Choosing Furniture for a Narrow Living Room

One of the essential parts of decorating a home is deciding which furniture should go in it. Your home should always reflect your personal taste and style, so you may already have definite preferences for the style of furniture you want. But many homeowners find that their choices are constrained by the particular layout of their home. In particular, having rooms which are overly narrow, long, tall, low or irregular can severely impede furniture installation.

Having a room which is too narrow tends to be the most common complaint amongst homeowners, as this feature can be present in any property, no matter its age or style. Arranging furniture one way may mean your room looks narrower – another way and you may lose your focal point or end up chopping the room in two, creating an ugly, divisive effect.

Ground the Space

Buying solid furniture will help your room to feel more grounded, so choosing dark or heavy pieces from somewhere like Notation Furniture should be a top priority. Because a long room can seem so akin to a hallway, it’s important to ensure that your furniture is not of the transient variety. If you like wood, choose pieces in oak or walnut.

Reduce the Clutter

Nothing makes a narrow room look worse than the presence of too many pieces of furniture. If you have no need for it – for example, if you don’t have guests round that often – then just get rid. If you do like to entertain, consider choosing pieces which can double up, like an ottoman.

Arranging Your Furniture

The best place to start should be by imagining how people will be moving through the room. In a long, narrow room, it’s best to try to encourage traffic to stick to one side, so bear this in mind when you choose both your seating and your coffee table. It might be tempting to buy a square table to try to give the room more of a ‘square feel’, but this will only serve to make visitors confused about how to navigate their way through. Seating can be arranged either along the room or perpendicular to it, but always bear in mind how people will walk through the room. If you choose to have your furniture perpendicular, opting for smaller pieces – such as loveseats – will help to keep your room looking natural and uncluttered.