Arranging furniture so that it is both beautiful and comfortable is not easy.
I do interior design, and sometimes people come to me for consultations who “have done renovations, bought everything new, but something is still wrong.” Expensive furniture in a renovated apartment is inconvenient and does not look as stylish as in a showroom or advertisement.
I’ll tell you what mistakes even designers often make when arranging furniture and how to avoid them.
The most common mistakes with furniture
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Mistake #1
Furniture not according to tenants’ requests
When people choose furniture for their apartment, they often rely on generally accepted standards. For example, they believe that there should be a sofa in the living room and a dining table in the kitchen.
In fact, when selecting furniture, you need to take into account, first of all, the needs of the apartment’s residents and the possibilities of the space. It happens that a dining table does not fit into a small kitchen at all. But it is not needed, because the owners are used to having breakfast at their computers in the workplace, and having dinner at the coffee table in front of the TV.
If no one eats in a small kitchen, she will benefit from not having a table. Photo: Evgenia Matveenko / Flats Design
Imagine how difficult it would be to organize a table in such a kitchen. Source: cpdesigninterieur.fr
At the same time, for example, two large and isolated workplaces are needed in the same space, because both people living in the apartment work from home and periodically go on calls. You are unlikely to find such a solution among standard layouts.
The dimensions of the desktop are also important: often standard layouts indicate a small table that is suitable for a regular computer or laptop. If you have several monitors, a powerful computer and additional equipment on your desk, you need to choose a spacious and comfortable desk.
A workspace does not necessarily mean a table and chair on wheels. For example, it could look like a chair with a footrest and a side table nearby, or a large high table with some space around it. For each such decision, they create their own layout.
A sofa is also an optional option. It can be replaced with armchairs to create an area for communication, or not installed at all, especially if there is no TV and you do not invite guests into the house.
What’s the best way to do it? First, you should figure out what kind of furniture is needed and why, and then just buy and arrange it. This will help avoid cramped, cluttered spaces and unnecessary cleaning. Write down what you do in your apartment during the day and what furniture you need for it. Use this list as a starting point when planning your furniture purchase and arrangement.
The sofa can be replaced with a comfortable chair and soft poufs. Photo: Puffino Mx / Pinterest
In this micro-studio, the sofa was replaced with a low table and two seats. Source: apartmenttherapy.com
Mistake #2
Disproportionate furniture
It is important that the furniture matches the size of the room. A huge sofa will take up half the room in a Khrushchev building – and there is no way to beat it or compensate for it. And small chairs and a table in a spacious room with high ceilings will look lonely.
Furniture should be proportionate not only to the room, but also to the residents of the apartment. If your knees rest against the tabletop, the furniture is chosen incorrectly. If the chairs are chosen in such a way that the owners’ legs dangle in the air, or if it is impossible to reach the top drawer in the kitchen without a stool, this is also wrong. Even the most beautiful designer renovation will not bring joy if the apartment is uncomfortable to live in.
For such a tall space, you want a larger chandelier or something that would compensate for the difference between small chairs and the wall, such as paintings. Source: carlaaston.comMassive chandeliers and large paintings are the best ways to compensate for too high ceilings and make the room feel cozy rather than empty. Source: theinspiredhive.com
What’s the best way to do it? Select furniture according to the size of the apartment: a table for 12 people will not fit into a one-room Khrushchev-era apartment, and a small sofa against the wall of a huge room will look strange. It is also worth focusing on your height and weight. In the apartment, you can test the future arrangement – for example, imitate it with boxes or stick masking tape on the floor according to the size of the furniture to check whether there will be enough space in the aisles.
You can use services for visualization. But there are two nuances:
3D visualizations of apartments seem more spacious due to the camera position, so you shouldn’t focus on them. 2D visualizations of an apartment plan are more difficult to perceive, but they give a better idea of how cramped it will be inside.
The height of tables, chairs and sofas is selected together with those who will sit on them. Shelves, mirrors, top drawers and rods in closets are adjusted to the height of the shortest adult in the apartment, and in the nursery they choose options that “grow” with the child.
Mistake #3
Incorrect zoning
When you have chosen furniture for the purposes you need, it is important to arrange it wisely into zones. This does not always work out the first time. Here are three bad examples:
They separate bookcases and reading space, and then wonder why they stopped reading books. They put a hanger and a laundry basket not where they usually change clothes, but where there is space, and suffer from scattered things. They set up a work area next to the bed, and worry that it has become difficult to work and difficult to fall asleep.
