it to solve a layout or design problem in your home? Give it a spin and tell me how it went in the comments below.