Arranging Furniture in Your New Home

The way in which the furniture is arranged in a room can make the space either more functional, open, and visually appealing, or cramped and uncomfortable. This is why being mindful when it comes to furniture placement is key to making a more inviting space, especially if you’re redecorating your home or if you’re moving to a new place. And if you’re trying to combine your old and new furniture, things can get even more challenging.

To make the process of arranging the furniture in your new home easier for you, we’ll give you some tips and tricks in the paragraphs below.

Analyzing Your New Home

Before you start thinking about furniture placement, there are a few essential steps that you need to go through, and the first one is analyzing the space. To do this, you first need to start with a clean slate and empty all the rooms in your new home to get a feel of the space. An initial walk-through in an empty space can make all the difference when deciding where to place the furniture, which we’ll cover in the next steps.

You can also do this part digitally by using software to add the dimensions of a room and see what you have to work with.

First, strip all the decorations if the house has them, and add only the existing furniture pieces. Then you can start thinking about what can stay and what needs to go. However, if you’re starting with a completely empty home, you can move on to the next step.

Next, think about what each room will be used for and what specific activities you envision yourself doing. For example, a huge office room can also serve as a relaxing and reading room in the afternoons if you add a comfortable chair and adequate lighting. Part of your living room can become a designated workout space or a bar area for entertaining guests.

Finally, decide on where the room's main focal point will be by considering the placement of the windows, doors, and other significant elements. If a room doesn’t have a focal point, you can add one by adding a specific piece of furniture, artwork on the walls, or even playing with different wall textures and materials.

Think About the Layout

Next comes choosing the layout of the furniture in each room, so here are a few general layouts to get you started:

• Symmetrical - the furniture you place in one part of the room is mirrored to the other, opposite side of the room. You can do this by adding two sofas in a living room that are faced towards each other or placing linear kitchen cabinets on two opposite walls.
• U-shape or L-shape - you place the furniture on three neighboring or two neighboring walls in a room and leave the other walls empty. This layout is quite common if you have a living room that opens up to the backyard (U-shape layout), or if you have a room where you want to leave the center empty, and place the furniture in an L-shaped layout, for example, an office.
• Irregular - this layout is quite common for rooms that are angled and shaped irregularly, so you’ll need to create different zones when arranging the furniture.

The Importance of Light

To make sure you have adequate lighting, you’ll need to look at both natural and artificial light. First, analyze the number of windows in the room and whether they satisfy the requirements for natural light, or you’ll need to make some changes. Then, think about artificial lights and see whether you prefer overhead lighting, table lamps, floor lamps, spotlights, and so on. Make sure that you add different levels of light to make a room feel cozy.

Arrange the Furniture Virtually

You can experiment with different types of furniture and layouts even before you start adding furniture to the space by taking advantage of free online tools. You can keep testing layouts both in 2D and 3D until you’re satisfied with the final result.

Another option is to use paper replicas that mimic the dimensions of the actual furniture and place them around the room. This way, you’ll get a feel of how much space each piece of furniture takes up and see what position is the best one.

Plan Your Budget Ahead

To make this whole process easier, you first need to know your exact budget for purchasing the furniture and decorations for your new home. Make a detailed plan for how much you’re willing to spend on new furniture, lights, artwork, and decorations, and don’t forget to calculate the cost for your designer or architect, as well as a carpenter or other personnel if you need to restore some of the furniture.

Consult With a Professional

Architects and interior designers have a lot of experience when it comes to making a room as functional as it can be, so they can be even more helpful than experimenting with online tools. When doing the consultation, discuss your preferences, personal style, and ideas for the place, so the designer will have more to work with. And if you’d like to consult with experienced professionals, don’t hesitate to contact us or use our budget estimator to help you get started.

Old vs New Furniture

The main challenge when moving into a new place is creating a perfect balance between the old furniture that you’ve decided to bring along and the new furniture you’re planning to buy. To create a place that feels comfortable and cozy, make sure that the styles of the furniture align or have a small contrast between them.

When mixing old and new furniture, you should keep these three tips in mind:

• The 80/20 rule.

To create balance in your home, keep the ratio of new to old furniture 80 to 20.

• Have at least one similarity between the old and new furniture.

You need to have something that ties both the old and the new furniture together, so maybe include contemporary and antique items that have the same pattern, color, or design.

• Play with proportions.

To make your vintage furniture pop out, you can add a large antique to a smaller corner in your room so it dominates the space and becomes a focal point in the room.

Color and Texture

Color is everything when designing a space and so is texture. Make sure that when you plan a room out, you take into consideration the color of the walls against the furniture and whether they work together. It’s best to go with neutral color palettes as they’re timeless and can easily be elevated by adding decoration and other smaller elements that will make the room come alive. You can add more color and texture by adding curtains, throw pillows, and decorative art.

Leave Empty Space

Not every nook and cranny should be filled with furniture. Do leave empty space between the furniture to allow yourself to move freely around the room without bumping into things and for the furniture drawers and doors to be able to open fully. Start by adding the biggest furniture pieces, such as beds and sofas, and then continue with the smaller pieces, such as chairs, end tables, and smaller decorative pieces.

Add Area Rugs

To tie all the furniture together, take advantage of area rugs and order the right-sized rug so it’s big enough for the sofa and all the furniture to rest on it. The front legs of large furniture pieces should sit on the area rug, while the back legs can sit on the floor.

Add Side Tables at Arms Length

In rooms where there are seating arrangements, it’s best to have a side table or coffee table at arm's length so you can leave and retrieve a drink easily or leave your favorite book on top of it. Side tables and coffee tables should be the same height as the seating arrangement in the vicinity or even lower.

Add Artwork and Decorative Items Last

Once all the furniture is in place, you can see where artwork and additional decor pieces would make the most sense to add some character to the room. When adding artwork, we recommend using a piece of art that’s about two-thirds of the whole length of a sofa or cabinet.

Smaller artwork will look unbalanced compared to a large sofa, and the same goes for very large artwork and smaller furniture, so if you do want to add smaller frames, use two or more to create a group, and if you want to hang a really big piece, opt for placing it on a separate wall where it has nothing to compete to. You should also take into consideration the position of the artwork if you want to create a harmonious space. A great balance would be to position the frame about 20-25 cm above the sofa so it doesn’t look too detached nor lost in the back of the sofa.

Final Tips for Arranging the Furniture in Your New Home

• Don’t add more furniture than a room can hold if you don’t want the room to feel cluttered.
• Leave a bit of room between the walls and the furniture.
• Have a separate space for each function, for example, a place for prepping food, cooking food, serving food, eating food, and storing food in the kitchen.
• Have good lighting and use different types of lights.
• Add different textures to create depth in the room.
• Mix the furniture materials and the design styles, for example, combine wood with metal and glass to combine traditional and contemporary design styles.
• And last but not least, have fun while designing your new space!