What’s the best way to do it? Not every apartment allows you to arrange furniture in such a way as to isolate different zones from each other, but in this case, zoning with light, color and other ways to divide the space comes to the rescue. Whenever possible, adhere to the following principles:
Set up your workspace as far away from your bedroom as possible. Do not place your work desk opposite your bed – during the day you will constantly want to lie down, and in the evening you will not be able to sleep well because of thoughts about work. If you have to work in the bedroom, at least turn the table away from the bed so you don’t have to look at it during the day. Designate a separate area for eating, even if you don’t eat in the kitchen. Let it be a coffee or side table or a separate bedside table near the computer. This way there will be less food scattered around the room. Combine items according to zones. It is better to place an armchair with a table next to a book shelf and a floor lamp. This way you won’t have to look for what to light up the book in the evening. If there is a clothes rack and a basket for dirty linen next to the wardrobe, then you no longer need to go through the entire apartment with your clothes to wash. It seems that this is a simple principle, but it is violated very often. The work place in the studio is placed on the balcony: this allows you not to cross zones. Source: ivd.ru
Mistake #4
Arrangement on the walls
To free up space in a small apartment, furniture is often placed along the walls and the center is left empty. This disrupts the composition and the room still looks cluttered. Think of a typical living room with a closet along one wall and a sofa on the other – this is a classic example of what not to do. If you place all the furniture along the walls in a large room, it will become even worse – it will seem empty and uncomfortable.
In addition to compositional disadvantages, this arrangement also has practical disadvantages. Chairs, sofas and armchairs that are placed close to the wall leave marks on them.
What’s the best way to do it? Place furniture at a distance of 10-15 centimeters from the wall and zone the room so that things do not stand only along the walls. You can unfold a table or sofa or fill the empty space in the center of the room with tables.
There is a huge distance between the sofa and the TV, which will make watching TV very uncomfortable. And the attempt at zoning with carpet failed. Or you could just put the sofa closer to the center of the room, and then the TV area would look better and be much more comfortable. Photo: Dariusz Jarzabek / Shutterstock
Also a sofa and two armchairs in the living room, but it looks much more comfortable. Source: sugarandcloth.comEven if the TV hangs opposite the sofa, to watch it all together, just turn the chairs around. And no placements along the walls. Source: wescover.com
Mistake #5
Narrow passages
If there is little space between the furniture, living in such a room is uncomfortable. Moreover, even in large apartments it happens that the passage between the sofa and the coffee table is too narrow, and the center of the room is empty. If you move the tables to the middle of the room, this will not save the situation. Most likely, the room is zoned incorrectly and the layout needs to be reconsidered as a whole.
If you constantly bump into things, have to squeeze between a seat and a table, or want to turn sideways when walking past a closet, the aisles are too cramped. At the same time, you can leave a narrow passage where you rarely go. But the trajectories along which you constantly move must be free.
Typically these routes are the shortest distances from one door to another. To be sure to identify them, you can cover the floor with paper, paint the soles of your shoes with washable paint, and walk around like that all day. If somewhere you have to constantly go around things, this will also be visible in the tracks – they will not be so straight.
What’s the best way to do it? Plan your arrangement in advance and measure all the furniture. Any simple scheduler will do for this, for example Replan. The free version has enough tools to arrange furniture and see all the tight spots.
Here the distance between the wall and the bed is too narrow, and it will be inconvenient to make your way to the sleeping area, make the bed and change the bed linen, and it will not be possible to climb onto the bed from the foot of the bed because of the stools for clothes. In addition, if you constantly walk and touch the walls, marks will appear on them. Source: artmenttherapy.com
This is part of my work project at Remplanner, where I show the client that if she arranges the bed and wardrobe the way she wants, the passage will be extremely narrow – only 45 cm. The arrangement was left this way because the client is familiar with narrow passages and she likes them cluttered with furniture premises. This is normal: the design should please, first of all, the person who will live in it
Mistake #6
No compositional center
The compositional center in a room is the point that attracts maximum attention. In a large room with different zones there may be several such points, but most often there is only one. This could be a stand with a TV, a wall with a picture above the head of the bed, a beautiful chest of drawers with lamps and vases. Without a compositional center, the eye has nowhere to rest, and it seems as if something is missing.
Even minimalist interiors have such a point. It doesn’t have to be bright or contrasting: you can attract attention with an unusual shape or print.
What’s the best way to do it? To create a focal point, choose one focal point in the room—a headboard, a colorful sofa, a TV stand—and make it brighter than anything else.
Typically, the compositional center occupies either the entire wall – like an accent wall, or some part of it. It is important that it be significant. It is usually the same size as the largest non-accent piece of furniture, or it is the largest piece of furniture, such as an accent sofa.
Mistake #7
Lack of balance
A mistake that is very easy to make and difficult to correct is an imbalance. This happens when a lot of large and bright things accumulate in one part of the room, but not enough in the other. There is an “overweight” that hurts the eye. For example, on one side of the room there is a large sofa and an armchair, and on the other there is a single TV and two shelves.
What’s the best way to do it? Distribute zones evenly. If one part of the room ends up with more furniture, offset it with decor and richer, brighter colors in another part of the room.
On one side there is a large sofa and table, and on the other side there is a darker wall with a TV and a cabinet. The room feels balanced by having furniture occupy the same amount of space, but a neutral picture above the sofa or darker pillows will make the room look even better. Source: heraconceptstudio.comThe dark cabinet and active decor on the left compensate for the sofa and tables. The composition looks uniform. Source: decoholic.orgThe dark sofa and mirror are offset by smaller but brighter armchairs, and the ceiling does not seem empty due to the massive chandelier. Source: inmyroom.ru
2023-09-27 15:27:52
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