Optimizing Awkward Spaces: Arrange Your Living Room with Expert Tips!

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Furnishing any living room can come with its challenges. Figuring out how to arrange living room furniture in an odd-shaped living space can especially create quite the game of interior design Tetris.

Though it may seem like it can become a stressful situation to furnish an odd shaped room, rest assured that there are ways to help you out.

Mary Lee Smyth, an interior designer at La-Z-Boy Kingston, has extensive industry experience. She says, “Many people come to me asking how they should furnish their living space, and, honestly, it is not as hard as you may think.”

In this article, we will provide you with helpful tips, furniture examples, and ideas for arranging odd shaped living rooms.

In This Article…

1. What is Considered an Odd Shaped Living Room?
2. Determine Your Focal Point
3. Measure Your Furniture and Space
4. Create Divide with Your Furniture
5. Use a Balanced Colour Scheme
6. Make Sure Traffic Flow is Good
7. Use Furniture That Works

What is Considered an Awkward Living Room Layout?

Before we discover some of the useful tricks that can help you, we must determine what is considered an awkward living room layout.

You might be thinking, surely an odd shaped living room is anything that is… an odd shape, right? Yes, that is a correct assumption, but what does that mean exactly? 

Well, an odd shaped living room is any room that is not laid out as a square or a rectangle. Since most living rooms are traditionally shaped to have four walls and a roof, anything other than that would be considered oddly shaped.

This also goes with shapes you’re familiar with, like an L-shaped living room. Sometimes the room can still be square or rectangular in area, but there could be a barrier, like a column in the middle of the space, that could disrupt the natural flow of the room.

For example, in this image, you can see that this room is smaller than other dining rooms, but, the doorway on the left is extended outwards, making an imperfect rectangular shape.

An awkward living room layout can even include weird furniture that doesn’t tie in together. Sometimes a living room shape isn’t the problem but the style of the furniture itself, or even not knowing how to arrange your living room furniture properly.

Taking all that into consideration, ask yourself, “Is your room square/rectangular?Is there anything that prevents it from being a perfect four-sided room? ” If the latter answer is yes, chances are you have an odd-shaped living room.

When it comes to the level of frequency, Mary Lee says that she encounters awkward living room layouts about 30% of the time. “This number might change for those living in Ottawa, but because I’m interior designing in Kingston, most homes are built in the 50s and 60s, and those homes are the most renovated and oddly shaped.”

Now, let’s get into the tips on how to arrange an awkward-shaped living room.

1. Determine Your Focal Point

Now that we know what constitutes an odd shaped living room, do you have one? And if so, do you have a clear vision of what your room’s purpose is?

If the answer is no, finding one would be beneficial. Creating a main focus in your room is an important part of determining what kind of furniture you will put in your room. Mary Lee says, “When I work with a client, my main question is always ‘What are you going to be doing in the room?’ This helps me figure out what the main focal point of the room will be.” 

If you have an L-shaped living room with a TV, you would want to configure your furniture around the TV. However, if you plan to use the space to sit and be social with guests, you should centre your awkward living room layout with a fireplace–if you have one–and get different seating options for everyone to sit comfortably.

Each focal point has a different approach to furnishing your space. So, take time to figure out what the main focus of your room will be before making a decision on furniture items.

If you feel as though there can be more than one use for your room, you can make more than one focal point in your living room if space permits it. More on that a little bit later…

2. Measure Your Furniture and Living Room

Once you’ve determined the room’s purpose, you might think the next step is to purchase your furniture, right? WRONG!! You can’t purchase furniture without measuring your space. 

If you’ve looked at our Measure Your Space article, you would know that starting from one side of the room to the other while staying close to the wall is the best course of action.

It is also important to remember that obstacles might get in the way of your furniture, such as windows, door openings and outlets. Make sure you’re aware of these things in your room, and it should give you a better idea of where you want to place your furniture.

Measuring your room within a narrow living room layout also helps determine what can fit in the space.  If you're considering a sofa but unsure of its fit in your living space, comparing its measurements to the available area can help you determine the space it will occupy.

If you need any visual tools to help measure your space, La-Z-Boy has a 3D Planner tool that allows you to record all your measurements and displays how potential furniture items could fit in your room!

3. Create a Divide with Your Furniture

Once you have your furniture with you, now it’s time to play interior design Tetris, as mentioned before. 

Figuring out how you want to arrange your living room furniture might seem hard at first if you’re looking at an empty or narrow living room layout. But once you get over the blank canvas effect, you’ll see that it isn’t as hard as you thought!

