Quadrilaterals, the interior designer’s enemy? Who would’ve thunk it? But seriously, rectangular shaped living spaces are deceptively tricky to plan – and that’s coming from me, a furniture fanatic who actively seeks out these design challenges!
Many folks who rock up at our furniture showroom come armed with plenty of design questions that pertain to this regular layout. Often, they’re looking for a specific piece that sets the whole look straight or advice on banishing that horrible ‘waiting room’ feel. That is, whilst negotiating multiple doors and obstacles, such as radiators, windows, alcoves and the like.
In this blog, I’ll be lifting the lid on all the usual advice I impart. Spoilers: it all starts with the right living room furniture configuration, one centred upon your daily habits and how you genuinely use the space.
Contents:
· Types of Rectangular Living Rooms, Their Quirks + Dealing with the Layout
o Wide Rectangular Interiors
o Long, Narrow Rectangles
o Tiny Quadrilateral Lounges
o Open Plan Living Spaces
o Obstacles
· Real-Life Inspo: Rectangular Living Room Ideas to Try Yourself
· Conclusion
Types of Rectangular Living Rooms, Their Quirks + Dealing with the Layout
Your lounge’s layout – its architectural makeup, dimensions, floorplan and features – are the bones of the interior, so it makes sense to start here. It’s also where many living room design mistakes derive from, meaning that getting this spot on truly sets the tone for the entire décor.
With rectangular living spaces, there’s no one-size-fits-all (although if your abode sits in a sea of suburban new builds, it can feel that way…), which makes an intimate understanding of your space all the more important.
First, grab the dimensions and jot them down in your notes app – you know what they say about measuring twice to buy only once! Then, identify which of the following subset of rectangular living rooms yours falls under. This will help guide you towards the ideas that best suit your unique interior.
How Do I Tackle Wide Rectangular Interiors?
You may feel like you’ve won the lottery when you stumble across a wide, rectangular living room, but they require a lot more brain power to arrange than you’d initially expect.
Yes, there’s plenty of space in the middle, but when you go to pack in all of your furniture, it’s easy to stray into cramped territory. Inversely, you might lean into minimalism and find the lounge suddenly feels unmoored and sterile.
The trick here is to find perfect proportionality; low-slung, substantial seating that sits naturally within a wider space, a broad ottoman or coffee table to make use of the central portion of the floor space and an emphasis on sociality, with armchairs clustered around a shared focal point and pulled slightly into the room. This ensures that your living room mainstays feel at home in the interior and balance its width optically.
How Do I Approach Long, Narrow Rectangles?
The close cousin of a wide rectangular lounge is a long, narrow living room. These are frustrating to deal with because, while they often carry a ton of period character (think the Victorian ‘middle room’), they’re easy to get wrong. Claustrophobic at one turn; corridor-like and unbalanced at another.
The remedy lies in breaking the length up into smaller zones and pulling items closer towards the middle to prevent the ‘train carriage’ look from taking hold. If you want a large entertainment hub to take precedence over scattered spots for chitchat, I recommend looking into L-shaped furniture that naturally encloses the zone. Pair it with a couple of smaller furniture groupings – a side table and armchair combo, for example – to force movement through the space to follow an ‘S’ shape. This way, you break up the tunnel look and instil a smoother flow.
How Do I Arrange Tiny Quadrilateral Lounges?
Small living rooms are always tricky, no matter the exact shape. In small rectangles, though, a lot of the pain comes from juggling the furniture arrangement along with obstacles like doorways, radiators, chimney breasts, alcoves and windows. These issues are particularly common in South Yorkshire terraces from the Edwardian period, but any age home can struggle with them.
So, the solutions: here you want to be extra careful about storage. Is there anything you can declutter or relocate to another space? Any handy recesses that could set the stage for bespoke joinery, like in-built shelving or a floor-to-ceiling cupboard?
Then move on to the furniture itself: pick pieces with slim silhouettes that don’t visually ‘weigh down’ the living room – I’m thinking thin, tapered legs, glass tabletops to expand sightlines, light, natural colours to ‘enlarge’ the room, or nesting tables that reclaim a few inches. Also, consider opting for floating shelves over a bulky display cabinet and rounded profiles over anything angular for a lovely softening effect. Combined, each element goes a long way to make your room cosier.
What About Rectangular Open Plan Living Spaces?
Open plan interiors by design bring an untold sense of freedom, albeit at the expense of additional spatial planning. Successful homeowners, yes, and interior designers tackle the vast empty canvas through zoning – AKA establishing visual and functional zones dedicated to certain activities and moods.
I’m always inclined to recommend the ‘broken plan’ approach; basically, the practice of bringing in casual structure that divides the room without the need for walls, using furniture pieces like shelving units or floated sideboards to define each zone.
