things to consider with your space plan & furniture layout

hello today I'm sitting on the floor because that just kind of feels like the vibe um I hope you guys are ready for another fun interior design chat today I'm talking about space planning and how to optimize the layout of your living space and I think this is a good topic because a lot of times when I see people's homes that they feel like they need to redesign or improve it somehow it's not even a matter of uh buying new furniture or actually changing the pieces they own it's actually just a matter of like moving things around so today I'm not talking about any tips for people that are like renovating their home or building a new home we're just talking about your stuff and where and how you put it so whether you rent your home or you're just not renovating right now get excited cuz maybe at the end of this video you'll get inspired and you can stand up and go move your furniture around which is fun I mean I think that's fun at least okay so just like overall big picture how to think about your space plan or Furniture layout um I think that there's three really important things to sort of consider that you should always keep at front of mind when you're making these decisions the first thing is the function of a room probably not surprising to hear me say that um um but take for example like a living room do you think that the function of your living room is primarily for watching TV or is it socializing or reading a book and relaxing or napping or whatever because your space plan can actually have a really big impact on how you use your space and how it feels to be there so give it some thought about how you want it to feel like do you want your room to feel like a more private closed off relaxing Retreat from the rest of the house or do want it to feel like connected and open to other spaces and once you've considered the function of the space you obviously really need to consider and respond to the built elements in your home so maybe you have like a fireplace or a window with a really nice view that you don't want to block or maybe like a built-in bar or built-in storage cabinet or things like that the actual built-in features of the space should obviously inform like where you put your things uh because a good space plan is going to work in harmony with the existing architecture of a room and it's not going to sort of combat or harm the function of any of the existing elements in your room and most importantly you really need to think about like entrances and doors and hallways and staircases and any sort of built element that's going to influence the circulation through your space because I think that's genuine like the most overlooked element in space planning and a lot of times when a room feels like a little funky or off it's because the space PL isn't being like considerate of circulation and the paths of travel through a space so like again with a living room example maybe you need to walk through your living room to get to a kitchen that should be like a huge consideration when you're deciding where to put your furniture and how you're laying out your design because if not it can end up feeling like really awkward and problematic it sounds a little silly but it can actually be really helpful to draw a diagram of your room with the furniture and then over the top of it just like sketch out the main Paths of travel that people in your home are using often because once you can actually like visualize that in front of you sometimes the right space plan can become really clear okay so the function of your space the built-in elements and the circulation and path of travel those are the three things that like should be highest priority when you're deciding on your space plan but I have a lot of more minute detailed opinions about uh layouts that just sort of help a Vibe feel right so I'm going to kind of dive into those now and let me just give this like disclaimer I don't think that the things I'm about to say are like a strict Doctrine or hard rules they obviously won't work in every space because every single space is unique and has its own like parameters or or limitations these are just meant to be sort of like thought-provoking questions that can maybe help you determine your space plan a little bit better there's almost never like a one-size fits-all rule to design okay okay so the first thing I think that you should consider that maybe a lot of people Overlook is the first thing that you see when you walk into a room because it's always much more comfortable and inviting if when you walk into a room you're looking at like a large piece of furniture so say like a big sofa or a bed or something that feels like it's like facing you and feels like kind of open and inviting and this also goes both ways because when you're in a space and you're sitting on the sofa it's much more comfortable if you can see the entrance of a room I think that's just kind of like a human innate feeling that like we're more comfortable when we can see the entrance to a space I can think of a million reasons that a room like wouldn't allow for that so if you can't have your sofa facing your primary entrance for some reason you could consider getting like a cool room divider and putting that behind the sofa um that could definitely bring like a much more comfortable sense of enclosure so you don't feel like so like open behind you or if you have the space for it you could get like a console table and put some pretty large decor items on it um just something that'll be like tall behind the sofa so that you don't don't feel so like exposed to the entrance of a space it's just like a Vibe thing I don't know how to explain it but it does make a big difference okay and the next thing is like such a interior designer cliche I feel like but I very much agree with it and that is pulling your furniture away from the walls when possible this obviously only applies if you have the space for it but if you do there's furniture that feels like it should be against a wall and there's furniture that doesn't so things like a bookcase or a buffet table or generally like storage pieces of furniture feel good when they're against a wall but furniture that I like to think of almost as like more like social uh like sofas and dining tables and armchairs and things like that they feel a lot better when they're not like pushed to the perimeter of the room and they're actually kind of like coming together in these like Central clusters does that make sense it's just like such a Vibe thing but it feels so much better when these things are like anchored to one another in the center of a room and not like locked to all the walls at the far edges and I think there's two ways to really successfully achieve that in a living room and that is having like a really solid coffee table that everything can kind of like come around and then also having an area rug that can kind of inchor all of the furniture if you have the space for it an area rug should always go under all of the furniture but if not at