How to choose living room furniture

A year or two of lockdown forced us all to look hard at what it means to ‘live’ in our living rooms. Formerly a place where we spent an hour or two at the end of the day, in between rushing in from work and jumping in the bath, it became a place where we answered emails, took our morning coffee, tried our best to exercise, and taught our children. Suddenly it felt more important than ever to choose furniture that makes us feel joyful and comfortable. This is my guide to furnishing a comfortable, stylish living room, that is sensitive to the purse strings.

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In recent years the living room has begun to relinquish its claim as ‘the heart of the home’ to the kitchen. Increasingly these two rooms have become partners to, or part of, each other. If that is the case, then when choosing living room furnishings you will probably have to think about how these two spaces interact. You might want to add lamps or curtains to the kitchen to make it less functional; and the living room may have to take on the main dining (and possibly working!) table. In my own home, I installed hardwood flooring which runs seamlessly between the two rooms.

As far as living room furniture goes, I would always start with the sofa. Once you have somewhere to rest your rump the urgency is off - everything else can simply wait until you find the perfect piece. Unlike other furniture, I wouldn't start bargain-hunting on Ebay for a sofa. The foams and fillers used on a lot of older, 20th-century sofas tend to sag, and the fabrics to discolour. Plus, there are so many great value sofas (including sofa beds) on the high street. A safe and comfy classic would be the 'Pudding' by Loaf; or the elegant 'Marple' by Arlo & Jacob, designed by our decoration director Gabby Deeming. For bigger budgets, there are some exquisite reproduction antique pieces out there. If money were no object, my first purchase would probably be the Regency 'Ebonised Settee' by Max Rollitt, or a piece by Humphrey Carassco, who restores and reproduces antique seating to a beautiful finish.

Sofas can take up an irritating amount of space, so if you are living in a small home avoid styles that dedicate an excessive amount of it to areas that you can’t actually sit in - read Chesterfields. If you are more of a percher than a lounger, like me, you can get away with the more pert, upright shapes influenced either by mid-century modernism (for example the little two-seaters that Designers Guild sell), or Georgian shapes, like the aforementioned Max Rollitt (the'Ruby' by Sofa.com is an affordable version).

Position the sofa where you most like to sit. Usually it will be somewhere the sun slants in, or where you can look out the window. I used to live in a flat where the most logical place to put it just felt wrong; something to do with draughts, doors and human traffic. Don't overthink it. You will gravitate to where you like to be and find yourself there anyway, leaning against the wall whilst the sofa sits in the draught, unloved. Listen to yourself, and move the sofa to a place where you will actually sit in it.

Now, work out what the ‘just right’ dimensions for the other pieces would be. The width and depth of a coffee table that won’t interrupt the opening of the door, or butt up against someone’s feet, for example. Measure any nooks that storage could slot in to. Also note standard heights: 75cm for a table, 40cm for a coffee table, just to avoid scale mistakes (the big hazard of online furniture shopping). Mock up the configuration of the room with scale drawings on a piece of A3 paper. You could even test the real dimensions of furniture with masking tape, paper or cardboard on the floor to experiment with the layout of the room.

Keep these measurements in your phone or notebook at all times, and only look for things that will fit those spots. Go to an auction site like Ebay, the online listings for your local auction house, or platforms like Decorative Collective andVinterior. Look for character and charm, be it decorative flourishes or understated detailing.

The recipe for a perfectly furnished living room depends largely on what kind of space you have, and the type of person you are. Are you someone who will use the space for lounging around with a drink and a book in the evening? If yes, you'll probably want a side table to rest your glass on by the sofa, and a decent lamp (floor or table) to read by.

A basic recipe for furnishing a living room

Other seating

Once you have the sofa down, think about what other seating you can fit in to the space. Daybeds or a cozy armchair can be lovely. Window seats or benches are also nice to consider if you have a bay window. For added elegance I would also break up all the lumpy upholstery with one harder piece, like a wooden bench or a little chair (see an example below).'Keep the arrangement of upholstered pieces loose and have fun putting together a mix of new pieces and old friends,' Rita Konig advises in her column on the subject. 'Break up softness with vertical lines and hard surfaces (lamps and tables are ideal for this) to create a balanced whole rather than a meeting room of seats.'

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