Living room layout planner: plan your furniture layout online

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Use ApaPlan to plan your living room furniture layout for free, right in the browser: set the room size, place a sofa, TV unit, coffee table and shelving from a catalog of real products, and check walkways and viewing distance in 2D and 3D. No sign-up is needed to start.

Start with the focal point and the traffic routes

Every living room furniture layout is a compromise between two things: what the seating faces (TV, fireplace, window or each other) and how people walk through the room. Draw the routes first — from the hall door to the balcony, kitchen or window — and keep them 75–90 cm (2 ft 6 in–3 ft) wide. A route that cuts between the sofa and the TV is the most common reason a living room feels restless.

Then choose the focal point. In most homes it is the TV, but in a room with a good view or a fireplace you can angle the sofa toward that and put the screen on a side wall.

Key living room dimensions

A three-seat sofa is usually 200–230 cm (6 ft 6 in–7 ft 6 in) wide and 85–100 cm (2 ft 9 in–3 ft 3 in) deep; corner sofas often take 2.5 × 1.6 m (8 ft × 5 ft 3 in) or more. Check the real outer size of the model you like — ApaPlan’s catalog includes many IKEA sofas and storage units with their actual dimensions.

Living room layout ideas that work

Sofa facing the TV wall

The simplest and most common layout. The sofa sits on the long wall or floats in the room with a walkway behind it; the TV unit is opposite. Add an armchair at a right angle to create a conversation corner.

L-shaped seating

A corner sofa or a sofa plus armchair forms an L that defines the seating zone and leaves the other half of the room open — useful in a 4 × 5 m room that also needs a dining table or a reading corner.

Two sofas facing each other

Best for rooms used more for conversation than for TV. It needs width: two 90 cm deep sofas plus a coffee table and gaps take about 3.2–3.5 m (10 ft 6 in–11 ft 6 in).

Floating sofa as a room divider

In an open-plan room, put the sofa back toward the kitchen or dining area. A low console behind it marks the boundary without blocking light. The same trick is the backbone of many studio apartment layouts.

Furniture layout for a small living room

• Choose a smaller sofa with slim arms rather than a big corner unit: a 180 cm (6 ft) two-and-a-half seater often seats the same number of people.
• Mount the TV on the wall and replace a deep TV unit with a 30–40 cm (12–16 in) shelf or floating console.
• Use legs and glass. Furniture on legs and a round or glass coffee table keep the floor visible and the room looks bigger in 3D.
• Keep one long wall free or use it only for shallow shelving — it keeps the walkway straight.
• Use nesting or side tables instead of a large coffee table if the room is narrower than about 3 m (10 ft).

Common living room mistakes

• Pushing every piece against the walls, leaving an empty middle and seats too far apart to talk.
• Placing the TV opposite a window, which causes glare in the afternoon.
• A rug that is too small, “floating” in front of the sofa.
• Ignoring radiators, sockets and the door swing to the balcony.
• Buying a sofa without checking that it fits through the doorway and hall.

For broader advice on measuring and placing furniture in any room, read the furniture layout guide.

Lighting, storage and measuring tips

A living room is used at very different times of day, so plan light in layers: a ceiling light for general use, a floor or table lamp beside each seat for reading, and softer light near the TV to reduce contrast in the evening. Mark where the sockets are before you fix the sofa position — a lamp in the middle of the room needs a cable route or a floor socket.

Storage works best on the walls you do not walk past: a long low unit under the TV, shelving in alcoves on either side of a chimney breast, or a tall cabinet in a corner. Keep at least 90 cm (3 ft) in front of cabinets with doors.

When measuring, note every door and window with its distance from the corners, the height of window sills, radiators and the position of the TV aerial or network socket. These details decide whether a layout works in reality.

How to plan your living room in ApaPlan

Open the example with “Open this plan in the editor” or draw your own room: walls with exact lengths and thickness, doors, windows and openings. Rooms are detected automatically from closed walls, so you see the floor area right away. Add a sofa, armchairs, TV unit and shelving from more than 2,500 3D models; resize width and depth, rotate, recolour and let them snap to walls.

Switch to 3D to check proportions and sightlines, and use the first-person walkthrough to see how the room feels from the door. Try floor and wall finishes from the material library or upload your own texture. If the living room opens onto a kitchen, plan both together — see the kitchen planner page for work-zone clearances. More on materials and 3D views is in the 3D interior design guide.

How to do it in ApaPlan

1. Open the example or a new project. Click “Open this plan in the editor” or start from scratch; no sign-up is required.
2. Set the room and openings. Enter wall lengths and add doors, windows and the balcony door in their real positions.
3. Mark the walkways. Decide where people walk through the room and keep those routes 75–90 cm wide.
4. Place the sofa and focal point. Add the TV unit or fireplace wall, then place the sofa at a comfortable viewing distance.
5. Add tables, storage and lighting. Add the coffee table, armchairs, shelving and lamps, then review everything in 3D and save.

Open this plan in the editor

Frequently asked questions

See also