With an odd shaped living room, you might find more of a challenge with how to place your furniture. Depending on how the room is shaped, you can create divisional areas of interest. 

As mentioned in our first tip, you might have more than one focus for your room. If your space allows it, you can divide your room using your modern living room furniture and home decor. This normally works better with open-concept areas, since there’s more room to play around and experiment. 

But, according to Mary Lee, this can create a potentially entertaining living space.

“If there’s a nook, you can place a table and chairs for a nice tucked-away area to play games. And then, you can leave the rest of the area as a TV viewing space by separating the two points of interest with couches, an occasional table or an area rug.”

4. Make Sure Traffic Flow is Good

In an odd shaped living space, you might have weird furniture placements. This is okay and can be fixed with some rearranging. But, when arranging your furniture properly, you must always stay aware of traffic flow.

Proper furniture placement is essential to maintain a smooth traffic flow in your living space, ensuring that people can move around freely without navigating around obstacles. This tip is closely linked to the importance of accurately measuring your room and furniture.

Taking into account traffic flow, it might also be important to change how you view your living room. Mary Lee recounts a story of helping a family with a narrow living room layout. 

“It was a 12 x 28 ft narrow living area and the client wanted rows of sofas so everyone could watch the TV that was facing the 12 ft side. I moved the TV 90 degrees on the long wall and configured a long L-shaped sectional and it worked so that everyone could see the TV equally and move around more easily.”

So, thinking outside the box can be a good practice to help accommodate your odd shaped living space and improve traffic flow.

It may also be a good idea to consider living room furniture for small spaces. These pieces can help alleviate some stress you may be having especially in a narrow living room layout. To learn more about La-Z-Boy Sofas for Small Spaces, take a look at this article.

5. Use a Balanced Colour Scheme

As mentioned before, figuring outour how to arrange your living room furniture in an odd shaped living room can be tough, especially if you have bold accent pieces that pop out. If these pieces are placed poorly or with weird furniture styles, guests may notice it more than you think.

If you’re having difficulty placing accent pieces, blend them into the room using similar colours. Say you have a red swivel accent chair, and you want to place it in your odd shaped living room. 

Mary Lee suggests painting one of your walls red. Adding your red accent chair on the opposite side of the room could help increase the balance of energy in your room. You could even add other red accents like a red throw or red pillows, for example.

Creating a balanced colour palette in your room not only helps for peace of mind but can also help create a theme.

Keep in mind that playing off of one colour is always best than juggling multiple colours at a time. Examples like these show how some colours can complement many different shades and tones.

Balanced Lighting

It is also important to consider balancing the light in your narrow living room layout, too. Mary Lee considers the same balancing act as the accent wall but with mirrors. 

“If your living room has a big window that lets a lot of light in, you can help balance the lighting and openness by adding a mirror on the opposite side of the room.” This can help create a balanced room while not keeping so much energy on one side.

Additionally, she suggests separating the focal points of a room with activity lighting. “Adding a pot light above your nook in the corner of your room acts as an island of light. And you can add table lamps on either side of the room to further segment the focal points in your room.”

This is an important factor to consider not just for an odd shaped living room but for all rooms.

6. Use Furniture that Works in odd Shaped Living Spaces

Some furniture items may work better in an L-shaped living room, or a narrow living room layout than others, depending on the space.

At La-Z-Boy, there are many different options for weird furniture shapes.

These unconventional modular sectional pieces, with their unique and irregular shapes, can be a great solution to arranging a conversational area in an awkward living room layout with a fireplace.

You may also consider using a swivel chair instead of a stationary one to stay at the center of the action in your living room, especially if you don't want to be tied down to one focal point."

Lastly, depending on the size of the room, a sofa with a taller back can help create a wall to divide your focal points better than sofas with a shorter back.

If you’re interested in either of these products mentioned, take a look at our best-selling sofas or best-selling accent swivel chair articles.

What's Next?

With all this information, you can now safely consider what to do with your oddly shaped living area.

Mary Lee leaves us with these final words, “Sometimes we tend to think of just the negatives and only focus on what can’t be done. Instead, think about what can be done, and if that doesn’t work, keep trying or speak to an interior designer. We are always happy to help.”

If your initial plan for your living room doesn’t work out, fret not. There are still solutions you can use to your advantage.

At La-Z-Boy Ottawa and Kingston, we offer complimentary interior design services to help create the room of your dreams. Our interior designers, along with our expert design consultants, are always eager to lend a helping hand.

If you want to speak to someone about your odd shaped living room, visit us at any of our local Ottawa and Kingston showrooms. You can also book an appointment online before coming in.

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