the very least you should have an area rug going under the front two legs of all of your seating this is just going to make everything feel much more intentional and tied together if you have an area rug that's really small and is like coming up close to the sofa like this The Vibes just get really thrown off I can't really explain it but it doesn't feel like cohesive or tied together in any way so if possible and you have the space for it bring your furniture off the walls and sort of anchor them to one another in the center of the space it might not be like totally intuitive but having the gap between like the back of your sofa and a wall for example it just makes the space feel so much bigger and airier and like nicer to be in so unless you're in like a really tiny apartment or a tiny home or something I would really recommend trying to pull your sofa away from the wall even if it's just like 30 cm or a foot for my fellow Americans um it can really go a long way okay and the third thing I came up with when I sat down to write my like nitpicky opinions is the spacing between Furniture um I think this has some pretty obvious applications like having the right spacing between your seating and your tables or surfaces so that they're comfortable to reach and things don't feel like they're like floating far away from one another but when you're spacing your furniture you should also consider sort of like non-physical functions so for example like the distance you're sitting from a TV the general rule of thumb is to have twice the width of the TV between you and the TV and also thinking about the distance between your seating make sure you have a comfortable distance for conversation I think sometimes people that are designing really large rooms don't consider this and they end up having like their chairs and sofa very far away from one another and it ends up just feeling like pretty isolating and almost like a hotel lobby or something so make sure that the distance between all your furniture has been thoughtfully considered because it can have a really really serious impact on the function of a space and how it feels to use it okay and the next thing I want to talk about is all of the furniture being pointed at the TV if you're like a TV watching household that's totally cool this is a judgment free zone well I guess it's not a judgment free zone but we're not about like criticizing anyone's lifestyle if you're 99% of the time watching TV in your living room that's totally cool but even for that small percentage of time that maybe you have people over or you're sitting with people in your living room and not watching TV I think it's really important to have like a circle of conversation there's nothing less comfortable than like hanging out with a group and you're all like lined up on a sofa facing a TV that's off so if you have this space for it try to get like an accent chair or a stool or an ottoman or something that someone can sit on to like round out the circle of conversation and also with larger Furniture it's really okay in my mind to have like a large sofa facing your TV and then other big pieces of furniture like armchairs or seating at like a 90° angle to the TV when you have a big group people will still be able to see the TV but also when you're not using it you can kind of like talk to one another and face one another without being in this like lineup okay and the fifth thing I want to talk about is something that I hate more than anything else in space planning and it's time to come out and share it and make sure none of you are doing it in your homes because it's really really awful this one is actually a rule okay the other ones are like things to consider this one is something that I demand you change and that is Furniture pushed into the corner of a room at a 45° angle it sounds so specific when I say it like that but it's so common and it's so awful so what I'm talking about is like very like boxy Square Furniture like maybe like a TV console or I've even seen people do it with like side tables and bookshelves and stuff and it leaves this like wasted triangular space behind the piece of furniture and it just looks really really bad first of all you're obviously like wasting so much space and it also just looks like very odd and amateur I feel like the biggest reason that people do this is again they feel like they want all the furniture to be able to see the TV well like I see this really often with TVs on like uh TV consoles and if you feel like your space plan absolutely demands that you need a 45° TV in the corner of your room I would really really recommend investing in a TV like this that has legs and is kind of like its own object independent from the wall because then it can kind of like exist at a 45° angle and look a lot less weird uh without sort of like cutting off the corner of the room visually this will just feel like so much more thoughtful and intentional I think this also applies to like very boxy armchairs how many times have I seen like a big Square chair pushed into the corner of the room so that's actually like touching the walls at the corners and then they just like twist the knife by putting like a floor lamp behind it this looks so so not good again if you feel like it's absolutely necessary to have a chair at a 45° angle in the corner get a chair that's more like rounded in the back and pull it away from the wall as much as possible so that you're not creating this like harsh triangle of negative space another time I see this really often is with like full length mirrors where people will just like put it up against the wall in a corner again if you feel like you need to do this get a full length mirror that has like its own legs and can be pulled away from the wall and like exist as its own object similar to the TV it's just going to feel so so so much better okay I absolutely have like a million more thoughts on this but I'll leave it there for this video and again thank you for watching and make sure you like and comment and subscribe a lot of you have been asking me for a home tour and the truth is since my boyfriend and I moved to Copenhagen last August we haven't really been able to like settle down in an apartment for a variety of reasons but our current lease is ending soon so we're in the market for a new amazing Copenhagen apartment and now with this new channel I'm really excited to like take you guys along the Journey of looking for an apartment moving in and like fully designing it so that's definitely going to be like a series of videos that I'm doing soon so get excited cuz I'm excited and also if you happen to be Danish and own an apartment in Copenhagen and you'd like to rent it to a very sweet couple let me know message me because it's hard to find an apartment in Copenhagen and yeah that's all for today uh thanks again for watching and I'll see you next week bye

Channel: Noah Daniel

Views: 49,428

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Id: Luay8JPBykQ

Length: 15min 7sec (907 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2024