6 Overlooked Living Room Layout Ideas You’ll Love, According to Designers

featured in
Apartment Therapy
August 2024

Ottomans are just one example of multifunctional seating. If you’re looking to make a small living room layout do the most for you, benches are also an excellent choice. In this warm living room, designer Lauren Carranza, the founder of Seasons 4 Design, opted to place a bench in front of the living room sofa in lieu of a coffee table. (She also thought outside the box and placed two small stools beneath the piano.)

“Sometimes, the most overlooked layout trick is not confining your space to only one layout with heavy furniture but instead using pieces that are flexible to create an adaptive layout,” she says. “We selected furniture that could be moved around, allowing the seating arrangements to adapt to different uses — from teenage dance parties to cocktail parties.

Photography: Amanda Archibald