How To Arrange An Odd Shaped Living Room

You love your home, but most living rooms aren’t exactly a square or rectangle. Considering the living room is the showcase area of your home, you want to be able to entertain company and kick back comfortably there. Fortunately, there are many tricks to help you to utilize the living space and make an odd shaped living room work in your favor. I hope you find these thirteen awkward irregular shaped living room ideas helpful to making the most out of your space. From odd shaped living room furniture placement to decorative touches, we’ve got you covered. Here is how to make sense of an odd living room layout.

13 Irregular Shaped Living Room Ideas

Arrange Living Room Around The Focal Point

The first step in how to decorate an odd shaped living room is find your focal point. There are a lot of great apartments and homes that aren’t laid out like traditional living areas. Interior designers will tell you that an oddly shaped living room shouldn’t stop you from getting the apartment you want. The best way to start decorating your odd room is to decide what the focal point of the room will be. If it’s going to be the television, then put the television in a highly visible spot. Once you have your focal point for the entire room, such as the mantle, then you can decorate around it. Odd shaped living room furniture placement is easier to decide upon once you know where you want the furniture pieces to face.

Segment The Room

If your living room is really oddly shaped, then don’t panic. All you need to do is break it down into segments and then arrange the furniture in each area appropriately. For example, you could put a reading chair and bookshelves in one part of your room, while you place a game table in another. If the room lends itself to different functions, then go with it and utilize the space wisely.  Use the furniture to help delineate different areas with different functions and fill awkward spaces. The key to awkward living room layout ideas is to use the odd space in an attractive manner. You can create a separate bonus space for a desk or reading nook.

Use Earth Tones

Bold colors make any part of a room stand out. When decorating an odd shaped room, make sure the walls, rugs and furniture are Earth tones. These are paint colors such as beige, grey and dark blue. When you use these kinds of colors, it sets the walls into the background and makes the odd shape of the room less obvious. With any luck, the walls will blend together and you’ll remove the impression of sitting in a weird living area.

Be Consistent

In order to de-emphasize the room’s shape, the design elements should all be the same. Each window should have the same window treatments, the furniture should all match and the trim around each wall should be consistent. This means that using an accent wall here is a bad idea, unless you are intentionally trying to draw attention to that part of the room.

Utilize The Floor Space

Partitions and dividers can be really useful in organizing the flow of certain living areas, depending on the nature of the space. Consider using free-standing bookshelves as another means of controlling an area.  Many designers also insist you avoid over-utilizing linear wall space to keep an oddly shaped room from getting in the way of conversation. Clean, organized presentation is an essential element of all irregular shaped living room ideas.

Add An Area Rug

Using an area rug to bring together a group of furnishings is a great way to distract from an irregular shaped living room. A large area rug placed under seating arrangements helps to segment part of the room and make it appear to be a smaller room within the room. You can also place a large rug in the center of the room to create visual interest and shift focus from an oddly shaped room or awkward columns.

Scale Furniture

Using furniture that’s too big or too small in an irregular shaped living room can make the arrangement seem disconnected. Scale your furniture to the size of the room so that it flows better and distracts the eye from a difficult shape.  For example, a coffee table that is too large can dominate a small living room and use up walking space.

Add A Screen

A screen can create a moveable wall that allows you to easily break up a space that is too big. Placing a decorative screen off to the side between two areas will separate one side of the room into different spaces while still leaving them open to each other.

Move Furniture Away From The Wall

If you’re trying to make a space appear smaller, moving the furniture away from the wall and closer in to a conversation area will do the trick. You can then place a sofa table and/or standing floor lamp behind the seating area to fill the space and offer more lighting. Side tables will also serve to anchor the space and create a cozy area for conversing.

Give An Awkward Living Room Corner Purpose

Instead of trying to expand your furniture into a larger space, bring your seating areas closer and give the unused space a purpose. Add a writing desk, a game table, or piano to a space that you don’t know what to do with. This will create extra living space that increase the usefulness of the irregular shaped living room.

Balance Big Elements

Placing a bookcase or TV cabinet on the same wall as a fireplace will make the room feel small and cramped. Instead, spread out the larger elements of the room to create balance. Place large pieces of furniture or large decorative items on opposite walls or in different areas of the room. This helps the the room feels more open and less lop-sided.

Balance Lighting

Make sure you have good lighting in all areas of the room to make it feel more open and unified. Using a variety of lamps can also help to distract from an irregular shaped room. Try a standing lamp on one end of the sofa. Try a table lamp on an end table at the other end of the sofa. Wall sconces over a fireplace create a cozy nook. And overhead lighting in a dark corner will make the space feel more open. Never block natural light and place furniture in front of the windows.

Open a Traffic Path

A small room that has more than one entrance can make for a narrow traffic path. The result is a room that feels cramped. Instead, separate the room into two small spaces for example a reading nook and a conversation area. It is a good idea to use an area rug. This will open up the traffic path through the room and bridge the two areas. This gives the illusion of more living space.

Add Plants

A variety of house plants in pots or trees placed in a corner or bay window will soften the room. They can fill in the odd spaces and make them feel less obvious. They will also add a nice visual with their bright colors and textures. Just make sure that, if they’re real, they have the necessary sunlight and water.

Conclusion On How To Arrange Living Room

Designing a living room with an odd layout can be challenging, but with some creativity, you can turn it into a functional and stylish space. An awkward shaped living room can be the highlight of a home if you just use it properly. When you have the right decor elements in place, the shape of the room can become irrelevant. Furthermore, you can use asymmetrical rooms as a way to create more living space and diversity in your home.

I hope you find these odd shaped living room furniture placement ideas and decor tips helpful. Share your room’s shape and living room design @familyfocusblog. I’d love to see how it came out! Which tips were most helpful for you to make the most of an unusual living room layout?

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