How can I arrange this space?

Question

I need help arranging my livingroom, wich is oddly shaped and small. Here is a picture of my floorplan currently: http://www.freewebs.com/jennifaer/floorplan.JPG
Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. Myself and my husband would like to entertain some guests (at the moment there's only room for 1 guest at any given time). The bird cage is a glass exhibit, it is beautiful so it should stay in the living room. The entertainment center is where it is because that's where the cable outlet is. The table is small and seats four. The couch is a typical 3 seater. Flooring is carpet unless marked as tile. Please help me figure out a functional and somewhat open floorplan. Thanx!

i tired having the couch parallel to the entertainment center, but there wasn't room to walk from the entrance past the couch, that space isn't wide enough and i can't move the couch further back because it blocks the balcony door then. :(

tried** (not tired)

Answer 1

OK. Here goes my solution suggestions. Hopefully this will all make sense:

Put the entertainment center where the birdcage is now. Even better if you could buy a new, smaller corner cabinet. You will have to have the cable guy come in & reroute.

Face your sofa opposite how it is now (toward the balcony & birdcage), but so that it flanks the fireplace, rather than directly in front of it. This *should* make some room so that you can put a loveseat or a couple of chairs** opposite the sofa so the seating group is surrounding the fireplace.

*I would recommend some swivel chairs so that they can turn to watch the TV or turn around to talk. like this:
http://www.homedecorators.com/P/Leather_Cannes_Swivel_Club_Chair/820/

Place the birdcage right behind the sofa, like a console/sofa table.

Hope you find something that works. I also have an awkwardly shaped living room. I finally took measurements and drew a 1" = 1' scale of the room, and then cut out little pieces to represent the furniture (also to scale) and moved them around until I found a configuration I liked.

Answer 2

If you move the couch to be in front of the balcony, and switch the bird cage and the entertainment center, a couple things happen.

You create a foyer/division when you enter the house...
You get the TV as far away as possible from the dining room.
You still have a view of the fireplace, the view outside, and the TV...

You really need more seating so that you and your guests aren't all lined up on the couch. It makes things a little awkward, like you are an audience for something else instead of paying attn to each other.

Answer 3

In my opinion, what stands out is the position of the couch. The couch is parallel to the fireplace. It kind of look out of place (though i'm not sure how it really looks like in RL). I think, try making the couch parallel to the entertainment center and the hallway across the living room gong to the office.

I'm not sure if it is gong to crowd or narrow the hallway.
Another effect that it would do is it is going to give an empty space between the bird cage, balcony and fireplace. I'm not sure if you are going to have plans for that empty space.

Also, I'm not a fan of the circle table. But I'm not sure because I can't see it in Real Life.