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a home + living guide for the post-college, pre-parenthood, quasi-adult generation

01.08.2001

home
editor's note 
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DEPARTMENTS
 
o lounge 
o nourish 
 
o host
o
laze
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o BOARDS
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what goes where?
furniture arranging 101 | 1 2 3 4
continued from page 1

With your customized playing board (floorplan) and playing pieces (furniture cut-outs) set out in front of you, you’re ready to start playing the furniture arrangement game …

A room with a view
The very first question you should ask yourself when you’re figuring out what to put exactly where: what do you want to be looking at when you’re sitting in this room? This is what the pros are babbling about when they talk about "finding the focal point." Most rooms have a logical focal point. In your living room, for instance, it could be a big window with a nice view outside, or, if you’re lucky like me, a fireplace. In the bedroom, it could be another window, or even a nice expanse of wall where your favorite artwork could be displayed. Once you know your focal point, you’ll know how you want to orient your major furnishings.

Go with the flow
There are certain areas of each room where you won’t be able to place any furniture because doing so would make it pretty damn awkward to navigate around the room. So one of the first things you’ll want to look for as you’re shuffling your little furniture pieces about is the room’s flow.

The ability to get from one point to another unimpeded is basically what interior designers mean by flow. Doorways largely dictate flow. Because we humans tend to be a lazy lot, we tend to like to get from one doorway to another doorway in as straight a line as possible. Which means that you generally won’t want to plop a gargantuan sofa smack dab in the middle of that line of flow between two entryways. You can have a piece of furniture partially jutting into that traffic path – you just don’t want to be completely obstructing that path.

Where you place your furnishings in relation to each other also dictates flow. One thing you’ll want to keep in mind as you're planning: two and a half feet is pretty much the minimum you can get away with when it comes to a comfortable path width.

keep walking, there's more ...

---------------------------> lounge . nourish . host . laze . home.