Furniture and Furnishing

Furniture and Furnishings 3(1+2)

Lesson 07: Plans And Furniture Arrangement

The Living Room

Living rooms have to provide space for the greatest number of activities, and therefore need the greatest care in planning. Space saving in planning for storage should be the keynote, in order to leave as much space as possible for moveable furniture- i.e. adaptable seating arrangements for different occasions, and for varying numbers of people. Choose pieces which are light and easy to move, and for the smaller room, as many dual purpose pieces as possible- e.g. settee adaptable for occasional sleeping, occasional table combined with workbox or magazine shelf, dining chairs suitable for occasional leisure seating. Ideally, the heating and insulation should be such as to allow all parts of the room to be used with equal comfort.

Whenever possible choose wall- hung units for space saving. Cabinets, shelves and bureaus suspended on the wall reduce the obstacle areas caused by legs of furniture, giving greater ease of movement and cleaning, as well as enhancing the spaciousness of the room.

Where old and new pieces of furniture are mixed in the same room, like pieces- e.g. an old and new easy chair- should be placed at different points in the room so that they do not complete with each other. When mixing light and dark woods the light pieces should be placed in the darker parts of the room, and the dark pieces where they will catch the light, thus unifying the two tones of wood.