Redoing the Living Room - 2: The Floor Plan

I don't know about you, but as many times as I've rearranged furniture over the years, beginning way back in 1969 in my very first apartment, I usually just winged it and shoved furniture around until I hit upon a configuration I liked -- or not, and then ended up shoving the furniture back where it had been originally!

Sometimes I would rough sketch a lay-out, but never to scale; sometimes they worked, more often they didn't.  What looks good on paper doesn't always translate well to three-dimensional space.

So, this time, after all these years, I decided I was going to do this the right way.  I found an online program easy enough for me to use, measured my living room, and went to work coming up with some floor plans.  It didn't take long using this particular program (I found it at Bob's Discount Furniture) and this is a tool I will certainly use again in the future, loved it!

Without further ado, here is the floor plan I've settled upon:

What I really appreciate about this particular program is that it gives you a second page with a listing of all items in the room with their dimensions!  Makes it easy to reference as I shop for furniture.  Anything too far off the dimensions I used in the plan would be less and less likely to work.

I even drew in a 6 x 9 area rug to anchor the main seating area.  The sofa is placed in front of a 7-foot wide picture window.  On the opposite side of the coffee table are two occasional chairs with a smaller footprint, hopefully to leave enough space at the back of the room (by the dividing wall with the dinette) for a larger lounge chair with a back tall enough to rest my head against for watching t.v., reading and snoozing.  I may add a footstool, but that is not in the floor plan.  By the fireplace I've placed my small desk and a small chair faced toward the picture window wall. I really want to put a desk back into this room, but with my old furniture, there just was not enough space.  I am hopeful that with the smaller chairs and new configuration the desk will fit comfortably and not feel too cramped/forced.

The remaining pieces of furniture are existing pieces.  On the wall to the right of the sofa is my china hutch used as a bookcase and storage.  On the opposite wall is the (removable) fireplace.  On the sofa wall tucked into the corner is my curio cabinet.  The dimensions of all of the case goods and small desk chair are all to scale as I already own those pieces.  The sofa, coffee table and chairs are estimates based on sizes I've scribbled down of several of my "saved to wish list" pieces as I've been window shopping online.

That's it!  I've never done anything like this plan before, so I'm excited to see if it will actually work in the space.  I did two fall-back plans, one that will be used during Christmas season when the tree takes the main stage in front of the picture window, and one without the desk and small chair.

Now, on to some of my inspiration rooms and color pallette!