The right distances for laying out a living room and a bedroom
By Nassim Hasni, publisher of DecoScale · published
These numbers are not copied advice: they are the rules DecoScale's engine applies to every piece of furniture it places. Some come from surveys of real interiors, others from interior architects' practice.
The sofa and the screen
The main sofa is placed between 1.5 and 2.5 times the screen's diagonal, facing the screen wall: it turns neither its back nor its side to it. The calculation for your screen, size by size, is on the TV viewing distance page.
How far should the coffee table be from the sofa?
Between 40 and 60 cm, the table centred in front of the sofa: enough room for your legs, close enough to put a cup down without getting up. It is the most frequent gap in a survey of real interiors.
The rug
In a living room, the sofa's front legs rest on the rug — at least 15 cm of its depth —, at most 60% of the sofa covers it, and the coffee table sits entirely on it. Under a bed, the bed rests on the rug over at least 60 cm from its foot, across its full width, and covers no more than 60% of it. Common sizes, sofa by sofa and bed by bed, are on the rug size guide page.
Where should bedside tables go?
On either side of the head of the bed, against the headboard wall, no more than 15 cm from the bed.
How much room to walk around?
90 cm for a main walkway, in particular in front of a door. In front of a wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a sideboard or a bookcase, 60 cm: enough to open the doors and drawers.
What to leave in front of a radiator?
30 cm in front of a radiator for a piece of furniture, 10 cm for a low object such as a rug or a bench. Furniture pressed against a radiator sends the heat back into the wall.
Where should the floor lamp go?
Near the sofa: no more than 120 cm away, an arm's reach from the armrest, to give light without switching on the ceiling light. Never in the middle of the room.
And in a small room?
These rules judge a layout; they are not absolute bans. When the room cannot satisfy them all, the engine looks for the layout that breaks the fewest.