Consider space’s use before placing furniture

"There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it." Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881), Russian novelist, "A Writer's Diary" (1876)

I'm wrapping up my decorating first steps series with furniture placement. As long as there has been furniture, folks have pondered the question, "Where do I put my sofa?"

Seriously, one of the most common mistakes people make with their furnishings is that they line them up around the wall. Even furniture stores do a good job now. They have learned the art of staging a vignette. Retailers have come to realize that rows of sofas and rows of bedroom chests are not nearly as appealing as room settings.

They have also realized that if they stage a room setting, they can include more pieces. Instead of looking at just a sofa, you will see the sofa plus a couple of side chairs, a few tables and some accessories such as throw pillows, lamps and photo frames. The look is so appealing that a lot of folks buy the whole package -- just the way the store intended.

If you are placement challenged, take your cues from your local retailer. If that's too impersonal, here are a few more simple tips to make living with furniture easier.

The first rule of thumb is to pull the sofa and chairs away from the wall. I know, it sounds like you're wasting space, but visually you are not. The room is so much more appealing with a sofa and accompanying chairs or chaise pulled out and configured in a cozy seating area. Place the furniture so people can actually see each other and carry on a conversation. Anchor the space with an area rug and you're set.

If your room is so small that it's not feasible to pull everything out, leave the biggest piece (sofa) against the wall and pull in the chairs. At least you have some open space.

The space around the furniture can be used as a walkway or just left open to make the furniture stand out more. When furnishings are pulled away from the wall, wall art takes on more importance as well.

Consider the balance of your room. Placing all of your big pieces on one side of the room will make the room feel off-balanced and actually give you a queasy feeling. Balance the sofa with a large chest or other large piece on the other side. It doesn't have to be symmetrical, just weight and size balanced.

If you have a sectional sofa, experiment with taking it apart and using the pieces in different ways. One large piece dominates the room and can certainly make it appear off-balance. Dividing the unit into two pieces opens the space visually. The sections can be placed across from each other or you can create a corner with them.

Furniture placement, once again, is not rocket science. If you think about how you use the space, where to put the furniture will usually fall into place.

A few finishing thoughts:

It's not what you have, but how you use it. Keep in mind that you can have the most expensive furnishings, but if they are piled on top of each other, it's money wasted!

Anchor and tie your room settings together with area rugs.

When your placement is complete, add your accessories and plants. Plants, by the way, make great fillers for awkward spaces that can't handle a piece of furniture but "need" something.

Make sure your space is well lit (see theOct. 11 Inside Spaces) to highlight your creative room design.

Don't ever be afraid to move your furniture around. It is the cheapest and easiest fix of all.

Carolyn Muse Grant is the editor of Southern Nevada Home & Garden magazine. Her Inside Spaces column appears weekly in the Home section of the Review-Journal. Check out other decorating tips in Southern Nevada Home & Garden magazine, which is published the first Saturday of each month. Send questions to cgrant@reviewjournal.com.