Along with these physical separators, you also need visual cues to signal that you’re traversing from one zone to another. Classic examples include large rugs, hanging pendant lights, clusters of comfortable armchairs, a corner sofa or even intangible through lines like a certain height, colours, repeated motif or material.
Obstacles You’ll Often Find in Rectangular Living Rooms
However awkward your layout, you’ll probably bump into these obstacles, but don’t worry, I have plenty of ideas to patch up and elevate them. This is how I would tackle them:
· Doors – Urgh, when they eat into the space it’s a nightmare. But, remember, you can always take them out, flip them on their hinges, opt for a folding door or even a pocket door if your architecture allows.
· Radiators – I got these ideas from EDINteriors, an Edinburgh based interior design firm, so you know they’ll look stunning. Essentially, you can place a shelf above to create a cabinet-adjacent feel, integrate it with a proper radiator cover, or switch it out for a traditional, character-filled model and, of course, paint it to blend into the background.
· Protruding windowsills – Turn them into an in-built window seat! A banquette can also double up as a storage bench, so you can hide away the seasonal cushions, extra remotes or the kids’ bottomless toy supply, whatever you want.
· Corners – Breathe life into these dead spaces by either making them a book nook or kitting them out with a corner desk. With dedicated corner-ready pieces, it’s just a matter of popping them in the little niche.
Real-Life Inspo: Rectangular Living Room Ideas to Try Yourself
Multifunctional Everything
Flexible pieces that double as storage or can be easily rearranged when guests visit have an outsized impact on your rectangular living room. The idea is to minimize footprints whilst maximising functionality. My go-tos are always nests of coffee tables, hollow ottomans, foot stools and extendable tables.
Scattered Social Seating
Ample seating scattered about a room with sensible flow actively invites people to converse. Arrange your armchairs in clusters facing each other or around a shared locus or incorporate extra chairs you can pull out when the need arises.
Layers Upon Layers
Layered living rooms = cosy living rooms. Be sure to pick a variety of materials, secondary colours from your chosen colour family, and oodles of soft furnishings and artwork to cap it all off. The secret is avoiding decoration just at eye level; ideally, your layers should go from ceiling to floor.
Float Your Storage Behind the Sofa
Because of the layout you may be forced to pull your sofa further into the centre of the room, but you don’t want it to look like a lingering afterthought. My solution? Float a sideboard or other type of cabinetry behind it and drape the storage with accessories, spider plants, books and add a lamp or two. This way, it all looks intentional; the sofa is anchored in place and, sitting there, you’ll feel snugger and more secure.
Footprints Scaled to Size
Whether a minimalist living room or something busier á la mid century modern, your furniture should take up space with intention. That means finding the Goldilocks proportions that align with the architecture.
For instance, a small new build will benefit a hundred times more from slimline, dainty pieces as opposed to a lofty Georgian living room blessed with great breadth and period features. In the latter instance, larger, more formal, defined furniture will be much more fitting.
Tons of Light Sources
Living room lighting doesn’t stop after one big pendant is installed. Indeed, it makes a beautiful centrepiece over a fireplace or rug, but to curate a glowy, buttery vibe you need to enlist the help of secondary fittings. In short, add wall sconces, strategically place table lights and floor lamps to warm up the darker spots. This builds dimension, allowing your décor to shine as it should, plus you can actually see what you’re doing without the ‘big light’ killing the mood.
Modular Sofas for Total Flexibility
I love modular sofas. Completely convertible, they let you rearrange the living room to your heart’s content. So if you’re not sure about the current setup, you can always switch it up later down the line.
Dial Up the Drama
Lastly, take this as your permission slip to go off the wall with colour. (Well, probably on the walls if we’re talking about paint and wallpaper, but you catch my drift.) Whether drenching your rectangular living room in all-over colour or picking a neutral base to then contrast with a bold POP, strong shades are a fabulous idea if your aim is to convey your personality. The bonus is that these bold touches often conceal the size of a space, bringing the attention to its style instead.
Conclusion: Your Rectangular Living Room’s Potential is Limitless
Whether compact or cavernous, your rectangular living room is drowning in potential. You only need to dip your toes in to get started.
Consider all of the interior design basics: scaling your furniture to the room, creating a frictionless flow of movement, building layers of colour and texture and, of course, investing in hero pieces that draw out functionality and comfort in equal measures.
Once you have each of these elements sorted, you can take your time to marinate in the joy of finding the tiny finishing touches that pull all of the threads together: your soft furnishings and accessories.
Speaking of… a whole world of timeless beauty awaits in the Evelyn Lily living room collection.
