Some of the comments I got on my living room post got me thinking about the furniture layout in the room. The room has no wall for furniture to sit against. One wall has an 8′ opening to the foyer, one an 8′ opening to the family room, one a french door centered on the wall and the final one has the fireplace. So, the layout needs to float in the room…..and the back of a sofa is going to face somewhere….sigh. And if it backs to an opening it needs to be centered…. With all of this in mind….I went in search of images of room layouts with facing sofas.
Architectural Digest, via
Muse Interiors
Caldwell Flake
Elle Decor, photography by Kate Martin
After moving furniture around for a few days, bringing a sofa down from my office, taping things out….playing with my floorplan software I have come to the conclusion that I like the two sofa look for this room. What I, personally, do not like is two mismatched sofas–which is what I had before. Notice that all of my inspiration images have matching sofas. The ones I found with mis-matched sofas didn’t please me as much. So, now I’ll be ordering another of these….to face the one I’ve already got.
The pink silk on the existing one is going…..and they’ll both be upholstered in a solid linen. How is that for a 180? I loved that pink silk and it went so well in our old house where it really was my only pop of pink. But, to be honest I’ve got enough of it going on at this point and I’d rather keep the upholstery in the room calm so that the drapes, art and pillows can shine. It is definitely a work in process around here.
What do you think of the facing sofa arrangement?
P.S. Check back if you are interested as I have another fabric to list this afternoon. I am definitely seeing progress in the dwindling down of heaps of “stuff” I’ve got to shed in my office! (Actually all over the house….as of this weekend we actually have both cars in the garage again….something we haven’t been able to do since the remodel). In any case, I will probably list a bunch of fabric this week and then be done with it for a while! So I hope the extra posts aren’t annoying you!
8 Comments
Huge fan of floating facing sofas. Looks very inviting and welcoming…like lets have a seat, relax and chat.
June 11th, 2012 at 7:22 amI love the look of facing sofas, especially that first picture.
June 11th, 2012 at 9:16 amJust went to hear some decorator speak at Company C (don’t know his name, but he wrote the book “101 Things I Hate About Your House). He talks about floating furniture. It was interesting. Also, my parents have 2 pairs of matching sofas – and I love the look. But one pair, they set at a right angle to each other, rather than opposite each other.
June 11th, 2012 at 9:39 amI know this isn’t the focus of the article, but those fireplaces are absolutely stunning. Having those facing sofas really open up the room and show off those fireplaces!
June 11th, 2012 at 12:50 pmI have the same situation in our family room and having been thinking about doing facing sofas for about a year now. Your pictures are great, now I can see that it would work in our room. I like your two cushion sofa and think the linen will be beautiful.
June 11th, 2012 at 2:45 pmI hope to have two sofas facing eachother in the family room someday. I love this look. If you got to my Pinterest board on family rooms you will see a bunch of examples. Your living room is so lovely with the way you have it arranged.
June 11th, 2012 at 3:27 pmHappy Monday
i love the movie sets of Nancy Meyer movies, particularly Father of The Bride. the house works so well to tell the story of life without itself becoming the focus of the story. i love this website called ‘hooked on houses’ as they have somehow captured movie set photos. anyway, the layout of that living room ‘works’ and they have an entry like yours and french doors.i agree a respite from the pink is a good idea.
June 11th, 2012 at 5:43 pmWOW!! you really listen to your comments! Love it!
June 11th, 2012 at 10:26 pmfloating sofas are truly a much nicer way of featuring everything else around the room…..everything breathes! If you have the extra room to install a sofa table on both then I would say you have hit the jackpot!