Question: The living room in my one-bedroom apartment is 14 by 20 feet with an eastern-facing bay window overlooking Lafayette Park. The entrance is at the southwest end of the room and the fireplace is on the diagonal in the northwest corner.

I'm never quite sure how to position the furniture to take advantage of the view, light and fireplace. I have a large sofa, table, three club chairs, a drop-leaf table, armoire for the TV, coffee table, various side tables and a chest of drawers. What do you suggest?

Ming Chapin
San Francisco

Answer: If I had a view of a park I would want it to be the focal point of my room. I also believe we don't need to use every piece of furniture we own. Too much furniture makes a room feel cluttered and out of synch. And, it's hard to relax in a room that has too much in it, so I recommend paring down what you have. Now we can arrange the pieces that are important.

Let's start with the sofa. In this floor plan it's facing the view and is perpendicular to the fireplace so you can take advantage of both. Behind the sofa is a console table and on it is a lamp so the sofa area is illuminated for reading in this cozy corner.

Apartment Design This combination living room/dining room is arranged to maximize views of the park.

In front of the sofa is a coffee table. It can have a glass top to keep the space feeling open and clear. In the bay window are a pair of club chairs. They're angled so people sitting there can converse easily with each other. And between them is a low, round end table so there's a place to set refreshments. A floor lamp over the shoulder of one of these chairs illuminates this area without taking up precious surface space. Between the sofa and the club chair area is a bench for additional guest seating. People can sit facing either the sofa or the area with the club chairs to make conversation. And when no one's sitting there, the view from the sofa across it to the park is unobstructed. The TV armoire is on the wall next to the fireplace. It will be comfortable to watch TV from the club chair area, but because you might want to watch TV from the sofa, and the armoire is placed perpendicular to it, install a pull-out drawer with a swivel platform. It will let you pull the TV shelf out of the armoire and angle it toward to the sofa for comfortable viewing. To make this narrow room appear wider, put a large mirror on the wall behind the dining table. Place it horizontally to stretch the space.

A plant in the corner as you enter the room softens the space and allows the eye to move easily from the park view and its greenery to the inside of the room.

To make this room feel cohesive and relaxing, use a fairly monochromatic palette of colors for the architecture and upholstered furniture. It doesn't matter what color you choose, just so long as each item is a tonal version of it.

Again, using the view to the park as our inspiration, let's make the walls of the room a pale beige, perhaps in the linen tones. This intimate, yet neutral color as the background allows you to change colors by season, just as nature does.

If the floor is hardwood, so much the better, but if it's not, I recommend a carpet that blends with the walls.

The moldings and casings can be a crisp white to make the room snap, or, for a more neutral feeling, they can be painted a creamy beige so they're not seen as such a strong architectural element.

Since you like changing the room often, upholster the furniture in colors that are similar to the walls so you can make periodic changes by using different colored throw pillows, a lap robe gracefully placed over the arm of the sofa, flowers and decorative objects on the coffee table.

In the winter you could use accessories with colors like deep plum, Chinese red, dark browns or deep blues. In spring you can shift the accessories to coral red or mid-toned blues. For summer you can bring out the palest colors -- beige and white stripe, peach or melon oranges, or turquoise blues.

If you really want to splurge, you can change the art on the walls to complement the changes you're making with the accessories. This art would be placed on the wall behind the sofa and the adjacent wall behind the dining table, as well as the wall perpendicular to the sofa.

Your wonderful view has been our inspiration, and this solution gives you the opportunity to take full advantage of it.

 

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