Changing Rooms, Non-traditional Furniture Placement

“Your dining room is in the wrong place,” she said, upon entering my house. “How’s that” I asked. “Well, your dining room should be here,” she said pointing to my music room. I smiled and said, “That’s debatable.

When it comes to deciding furniture placement in my home, I like to put items where it is most natural for me to use them. For example, I placed my piano under the ‘dining room’ chandelier, with not much more in the room. In the ‘great room’, where most people have their casual living furniture, I have placed my dining room furniture. The television and a chaise are there also. It just made sense because it is closer to the kitchen and a much bigger room so that our guests and we are not crowded. After all, there is another family room in the basement. Why not use the room next to the kitchen as my dining room. In addition, I homeschool my kids. The dining table is used for so many things. You may find three laptops and stacks of paper on it. You may find it covered with a puzzle, or you may find a sit down dinner or buffet style meal. Considering that this room gets the most light, and is essentially the center of the house, it makes more sense to place a table there over a sectional.

When setting up the furniture in your house, I urge you to experiment a bit. Yes the builders put lots of thought into room placement, but that does not mean your needs and lifestyle will fit that plan. Would your TV work better in a smaller cozy room? Is your formal living room suited to entertaining? Does your table set fit comfortably into your dining room? These are some of the things you should consider.

Once you have considered your furniture size, consider how you will use each room. Ask yourself, will your dining room double as an office or library? Will you need to re-arrange furnishings when you entertain? Do you do lots of crafts, and if so, where will you do them? These factors should also weigh on your furniture placement. After all, if you find that you need to move your dining chairs into your great room, or add additional seating to the dining table on a monthly basis, why not arrange the room that way permanently.

There is one more reason that I have switched the rooms in my house from the traditional placement. There are at least ten more houses on my street with the same floor plan. My changes make my home a little more interesting than the others. This is probably why my neighbor stated that my dining room is in the wrong place. We have the same house, and I put mine in a different place than she.