Comfortable seating is often bulky and needs careful arraging if it is not to overpower the room. Storage becomes streamlined if it is placed along one wall instead of being dotted around the room. Special wall brackets mean loudspeakers or TV can be placed in the best position for good acoustics and viewing yet be out of the way.
Dining space can be divided off with shelving or double up as a work and study area and, with some forethought, the room can be organized so that it can quickly be turned into a bedroom for overnight guests.
Making a room plan
After you have renovated a room or moved into a new home - it is a good idea to draw out of floor plan to scale on grapf paper, the larger the better, to find the furniture arrangement that is going to make the best use of the available space. Mark on it the positions of sockets and radiators. Measure each item of furniture you want to include and cut out shapes from coloured paper the same scale. Write on them what they are and then move them about on the plan until you are happy with the arrangement.
Estimate your storage requirements in a similiar way so you can calculate the number of shelves or cupboards you will need, plus the depths and the heights required. Allow extra space for additions - a designer, when planning storage, usually allows for double the present required space!
The alcoves beside a fireplace are ideal for a built-in shelving system.
Deciding on a seating arrangement
Where and how sofas and chairs are positioned will depend mainly on the shape of the room, the position of any fireplace, radiators and windows and wheather you want to use the room for regular or irregular meals as well.
How many people will you want to seat most of the time? Can you bring chairs from else where in the house for extra visitors? If not, you could consider providing fold-up director chairs that can be stored in the understair cupboard and do double duty for meals outdoors in the summber.
Practical and space-saving seating plans
1 Two sofas placed in an L arrangement will fit neatly against adjacent walls, perhaps sited to face the fire-place one way and windows the other.
2 In an especially small room, unit seating arranged around two or three walls allows you to seat the greatest number of people.
3 Two sofas placed opposite each other are best for conversation. If one divides the room it will be less obtrusive if it is low-backed.
2 In an especially small room, unit seating arranged around two or three walls allows you to seat the greatest number of people.
3 Two sofas placed opposite each other are best for conversation. If one divides the room it will be less obtrusive if it is low-backed.
Storage
Alcove provide an ideal spot for shelves and the range of available systems and designs make it possible to suit any style of house and furnishings.
In an old house it looks goog if shelving matches other timber in the room. Moulding designs can be matched too - for instance, the timber moulding used for the skirting edge can be reported in the shelf supports, or screwed to the sides and back of the alcove and mitred at the corners.
To complement modern surroundings an adjustable system of brightly coloured metal uprights and brackets could be used, or, if you have modern pine furniture, match it with solid-looking pine battens with equally spaced holes drilled in them to take dowel studs as shelf supports. See Selving Systems for putting up shelves
If you are a great collector of books, records and tapes and bits and pieces you may want to use a complete wall for their display. You could use one of the systems mentioned above and vary the width of brackets and shelves to suit the items to be stored. Alternatively, build in a boxed system from melamine finished or veneered chipboard or blockboard, fixing the boxes together with plastic jointing blocks. It is fairly simple to include cupboards too if you plan the size of the sections for hidden storage to match up with available cupboard doors. See Divider Shelv Unit for construction.
A clever system of building conceals a fold-down bed.
The bed in position.
Room Dividers
The same boxed storage system can be used to build a divider between sitting and eating areas. (You could also make one to the height and depth of the sofa arm, so that placed against it the unit will form a convenient table surface as well as providing space for books, magazines and newspapers).
You can make a very simple see-through division from rigid garden trellis. Screw battens to the wall, ceiling and a section of the floor at each side, then fix trellis panels to these to form a large squared-off arch. Where you need to join sections, use battens twice the width of the trellis frame. Butt up the sections to be joined and screw each to the batten. Paint to match the room scheme. Climbing plants grown in troughs at the base can weave their way upwards over the trellis.
Housing video, TV and stereo
Storing TV and video on a trolley makes manoeuvring them into the right viewing position easy. Another alternative is to fit a TV bracket that allows the same adaptability but leaves floor space free. Similiar brackets designed to hold small stereo speakers pivot so that the speaker can be angled accurately for the best possible sound reception. Both are simple to fix - see (Speaker and TV Brackets
Displaying plants
Plants nearly always look best when grouped rather than displayed individually. A single shelf above the radiator and in front of a window is an ideal spot. Line up the plants enjoy the dry heat provided by a radiator and most will only thrive in high humidity so place the pots on a bed of damp shingle or surround them with peat.
Dining area
Choosing the best dining table will depend on the shape of the space available. Extra diners can usually be accommodated at a round table and this is the most sociable shape. Drop leaf or extending tables provide versatility but you can also cut your own larger spare top from blockboard, store it away and place it on top of your normal table, covered with a cloth, for occasions when there are extra visitors. If space is very tight make a fold-down table that fixes to the wall. Allow a 90cm (3ft) space for pulling back a chair.Overnight guests
if you do not have a spare bedroom it makes sense to plan the living-room furniture and its arrangement around accommodating occasional overnight guests. This means choosing a sofa bed (check how comfortable it is in both positions before buying) and providing a bedside table plus lighting that can be switched on and off from the bed. Allocate some storage space for bedding during the day.QUICK TIPS
A very simple way of putting together your own dining table is to use a flush door as the table top and simply place it an two trestles. If you choose folding frestles the whole thing can be stored away in a narrow space when not required.
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