The Most Common Living Room Layout Mistakes (and Solutions!)

Despite what people say about the kitchen being the hub of the home, I think the living room is where I spend most of my time.

It’s also one of the areas I’m asked most by clients to help them get right. In TLC’s closed Facebook group (which you can join here), a lot of living room layout issues have arisen too.

I thought it best I reveal some of my most-seen living room layout mistakes today, and of course, show you how you can fix these blunders. It’s all in the name of making your home amazing, so let’s dive right into sorting the living room out!

The Most Common Living Room Layout Mistakes (and Solutions!)

Give your sofa room to breathe

The Sofa is Wedged to the Wall

The issue I come across most is the sofa pushed right up against a wall. Even in the largest of spaces, with tonnes of room, I still see sofas wedged into a corner, with buckets of dead space in front of them.

The remedy for this is simple; move the sofa off the wall.

In a small space where you’re not spoilt for room, I’d still recommend moving your sofa off the wall about 20cm. It can help the sofa to ‘breathe’ a little and give the illusion of more air flow.

In a larger room, you’ll often find that moving the sofa into the middle of the space and grounding it with a rug makes the entire zone feel fuller and more resolved.

A gorgeous scene to walk into here from H&M.

The TV is the Focal Point

I get it; the living room’s main purpose is to watch TV. But ideally you don’t want it to be the first thing you see when you walk into the room.

If the entire room layout can be flipped (so you see the sofa when you walk in instead) this is your ideal solution.

If you can’t flip the room, you need to bring in a focal point near the TV, so your eye doesn’t go right to the big black box. Try an artwork, cluster of frames, or painting the wall behind the TV black.

If you need some ideas to camouflage your TV set, this post will help.

There’s no Conversation Pit

Often, living rooms are set up with sofas and armchairs on one wall, and an entertainment unit on the other. This can often make the space feel long and narrow, with two giant pieces of furniture mirroring one another in the space.

The space can end up feeling like a hallway, with two open ends. The solution is to introduce some seating on the ends of your living room, so more of a conversation pit is formed.

Every living room benefits from a conversation pit, even if you don’t use it a lot. The chairs don’t have to sit directly across from the sofa, but they can sit on a diagonal or on the adjacent.

If you want to see some of the best armchairs for your living room, check this post out.

You need a Grounding Rug

Laying out the pieces in your living room is all about creating a space that makes sense visually and functionally. A rug often ticks the former box; it’s not necessarily functional but it does make the room feel grounded.

Without a rug in the room, pieces often feel like they’re disconnected (almost ‘floating’ in the space). It’s often the first thing I recommend to people when they say their room doesn’t feel complete or cosy.

Throwing down a rug will ground all of the pieces in a room. It can also give you a border with which to pull armchairs and sofas toward.

You can find tips for buying your perfect rug here.

The Coffee Table is too Far Away

I often see living rooms with rather large sofas in them, and a tiny coffee table metres away from it that can’t be reached.

In this scenario, you either need to purchase a larger coffee table, or you need to pull the coffee table closer to the sofa (or both!).

If the coffee table is there merely for decorative purposes (which I’m totally OK with), at least have some side tables at the end of the sofa that you can put a drink on.

The TV is Across from a Large Window

There’s nothing worse than sitting down to watch a movie during the day on the weekend and having to sit in the dark because the reflection on the TV screen is in full force.

If you can, move the TV to a wall where reflection isn’t going to be such an issue. Many living rooms are designed in a way where the reflection can’t be avoided. But sometimes we’re just too lazy to rearrange the space.

If your power points and antenna holes are on one wall, it doesn’t cost much to get someone to come to your home and move them to a new wall. You’ll benefit in the long-run.

OZ Design have the right idea here with the lack of symmetry

You’re Obsessing over Symmetry

A lot of us (myself included) get too caught up in symmetry. The TV unit is smack bang in the middle of a long wall. The sofa is centered perfectly across from it. Art is meticulously hung either side of the TV.

This approach can often make a room feel too formal. And in many cases, the room can feel smaller because there’s a lot of wasted space not being utilised properly.

The solution is easy; embrace the space being a little unbalanced. Moving a TV unit to the left a little can give you room for a shelf to display things on. Or moving a sofa to one side of the room can allow more space for an armchair, side table or floor lamp to be brought in.

The TV is not Wall Mounted

Truthfully, I’ve never walked into a space and thought the TV was better left of a unit rather than being wall-mounted. It always looks better on a wall.

The trick to getting TV’s on walls right, is to ensure the set is not mounted too high up the wall. You want it to be at eye level or slightly higher when you’re sitting down.

But 100% of the time the set will look nicer mounted. It also means your entertainment unit can be more streamlined and less imposing in the space.

Image via Adairs

What’s your main Living Room Layout Issue?

I’d love to know what’s bugging you in your living room. Drop a comment below and I’ll give you some hints and tips on how to correct it.