7 Genius Ways to Make a Long, Narrow Living Room Feel Way Less Awkward
Long, narrow living rooms (or family rooms) can be a chore to lay out and decorate, not to mention live in. Nobody wants to feel like they’re entertaining in a train carriage or watching TV in a hallway. But with some layout tweaks and a few visual tricks up your sleeve, you can learn to love your long room. Here are seven ways to lay out a long, narrow living room, plus some bonus tips on how to really rock the space.
7 Long and Narrow Living Room Layout Ideas
You may feel somewhat limited when it comes to small living room layout ideas, but you actually have a handful of options with various furniture arrangements, seating choices, and rug placements. Of course, every home has different square footage and space constraints, but consider these a jumping off point that you can personalize however you want!
Triple Your Seating
If your long and narrow living room doesn’t have a ton of doors or openings, you have the opportunity to do something very cool and very cozy. Jackie Cantwell’s small Brooklyn railroad apartment has a long and narrow living room, and she’s utilized every square inch by incorporating not one, not two, but three small seating pieces up against the living room’s three walls.
A standard three-seat sofa anchors the main far wall. For the other two sides, there’s a small loveseat and across from that, a long bench, all creating a U-shaped conversation area.
Smartly, a small round coffee table allows for easy flow around the seating area. This wouldn’t work as well if there were doorways or other openings obstructing the flow of the room, but in this example, it works beautifully.
Hug the Wall (And Skip a Sofa)
If your living room is really narrow, your best bet for furniture arranging might be an unlikely one (and the opposite of most furniture arranging advice): Shove the furniture all up against one wall. While you normally don’t want to push all your furniture up against your walls, sometimes you just don’t have any other choice.
The living room in this small Barcelona apartment is a perfect example of this. This living room is so narrow that it’s more like a hallway than a room, so to preserve the ability to walk through the spaces, the best bet for the furniture is placed all along the back wall, leaving a nice open walkway from room to room.
But the renter of this space brilliantly disguises the room’s wall-hugging furniture by incorporating chunky, oversized armchairs and a small side table placed at the diagonal. While a long sofa may have fit in this space, that arrangement would have reinforced the straight line of the walkway. Instead, the surprising furniture shapes break up the space and create a cozy hang-out space.
Create Separate Zones
Often, long rooms are a blessing in disguise, because they can serve as open-plan spaces. Instead of having one larger-but-awkward living room, why not create a smaller living area, plus a den, study area, or breakfast nook?
The sketch above shows a traditional TV area (which you can create with a smaller sofa to save space), plus a cozy den-like conversation nook, complete with surrounding wall-to-wall bookshelves to really delineate the space. You can also zone these separate areas with rugs, lights and/or color so it feels intentional.
Alternate your Furniture Groupings
If possible, try to avoid having all your furniture on one side of the long wall. By alternating furniture groupings, as the space above does, it forces the traffic flow to take on an “S” shape, and avoids half the room just feeling like a straight hallway. It’s a sneaky way to ensure you actually use more of the space.
Arrange Things Across the Space
When working with a long space, it’s best to arrange things cross-wise when possible, which visually pushes the walls outward, making the room seem wider.
Instead of one sofa against the longer wall, the space above uses two shorter ones, placed width-wise in the space. This visually pushes the walls outward, a trick that’s repeated with the console table behind the sofa, and the long bookshelf on the far wall.
Work with the Middle
Just because a room is long, doesn’t mean you need to fill it all with furniture. The space above centers the furniture arrangement in the middle, leaving the sides as open — but not dead — space. This works particularly well in a symmetrical room, when the furniture can be centered around a window or fireplace.
Utilize an L-Shaped Sofa
A proper corner sofa, even more so than one with a chaise, can really use the space in a long room well. The room above uses one, and several of the other tips above, to create a usable layout. Notice how the furniture arrangement at the other end of the room (two chairs, a side table and a console) mimic but flip the shape of the sofa, too.
3 Long, Narrow Living Room Layout Issues
Certain factors or architectural elements — like window and door placement or a bulky radiator — can make it even harder to design a long, rectangular living room. Here are a few common narrow living room issues and how to fix them.
Factoring in a Fireplace
Most renters or homeowners nowadays would give anything to have a living room fireplace, but this stunning feature can limit your layout and furniture placement. It’s also likely going to become the focal point of your space, but that doesn’t mean you have to orient everything around it (yes, including the TV).
Depending on your exact layout and square footage, you have a few options for a narrow living room with a fireplace. If it’s located at the end of the room, consider positioning your seating and TV perpendicular to the fireplace, against the opposite, longer walls. Or, in a particularly small space, get inspired by the above room that foregoes a sofa altogether and establishes a functional U-shaped seating arrangement around the fireplace.
Lack of Storage Space
In a long, rectangular living room, you’re usually limited on floor space for freestanding storage pieces like bookcases or media consoles. The easiest solve? Taking advantage of the walls.
If you have room to spare above your TV or sofa, or even the entirety of one of the room’s shorter walls, consider mounting shelving for extra books, records, music equipment, and more. Renters can easily find drill-free options; just know that these may not be able to support as much weight. And try not to go overboard with the shelf styling— too much visual clutter can overwhelm a small, narrow space.
A Narrow Room with Two Entrances
Determining the proper traffic flow and “zones” can become even more challenging in a room with multiple entry points. Take a cue from this living room and stick to slim furniture pieces, even using two side tables instead of one bulky coffee table. If space allows, don’t be afraid to float furniture in the middle of the room, too, which will further free up more surrounding walkways.
Further Reading
I Tried the 90/90 Rule and My Closet Is Now Fully Decluttered
I Just Discovered the Smartest Way to Store Paper Towels in Your Kitchen (It’s a Game-Changer!)
See How a Stager Used Paint to Transform a 1950s Living Room
