Your house, full marks! 5 ideas for arranging your living/dining room

It is the perfect room in which to round off the day in a relaxing way, watching television, reading a book, or simply chatting as a family, but it is also the ideal place for everyone to gather when you have guests round to your home. And it is precisely because it is so versatile and plays such an important role in your house that the perennial question always comes up: what is the best way of arranging your living/dining room?

The way furniture is distributed around the existing space will be key to obtaining maximum comfort, but how do we achieve this? Take note!

Differentiate the rooms

If you want to ensure a greater ‘sense of order’ in the arrangement of your living/dining room, we recommend you separate them visually as well. How? You can do this by using rugs, placing one in the centre of the living room, in front of the sofa, and another in the dining area, right under the table. This will make them look like two perfectly differentiated rooms. However, if the space is long and rectangular, you can also achieve the same effect by using furniture such as a chiffonier or shelves, which apart from decorating the room, also ‘splits’ it in two.

Tip: to make things easier when you are serving a meal, put the dining area in the part of the room nearest the door.

Distribute your furniture around a focal point

In the lounge area, place the television cabinet against the largest wall so that you can then arrange the sofas and other smaller items around it. As far as possible, try to centre all other furniture on the said cabinet.

In the dining area, illumination is key: locate the lamp (or the light source) in the centre of where the table goes; this will define the position of the table and nothing will be left to chance.

Are there minimum distances that must be maintained?

Although there is no dining room with perfect dimensions, it is true that there are certain minimum distances which it is best to respect, in order to ensure maximum comfort.

For example, in order to view your television correctly, your sofa should be 50 cm away from your television set for every 10” of screen size.

Meanwhile, if you have a central table in your lounge, you should leave around 40 cm between the table and your sofa / other furniture, so as to ensure easy access.

If your lamp over the dining table is a hanging lamp, let it hang approximately 80 cm above the table, which is the ideal distance to integrate it into the space but without getting in the way.

What kind of sofa should I use?

This will largely depend on the way in which you use your lounge, but it is best to have at least one sofa and a small auxiliary seat such as an armchair or some pouffes (which are furthermore very easy to move at your convenience). This will allow you to ensure that when you have guests they are not all facing the same direction which makes the meeting more comfortable.

Tip: arrange your sofas in an L-shape so that the larger one is opposite the television cabinet.

Tricks to make your lounge feel bigger

You can add a couple of metres, at least visually, by using light colours and leaving the maximum amount of space in front of the windows. This will allow natural light to blend your lounge with the outside giving a sensation of greater space.

Meanwhile, ensure that there is plenty of space to walk through: create a simple ‘path’ to get in and out. It should not be an obstacle course!

And, why not? You can also renew your home with our simple tricks for decorating the walls in an original way.

Whether your room is square, rectangular, or irregular, these small tips on how to arrange your living/dining room will allow you to enjoy this space even more, where what really matters is filling it with memories.