Furniture arrangement in a narrow room..help !

nlr7 · 01-15-2012, 02:56 AM

I have this living room that measures 18 feet by 7.5 feet. There is a window at the shorter further end of the room and the entire wall on the long side on the right is a long window. I should be able to seat at least 4-5 people in a arrangement conducive for conversation as well as have coffee/side tables.
I will be putting in wooden flooring and roman blinds on the windows as well as closing up the wall niche cupboard on the left side.
I prefer having furniture that doesn’t look heavy. There is no TV etc that needs to go go in this room. The area marked 'Drawing Room' in the attachment picture is what I need help with.

Would highly appreciate your suggestions!

ARC Painting · 01-15-2012, 08:37 PM

I think its just a matter of getting small or narrow furniture. Maybe a bench along one of the long walls.

that's an interesting living space...

nlr7 · 01-15-2012, 09:24 PM

I will mostly have adults (read 40+) who will be using this space

and hence a bench would not be suitable.
Any other suggestions on changing the placement around the room?

Thanks

Two Knots · 01-16-2012, 04:36 AM

7 1/2 feet is difficult to get a decent arrangement.
Is that a kitchen tucked between the stairs?
How big is the dining room? Have you considered
swapping the dining room with the drawing room?

Seems to me it would flow better having the living
room and drawing room together.

sdsester · 01-16-2012, 09:22 AM

Something is missing from the floorplan. Where, for example is the kitchen and where do people sleep, and you know? Where is the natural flow of pets and people through the space? And adults, mostly over 40 using the space for what?

Extend the window sill, cushion and upholster it and I, older than 40 something could lay in that window like a cat with my laptop or a book.

You have doors swinging on to mythology space unless you share more. Once a designer I love white space but you are showing a bit too much.

Two Knots · 01-16-2012, 12:06 PM

Out of curosity, where are you located nlr, Europe?
This layout is very unusual.

jimmyfloyd · 01-16-2012, 02:45 PM

Any chance of replacing the large window in the drawing room with a bay window? You could then make the Bay have a bench top for seating, and put the furniture on the other side. This would maximize the space and increase the seating.

other than that, I line the idea of swaping drawing and dining room. It will be easier to find a narrow dining table and chairs than it will be to find well-fitting chairs/sofas for the other room.

My only other suggestion would be to build in a custom L-shaped couch along the small window and no window side, then get something like this:

My wife and I used to have a pair of those, and they had a seat top and a glass top and could be a coffee table or extra seating.

nlr7 · 01-16-2012, 09:47 PM

Thanks @all for your suggestions. I'm located in India

and this is an older home whose living areas and dining room I'm trying to refurbish. All the white space you see make up the kitchen/study and bedrooms and they are not part of this current plan to redo! The kitchen is to the left of the dining room and it would be very awkward to shift the dining area to the very front of the house! The flow of people is all along the length of the house as the position of the doors indicate

Here in India, the walls are made up of brick and mortar and it's extremely hard to pull down any walls and I wouldn't want to do that! I will have to maintain the functionality of each room as it exists and will not be able to change that at all.

There are no bay windows and no wide sills on any of the windows. The room for which I requested help is where the main entry door of the home opens into.
@TwoKnots, no that isn't a kitchen. That's the second living room and what you see placed on it is the planned furniture seating with sofas,coffee table, a rug etc!

This is a pic of the room as it exists in a very unlikeable state now !
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=3ef36e5c74

I was not able to capture the complete 18 feet length but the windows on the right extend all along the wall and on the left, the wall is all blank except for the niche wall cupboards which I intend closing up.

It's not difficult to get furniture custom made here in India and I would still like to avoid/minimize pouffe sort of furniture since this room will have visitors related to work/business !

jimmyfloyd · 01-16-2012, 10:17 PM

Given this new information, I would suggest the following:

Along the short wall where you have the two chairs now, you instead go with a single piece of furniture that extends the width of the space. This will give you seating for 3 people comfortably, possibly 4 if needed. I would then try and find two narrow chairs to go opposite them, which will give you seating for 5.

For the coffee table, the only you picture seems rather large for the space. I would look into one that is made up of several pieces, similar to this:

By doing something like that, you can have a lot of work space if needed, and you can move them out of the way if you need the space for family. Again, you could go with something that is strong enough to be additional seating too.

Being that you mention that the room is 18' long, you could also do two more chairs against the long window wall as a sitting area, and the chairs could be pulled in for larger groups.

Two Knots · 01-17-2012, 07:41 AM

"It's not difficult to get furniture custom made here in India and I would still like to avoid/minimize pouffe sort of furniture since this room will have visitors related to work/business ! "

ok nlr, now I see what you're trying to achieve. comfortable,
functional and somewhat business like.

One question, how many adults we be gathered in this
room at one time?

You said it's not difficult to get custom furnitue made in India. How
about a narrow sectional -- placed along the left inside wall and
the far end wall? On each end of the sofa have small end tables
with lamps...they kind I'm thinking about have stackable tables
that fit inside, They can be easily pulled out for use...

For the front wall small chairs with upholstered seats, (for comfort)perhaps four of them?
If you need tables so that people can use them to write on...the stackable
end tables on either side of the sectional will work.

Also on the inside wall near the doorway to the rest of the house a small
table (or piece of furniture) for use for coffee or tea and other snacks.
I will do a quick search for an example of stackable tables.

ok. Here's stackable tables. One set on each end of the sectional,
would be attractive as well as functional. The smaller one's
are perfect for pulling out in front of the sofa when needed.

http://www.onewayfurniture.com/netase.html

something like this...

this is from the same link I provided -- under side boards...
I was thinking of something like this for a coffee, tea server...
It has storage and is quite functional.

again, something like this can be placed on the left inside
wall -- near the doorway into the main part of the house.
...also if you put a lamp on this table you could eliminate
the lamp on the stackable end tables that is near this piece of furniture,
thus the bigger end table next to the sofa can be easily pulled out for your
guests to use. Hopefully you can buy or have this made in India.

I was thinking of four chairs like these to be placed along
the front outside wall...these are from the same website, as
the stackable tables and the sideboard table.
The chair with rollers would be functional
and the arms are comfortable.

nlr7 · 01-17-2012, 11:07 PM

TwoKnots !!!

Thank you so much for the wonderful suggestions! It's exactly what I wanted to achieve

)

I have a simple not-to-scale drawing attached here. Will keep the forum posted once I work out the dimensions etc a little better.

Thanks again!! Hugsssss

Two Knots · 01-18-2012, 08:29 AM

nlr, You're very welcome.
Your sketch-up looks teriffic, and exactly what I had in mind.
It would be functional, comfortable and not cluttered.

The console in it's place -- is the first thing that would be visable
upon entering the house, thus it is something that can easily
and continually be dressed up or down with accessories
according to your needs.

Please keep us posted on
all your progress, as it would be interesting for us to
see it completed. Best Wishes and Good luck.

mugme62 · 06-11-2012, 11:05 AM

nlr7, Free space in your room is very narrow.Very few furniture is suitable for your room.You can see in the furniture show room to get appropriate furniture or you can contact a furniture designer.He can give a better solution.

-mugme62